AMAZING. ESCAPE.

Manawatu Standard, Volume LX, Issue 246, 16 September 1940, Page 7

AMAZING. ESCAPE.

BUCKINGHAM PALACE. DAMAGE DESCRIBED. LONDON, Sept! 14. Members of the Press invited to Buckingham Palace saw evidence of yesterday’s deliberate attack on Their Majesties and their 'home. The Germau pilot who dived through the balloon barrage and released six bombs from a height of 1000 ft failed by a miracle to bring murder and devastation to the Palace. Apart from the bombs which directly hit the Royal Chapel, the damage resulting from this cold blooded assault was less than that which the timebomb earned earlier in the week, but three bombs which landed in the quadrangle missed the Palace proper by inches. If tliev had landed a few feet either to right or left Buckingham Palace would be mostly in ruins to-day. PAINTINGS SURVIVE.

A representative of the Associated Press ot Australia says he saw torn metal railings fronting the Mall and an ugly crater in the quadrangle., “At least 100 windows were spattered around the Court,” he added. “One bomb made a large hole in the southwest corner, through which I found it a simple matter to enter the Palace vaults. The diplomats’ corridor, through which countless debutantes have filed, received the full blast of tile bomb. It looked more like a cloister than a corridor, but among the priceless paintings covering • almost every inch of the walls, I found only one badly torn, namely, a portrait of the Duchess of Cambridge by an early Victorian German artist. A strangely ugly portrait of the Tsar of Russia., which Edward VII. described as “a portrait thrown on a landscape,” /was directly in the path of one explosion, hut was unharmed. Some other canvases were spattered with dirt and rubble, from the quadrangle. “The Chapel is considered unrepairable. A bomb dropped neatly through the roof. It left the walls standing, but completely wrecked the floor and altar, together with all the priceless sacred emblems and furnishings, on which crashed a ghastly heap of masonry.”

A priceless ' Gobelin tapestry depicting the baptism of John the Baptist still hangs unharmed on the wall oyer where flip altar stood. This morning the sunshine flooded , into the crater below where the force of the explosion shattered the stout outer wall and revealed a +angled litter of almost unrecognisable ruins. CHAPEL WRECKAGE.

Hidden away in the debris is tlie famous mother-of-pearl cross which stood on the altar, hut the Bible which Queen Victoria presented to the chapel and in the back of which is recorded all the births of members of the Royal Family since its presentation was picked up completely undamaged. However, the lectern on which the Bible rented could not be found. The King’s Colour of the Third Scots Guards on its standard attached to a cream and gold pillar also stands undamaged among the ruins, but a regimental colour which stood beside it is buried in the pile of rubble. In the gallery the King’s pew is undamaged. Only a. jagged hole roughly two feet square in the beautiful coffered gilt ceiling shows where, the 1001 b bomb tore through it to burst just before the altar rail. The superintendent of the Palace, describing the attack, said: “We heard a terrific rushing noise and saw a plane come down out of the clouds to about 1000 ft. It appeared to be dive-bombing through the balloon bar rage n.nd seemed to be making a direct attack on the Palace. ’ One of the bombs which fell in the roadway outside Buckingham Palace vesterday was a time bomb which exploded early this morning., completely destroying the big stone pillar at the gates with part of the iron railings in front of the PaLce. Precautions, had been taken Immediatelv the bomb was located and a bank of sandbags was erected in order to minimise the effects of the explosion. MESSAGES OF SYMPATHY. Messages have been pouring in to the King and Queen expressing indignation and sympathy for the bombing of Buckingham Palace. These include messages lrom the Polish President and the Polish Prime Minister. The Dutch Minister in London, on behalt of Queen Wilhelniina and the Dutch Government, asked tiie Foreign Office to present his warmest congratulations to the King and Queen on their providential escape. The Duke of Windsor sent the King a congratulatory message from the Government and people of the Bahamas.

The Daily Mail, in a leader, says: “The bombing of Buckingham Palace was obviously carried out under orders. The Germans planned to capture Queen Wilhelmina and tried to murder King Haakon from the air. Such attempts to assassinate the- heads of States is mart of the calculated nolicy of the Berlin barbarians The first stage of this spiritual offensive against the British people is to drive the King from his capital. Such a. victory has been denied them. The bombing, in the King’s own words, ‘only strengthens ilie resolution of all of us to fight through to final victory’.”