HOURS OF TERROR

Otago Daily Times, Issue 24401, 12 September 1940, Page 7

HOURS OF TERROR

DISTRESSING SCENES HEROISM OF RESCUERS FIRES NEAR ST. PAUL’S (United Press Association) (By Electric Telegraph—Copyright) LONDON, Sept. 10. A mountainous black cloud of smoke is hanging over London this morning. The police guarded the entrances to all affected areas pending the fixture of barriers. The streets are filled with dust and smoke. Ambulaiices and demolition wagons still race 1 along the roads. Rescuers over a wide area are still searching buildings for victims. The most distressing scenes are in progress, not only in the East End, but in areas far westward. Warehouses in the vicinity of St. Paul’s Cathedra] were ablaze. The church St. Mary le Bow. of Bow Bells fame, after a long period of anxiety, was pronounced out of danger, With bombers overhead, rescuers in many parts of London worked extricating people from collapsed houses. Two bombs falling on a London square demolished one house and damaged every other. A member of the A.R.P. said: “ It is not the fires and damaged buildings which upset us, but the sight of little children with gaping wounds, others killed outright, people screaming amid the flames, women frantically trying to save their babies and men searching for their families.” A bomb, in the central London district demolished a women’s hostel, causing the surrounding area to be evacuated. Two Hospitals Hit Bombs fell on two hospitals in central London, shattering the roof of a children’s hospital, causing a fire on the top floor. A second bomb hit a maternity hospital. A nurse’s home was also struck. There were no casualties at any of the three places. The maternity hospital contained 30 mothers and 20 babies. The patients were evacuated within a quarter of an hour. The bomb which hit the maternity hospital seriously damaged the ground floor of a nearby public house. A broken water main threatened the lives of eight people taking refuge in the cellars, but the screams from the trapped people attracted the attention of rescuers.

Several people were killed when a high explosive bomb fell in northeast London, seven houses crashing into a huge pile of debris. Firemen fought fires in the vicinity of St. Paul’s Cathedra] for eight hours amid falling bombs and crashing debris. Fires raged in several localities around the cathedral, which was undamaged. Wind blew the flames from the nearest fire away from the building. Indiscriminate Bombing The newspapers to-day give a considered opinion as to the reasons for and the effect of the indiscriminate bombing to which London was subjected on Sunday and Monday nights.

“ Nobody who saw yesterday where the bombs had fallen on London could believe the Germans tried to confine their aim to military objectives,” states the Daily Herald. The Times says: “ There is every reason to suppose that these attacks will continue nightly for some time, and the civil population of London must steel itself to endure a repetition, and perhaps even an intensification, of the ordeals it has already undergone.” After drawing attention to the difference between the British and German raids, and the fact that the British objectives have been military targets. The Times says the German air force failed altogether to reveal the precision of the British Air Force. Their attempts to find their targets in daylight raids have been hurled back with such devastating loss that those tactics seem very largely suspended. Instead, they have flown over London at such great heights that, whatever their orders or intentions, nothing like systematic bombardment of military targets is obtainable.”