LONDON SETTLES DOWN

Taranaki Daily News, 12 September 1940, Page 7

LONDON SETTLES DOWN

By Telegraph.—Press Assn.—Copyright.

RAIDS TAKEN IN STRIDE

Received 12.30 a.m. London, September 11. LONDONERS have taken the Luftwaffe's daily raids in their stride. In one week the entire life of the city has changed — regulated by time-table visitatlons— and people have settled down to withstanding the greatest air siege in history. The first daily warning can be expected at midday, when the Germans make a regular attempt to break through with a mass formation of bombers. Londoners shrug their shoulders and estimate that shelter-sitting will last half an hour to an hoiir. The next raid usually arrives at about 5 p.m. and lasts about the same period, while the German pilots endeavour tb drop bombs which will cause fires to guide them throughout the night. Then, between 8 p.m. and 9 p.m., the nightly session* begin. ; . ■ ,Everywhere in the vast, sprawling city millions go to shelters, prepared to remain until 6 a.m. Suburban residents have converted their shelters into bedrooms. With children, and even pets, they bed down cheerfully for the night. Those who lack private shelters hurry to the public shelters, where they settle down in small, brave-hearted communities, intimately drawn together by the overshadowing peril. Those Avho are living in hotels go to basements and ground floors prepared for a fitful vigil.

"Night life" has been abandoned temporarily. The theatres are closed, but the queues remain. Where once Londoners sat patiently awaiting a show to begin, amused by itinerant entertainers, they now wait as patiently for shelters to open with the first note of the sirens, for the wardens will not allow seats to be reserved. Working hours have been adjusted to suit the raids. The ' homeward .tr end begins two hours earlier. Staffs of offices are advised to set off about 4 p.m., before the first raid. so that they can be settled down in their homes by (Tusk. Queues for trains and buses wait patiently and more tolerantly than in peacetime. In view of the temporary dislocation of travelling facilities the public has been asked to avoid unnecessary travel. Many Londoners are having a cold j mid-day meal instead of a hot meal because the gas pressure in many restaur- | ants has been reduced. Some water ser- | vices have also been reduced, and the Metropolitan Water Board has appealed to people to use less water for bathing and washing up. As the raids eontinue night after night one thing emerges — people who are schooled to expect the toll of night bombing are resigned to get it over as though it were a distasteful necessity in order to free Europe of a scourge. Night Raid Less Severe. Last night was a night of rather less than the usual terror of the last few days for London, for on the whole German raids were less severe. A warning was given for .the fourth consecutive night at 8.16 p.m., after familiar warnings had been given earlier in the day, none of which was of long duration. Londoners, whose cairn conduct in the face of death and destruction from unseen airmen was highly praised to-day by the neutral Press, settled down stoically to "enjoying another night of it," in the words of one Cockney, who said he was grateful to the Germans for making him realise that the sun really rises in London. The all-clear signal was given after eight hours thirty minutes. "Enemy planes last night delivered a further succession of borflbing attacks on London," says this morning's official communique. "Bombs also fell at random in many places :n the srburbs and the surrounding districts. Fires were caused on the riverside, in city warehouses and factories and in many other parts of London, where damage was done. Freliminary reports indicate that the damage and casualties were considerably lighter than on the preceding nights. A fuller statement will be made in due course. Bombs also fell in South Wales and the Bristol Channel area, the west of England and the east of England. Only slight damage was done and casualties were very few." Tragic Incident. The most tragic incident was the bombing of a school building where 500 homeless persons were being accommodated. What is believed to be an aerial torpedo scored a direct hit on the two-storey building, and it is feared that a large number lost their lives. A large maternity hospital in the Lyndon area was hit "during 'he night raid, but all the patients had been removed. Between 18.000 and 20,000 civil defence members are working in shifts, in addition to contractors and emnloyees, toiling at high speed in an effort to clear debris and restore normal conditions in London's bombed areas. Raiders last night fiew over the northwest of England. the Midlands, and the south-east, where eight bombs were dropped in the centre of a town. demolishing a number of buildings. Wales was subjected to a heavy raid for several hours. Bombs fell in the centre of a town and a number of persons was injured. , -