FAILURE AS BY MIRACLE

Taranaki Daily News, 16 September 1940, Page 7

FAILURE AS BY MIRACLE

By Telegraph.—Press Assn.—Copyright.

KING AND QUEEN SAFE

Rec. 6.30 p.m. London, Sept. 14. ^ DELIBERATE attack on Buckingham Palace was made yes- ; terday by a lone raider w.hich flew low and dropped five | bombs within the precincts, one of, which wrecked the palace chapel. Their Majesties were in residence but fortunately escaped injury. Three members of the palace staff whose shelter was near the chapel were slightly injured. Invited to Buckingham Palace, newspaper representatives saw evidence of a deliberate attack 011 Their Majesties and their home. The German pilot who dived through balloon barrage and released six bombs from a height of 1000 feet failed by a miracle to bring murder and devastation to the palace. Apart from the bombs which hit the Royal Chapel, the damage resulting from this cold-blooded assault was less than that which a time-boml? caused earlier in the week, but three bombs which landed in a quadrangle missed the palace proper by inches. If they, had landed a few feet to either right or left Buckingham Palace would be mostly ruins to-day.

"We heard a terrific rushing noise and saw a plane come down out of the clouds to about 1000 feet," said the superintend- j ent of the Palace, describing the attack. "It appeared to be dive-bombing through the balloon barrage and seemed to be making a direct attack on the palace." The enemy plane dropped six bombs in rapid succession. Three fell in the inner quadrangle, the third hit the private chapel and the remaining two fell in the roadway between the palace gates and the Victoria Memorial. Their Majesties were in a shelter and members of the staff were also in shelters beneath the palace. The bombs which- fell in the quadrangle caused two large craters, burst a j water-main, shattered windows and j pitted walls. Soldiers from the nearby Wellington Barracks assisted in extinguishing the fires. Their Majesties Unshakcn. Their Majesties, after walking through the cellars and talking with members of the staff, inspected the wrecked chapel. Soon after the raid Their Majesties, apparently unshaken, left the palace to continue a tour, arranged previously, of London's areas in which bomb damage was heaviest. A twin-engined plane was seen diving : from the clouds. The pilot as he came over the palace appeared to cut off his engines and the whistle of bombs and explosions were heard in rapid succession. Pieces of stonemasonry fell in | Buckingham Palace Road. One piece of stone smashed an electric light in the centre of the road. The pilot then restarted the engine and disappeared in the clouds. The plane dropped a stick of bombs across the famous square. Two fell in an area of houses and two in a roadway. One nearly hit a well-known peer's house. A spotter on a nearby building said that the plane came out of the clouds right over the palace. It was not indiscriminate bombing but a definite attack. Damage Inspected. The Ausjraiian Associated Press representative saw torn metal railings fronting the Mall and'an ugly crater in the quadrangle. He says: "At, least 100 windows were shattered around the court. 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 a bomb. It looked more like a cloister than a corridor. "Among the priceless paintings covering almost every inch of the walls I found only one badly torn, a portrait of • the Duchess of Cambridge by an early Victorian German artist. The strangely ugly portrait of the Czar of Russia which Edward VII described as 'a portrait thrown on a landscape' was directly in the path of one explosion but was unharmed. Some other canvases were spattcred with dirt and rubble from the quadrangle. "There were three casualties among workmen sheltering under the chapel, which is considered unrepairable. A bomb dropped nearly through the roof and left the walls standing, but completely wrecked the floor and the altar, together with all the priceless sacred embleins and furnishings, on which crashed a ghastly heap of masonry." _ One of the bombs which fell in a roadway outside Buckingham Palace was a time bomb which exploded early this morning, completely destroying a big stone pillar at the gates, with part ofrihe iron railings in front of the palace. Precautions had been taken immediately this bomb #vas located and a bank of sandbags was erected in order to mininiise the effects of the explosion.