“WE CAN TAKE IT”

Wairarapa Times-Age, 11 September 1940, Page 3

“WE CAN TAKE IT”

LONDONERS DEFY AIR RAIDERS SOME DETAILS OF DAMAGE. RESCUES FROM WRECKED BUILDINGS. (By Telegraph—Press Association—Copyright) LONDON, September 10. A commentator, describing the conditions in London this morning, endorsed the Air Ministry's statement that the Germans have now resorted to indiscriminate bombing. Among buildings on which direct hits were made were a children’s hospital as well as a maternity hospital. There were only 25 occupants in the maternity hospital, many having previously been evacuated. The matron remarked that neither the staff nor the patients could have behaved, better. The East End of London was again heavily hit. Immediately round St Paul's Cathedral fires were burning throughout the night. Fortunately the wind was blowing in the opposite direction and not one window in the cathedral was cracked. In the district immediately round the cathedral business premises received a direct hit from a bomb and collapsed like a pack of cards. All through the night, even while bombs were falling, firemen played hoses on fires. Thanks to their splendid efforts the cathedral escaped, and as the night wore on the fires were restricted and by 7 o’clock this morning they were under control. Similar stories come from all parts cf London. In a northern district several people from a house which was wrecked escaped unhurt. Besides another house which was wrecked four people were huddled in their tiny Anderson shelter and also escaped unhurt. From 2.30 a.in. onward A.R.P. workers tried to rescue people from one wrecked house. Contact was maintained throughout with the occupants and only .once did one of them get excited; that was when a woman complained of ( gas choking her. Throughout this' rescue work German planes were overhead. I In a south-west suburb a school was damaged and a shop set on fire. The occupants all escaped. In various places bombs which fell on roadways broke or damaged water and gas mains. In a north-west dis- | trict a gas main was blazing this morn-, ing, but there were no casualties. 1 No onh in London would minimise) the damage, but today people are going about their business as usual. Buses and trains are carrying on. though not without some difficulties, such as the necessity for varying their normal routes. This transport dislocation has caused many people to arrive late at work. Apart from the destruction, the thing which strikes one most in Lon-, don may be summed up in one phrase: “We can take it." In Saturday and Sunday nights’ raids the casualties were bad enough, but London is a city of more than 7,000.000 inhabitants. The British are all prepared for the attacks to go on and become worse. They have been expecting them for a year but Hitler's methods have neither filled people with fear nor alarm.