HANGING OVER LONDON

Wairarapa Times-Age, 11 September 1940, Page 6

HANGING OVER LONDON

1 After Night of Nazi Bombing MOST DISTRESSING SCENES IN MANY AREAS LITTLE CHILDREN WOUNDED AND KILLED (By Telegraph.—Press Association.—Copyright.) (Received This Day, 11.50 a.in.) LONDON, September 10. A mountainous black cloud of smoke was hanging’ over London this morning. Police guarded the entrances to all affected areas, pending the fixing of barriers. Streets were filled with dust and smoke. Ambulances and demolition wagons still raced along roads and rescuers over a wide area were still searching buildings for victims. Most distressing scenes were in progress, not only in the East End, but in areas far westward. Warehouses in the vicinity of St Paul’s were ablaze. The church of St Mary Le Bow, of Bow Bells fame, after a long period of anxiety, was pronounced out of danger. Rescuers in many parts of London worked in extricating- people from collapsed houses with bombers overhead. Two bombs falling in a London square demolished one house and damaged every other. A member of the A.R.P. said: “It was not fires and damaged buildings which upset us, but the sight of little children with gaping wounds and others killed outright people screaming amid the flames, women frantically trying to save their babies and men searching for their families. A bomb in a Central London district demolished a women’s hostel, causing the surrounding area to be evacuated. Bombs fell on two hospitals in Central London, shattering the roof, of a children’s hospital and causing a fire in the top floor. A second bomb hit a maternity hospital and a nurses’ home was also struck. There were no casualties in any of the three places. The maternity hospital contained thirty mothers and twenty 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 cellars, but screams from the trapped people attracted the attention of rescuers.