PLAYING WITH DEATH

Wairarapa Times-Age, 16 April 1941, Page 6

PLAYING WITH DEATH

MAN WHO SAVE!) ST. PAUL’S TIME-BOMB FETTERED WITH FUSES. REMOVED 65 HOURS AFTER BEING DROPPED. Captain Robert' Davies. G.C., the man who saved St Paul's Cathedral from destruction by removing a 2.200 lb time-bomb which had fallen in the cathedral courtyard, lived at Randfontein and went to school in Johannesburg. Sou til Africa. Born in Canada, Captain Davies came to South Africa with his parents at the ago of seven years. His father, Mr J. S. Davies, who lived, in the Transvaal for nearly 33 years, was a drilling contractor at a Rand mine. The family returned to Canada when Robert Davies was 12.

When Captain Davies, a short, wellbuilt veteran of the first world war. camo to South Africa for the second time quite recently, ho passed through Durban en route to an "unknown destination,” and spoke of his experiences in England since his arrival there from Canada at the outbreak of war.

MOST HAZARDOUS JOB. As the commander of a bomb disposal ; squacl Captaim Davies lias tackled many dangerous tasks in the past few months. Many important and historic London buildings have been saved from destruction and damage through his cool courage. His biggest and most hazardous undertaking was the removal of the de-layed-action bomb from the courtyard of St Paul’s Cathedral.

“Thirty minutes after we started to work, the gas main caught fire, but we plugged the hole,” said Captain Davies. Even then the fumes gave us a lot of trouble and we could not do shifts of more than one and a quarter minutes each. We had to wear wet towels round our mouths and noses.

“All the time we were conscious of the fact that the bomb might go off at any moment, but we just tackled it as a normal’job of work.”,, On the third day the bomb was discovered by one of Captain Davies’s men. The squad worked carefully, as it was found that the bomb was fettered with fuses, which made it extremely dangerous to touch or move.

AFTER 65 HOURS. "Sixty-five hours ■ after the bomb had been dropped we succeeded in bringing it to the surface.” Captain Davies said. “It is true that I had to approach the bomb alone and uncover the fuses, but that was only because an officer is the only man in a bomb disposal squad with a technical knowledge of the job. “Had the bomb exploded before we got it away the area of devastation would almost certainly have extended to the cathedral and the great dome! may have been destroyed—or badly damaged, at the very least.” Captain Davies revealed that the bomb exploded “within a matter of a few hours” after its removal. It was placed on a lorry and lie drove away at a high speed to a wide field near London. When the bomb blow up it caused, a crater 100 feet wide.

For his courage Captain Davies received the George Cross, the Empire’s highest decoration for gallantry performed otherwise than in military or naval action. He wears the blue ribbon of the Cross with the ribbons of his Great War medals.