大象传媒

EIGHTEEN. On the night of 29/30 December, 1940 the Germans did their best to set light to the whole of the City of London. Many, many incendiary bombs and High Explosive were dropped on the area roughly bounded by Fore Street, London Wall, Cheapside stopping just short of St. Paul鈥檚 Cathedral.

By then Ron and I had been at Croxley Green quite a while and we travelled together, normally I would get off at Aldersgate Street Station, (now renamed Barbican), it was then a very short walk to Headquarters Building in St. Martin鈥檚-le-Grand.

The morning after the raid on the City, the train went through Aldersgate Station and went straight on, to the day I am not sure whether it stopped at Moorgate or went to Aldgate, but I know that when I got out of that train I had not a clue where I was. Fortunately Ron knew that part of London better then I did. The first person I saw could have been a policeman or fireman, I asked how to get to Aldersgate Street, and got the reply 鈥淚 don鈥檛 think you鈥檒l get through鈥�. However, we pressed on, and every so often we would come to a street closed off, because of fires burning, and I would ask how I could get to Aldersgate Street, still the same reply they didn鈥檛 think I could get through.

After this had gone on for quite a while and I was beginning to get a bit worried 鈥� mostly because I hadn鈥檛 a clue where I was 鈥� we came to Finsbury Square or Finsbury Circus and I said 鈥淎t last I know where I am.鈥� Ron raised his hat, said Goodbye dear, I can leave you now鈥� and he was gone. I can see him now, and me standing alone thinking I still had quite away to walk, but at least I knew all the streets and back streets between there and my office.

I got into Coleman Street and the East Wall of St. Stephen鈥檚 was standing looking very precarious, the rest of the church no longer there. There were very few people around, but I remember wondering whether I should run past it in case it fell as I was passing, but not wanting to look silly I just walked very quickly. I later read that it had been demolished. Then I came up against a barrier 鈥� probably at the Bank, saw a friendly-looking policeman and once again my plea how to get through to Aldersgate Street, he took a look round and thought I would be alright across the bit of no-mans-land, so I ducked under the barrier and then came face to face with people at the opposite barrier, their looks weren鈥檛 very friendly, but I ducked under. Thinking I would then be alright I could walk along Cheapside and I would soon be at work, but no, Cheapside was blocked off, but at least I knew where I was.

I took a few back streets and arrived at the end of St. Martins-le-Grand to find a barrier there and the Central Telegraph Office still smouldering on the corner. Everyone who worked in Government buildings had passes during the war and as I could see nothing wrong on my side of the road and Headquarters Building was still intact, I dived under the barrier, waved my pass, said 鈥淗eadquarters Building鈥� and went on my way and was soon in the office. Several of the men gave me a funny look when I told them, because they had been turned back and had to walk round some back streets. What I later realised after, I had been walking around the perimeter of the large area on fire. Some buildings had to be abandoned because they were in danger of being surrounded by fire, Wood Street telephone exchange, which housed three or four London exchanges, was one.

We were told that the men on duty that night saved our building, it was low tide and there was very low water pressure. Many of our windows were missing and sparks would catch the black out curtains, so the men had formed a chain of buckets from the basement to quench the fires. They were worried at one stage that the building might be surrounded but fortunately it was not.

I have often thought of putting that down on paper and now I have.

I am jumping ahead a bit. The nightly raids had ceased at the beginning of November and became more sporadic. On November 14th Coventry was bombed, round about that time Plymouth was too. Both these cities had terrible pastings, though it should be remembered that London had raids on and off for the whole of the war.

My office had been on the fourth floor, but being the top floor it was evacuated and we were moved down to the first floor. One morning I got to work and they asked me if I had seen my old desk, I hadn鈥檛 so we trooped up to the fourth floor and what a sight met my eyes, The windows were huge double windows 鈥� nothing like today鈥檚 double glazing 鈥� big wooden ones at least six feet high by three feet wide. There were two sets of windows, a bit like today鈥檚 secondary double-glazing, but weighing a ton. A land mine had landed somewhere nearby, and had blown out the window beside my desk and was lying across my desk, the one opposite, the one beside mine and the one opposite that and was resting on the very dented filing cabinet at the end. Made you think!

The last heavy attack on London was on the night of 10th 鈥�11th May, when the House of Commons was hit.

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