The Waterbury Democrat., 1940-12-30

WarIdrG, naQ CrleQ CO DuTI1 GUY III which there is no military objec- tive.
 Last night the enemy dropped a large number of incendiary bombs on the city of London in deliberate attempt to set fire to it." the min istries said. Damage was done tc many famous buildings including the Guildhall and several city churches
 "St Paul's cathedral itself was en- dangered but the neighboring fires were extinguished in time.
 'There was nowhere any attempt to single out targets of military im- portance.
 Fire were caused in other parts of the London area, where damage was done to commercial buildings.
 ''The London fire services worked heroically and with success through out the night.
 Casualties were few"
 Fight for Life
 That was the official story of a night in which LondonerS fought the great fire while fire rained down from the smoke blackened sky upon them, while the silence of cables to foreign countries and radio stations, told the world that this historic city was fighting for its life.
 When the cables and the wireless resumed service, after hours, it was to say that the city's fight had been won.
 There were fires all over the Lon don area. But the German fury was concentrated in the one square mile of the city, the financial district and the ancient London which Queen Elizabeth and Henry VIII and oth- CTS of England's sovereigns knew, and 1t was to that ancient area that the communique had reference in mentioning the "city" of London.
 Communication with London was severed for about thre hours, and for about five hours there was DO real news of the raid. It was understood in New York that the cable companies were operating from emergency headquarters in the London suburbs)
 It was not until well after dawn today that normal communication with the world was restored, and even then the cable companies worked under difficulties.
 Air raid sirens shrieked through out London a little after dark last night.
 Down Rained Bombs
 Almost at once there was heavy rain of bread basket" incendiary bombs on London-containers which open as they drop and loose up to 50 or 100 small incendiary bombs each.
 Anti-aircraft guns began to fire.
 In few minutes, the raid had reached intensive pitch. Only occa- Sionally was there the "crump" of an explosive bombs.
 The German planes criss- crossed the sky. Thousand upon thousand, the bombs came down Now the an- t1-aircraft guns, which had been firing sporadiclly, were firing all the time.
 For the first time since September when the mass destruction raids really started, the nited Press staff was compelled to go to its under ground shelter to continue service there.
 But long after great shets of fire were thrusting their way from building to building and even street to street, buses continued to run for once, despite the blackout, with all the light they needed, and even pedestrians stayed on the sidewalks. Throughout the raid, some knots of people stood, in imminent danger, in the city itself, watching the spec tacle.
 Watched Battle
 They heard the German planes going across the sky and darting British night fighter patrols hunting them. They heard the burst of a machine gun occasionally as one of the British planes contacted a raider, and the intensified roar of the German planes motor as it maneuvered away.
 Reports began coming in to news paper and press association offices church on fire, a hospital roof in flames, its women workers running to the roof with hoses and buckets to fight the flames while patients were taken to safety below, a museum in flames.
 Those in the strets saw the ex- haust pipe of fire engines get red hot. The firemen could play their hoses on fire at some points, in any of the four directions.
 It was all over in three hours, that Is the bombing. The fight con- tinued for hours afterward.
 Firemen climbed over roofs, leaned out Of windows. to fight incendiaFy bombs as they dropped. The thread basket" bombs at times came so fast that they sounded almost like ma- chine-gun bullets as they dropped. An incendiary bomb fell in the bucket one fireman was taking toe ward another bomb to put 1t out.
 Under the streets, thousands of people waited silently in subway shelters These were SO crowded that many persons had to stand. Others sat on 6tairways.
 A policeman dropped dead at his post, flames nli about him, when a