Evening star., 1940-11-29

high, were demolished, flattened to
the ground, obliterated. Without
being touched by the mine. The
four blocks surrounding the four
demolished houses were rendered
uninhabitable. The twelve blocks
surrounding the four blocks that
were rendered uninhabitable, sur
rounding the four houses that were
demolished, all witnessed the explo-
sion with broken glass.
There is one place in the East End
where the f1imsy wooden houses are
two stories high, joined in solid
blocks. A land mine hitting in
their midst is said to have rendered
total of 1900 houses uninha oitable
I did not count the houses. but I
saw the place where this mine ex-
ploded and I walked several blocks
in each direction. There was not
a window whole. The uninhabitable
houses were beginning to be in
habited again by people returning
to them and boarding up their win
dows and camping out inside.
No District Not Hit.
When I visited the English bomber
command 1t was explained to me
that German bombs and English
bombs have opposite techniques of
destruction. The English bombs
have heavy shell castings and aim
to damage whatever they hit only
partly by conclusion and principally
by the force of flying fragments.
The German bombs are thin shelled
and aim to>destroy almost entirely
by conclusion. The land mine, of
course. is a stellar exhibit.
So, to get back to the subject of
how seriously is London damaged,
it Is now SCARED from one end to
another. There is no district that
has not been hit. Damage from
any one bomb varies from broken
windows to demolition.
I saw map, 6 by 10 feet square,
marked with pin heads to show
damage to London. I was allowed
to look at it for several minutes.
This is what I saw:
Along the winding river where
the docks and warehouses are, evi-
dence of heavy continuous bombing.
Around certain military objectives
such as power stations, terminals,
concentrated bombing. Two scores
for those who believe German bombs
seek military objectives.
- of
city of London, bombs scattered with
an almost scientific evenness. The
map looked as if whoever stuck the
pins in it wanted to be sure that
there was no square inch without at
least one-proof positive that a
major theme of German bombing is
non military in objective, aimed
solely at terrifying the civilian
population.
Thames Bridges Escape.
AS to the accuracy of the bomb
ing of military objectives. Here I
make no qualifications. The aim
is surprisingly, astonishingly, amaz-
ingly inaccurate. If power sta
ton is a bulls eye-and 1t is-for
two months the Germans have been
shooting at it every single night
and peppered and plastered all the
target rings around the bulls eye
without hitting it.
Battersea Power Station stands
perhaps the single most impressive
landmark on the London skyline.
1t towers like a gargantuan barn
over the river and above the barn
rise three enormous smokestacks.
They are huge. They are huge
and the whole business so con-
spicuous that you woud think the
most novice of bombers could not
fail to hit it. Yet in two months
of bombing it has been hit only once
and that hit was a nick. Black
smoke still pours from its Chin
neys.
The bridges over the Thames are
obvious targets. So obvious that
the British have already installed
the frameworks of temporary
wooden bridges to carry their traf-
fic when and as they are hit. Yet
not a single bridge in London has
been hit single time.
And so all over London as I went
from military objective to military
objective I found again and again
the same pattern: the surrounding
neighborhood plastered The mill
tary objective untouched or only
nicked.
This does not mold for the docks,
which were set on fire in September.
The burned warehouses are empty
and conspicuous. But I stood on
the docks in the east end and
watched a row of ships being un-
loaded by cranes with busy SWITCH
ing locomotives running back and
forth along the edge of the river.
Skeptical Of Claims.
am, as a result of what I've seen
in London, extremely skeptical about
all claims of severe damage to mill
tary objectives small in area.
Yet in Holland and Belgium and
France there is no doubt whatever
that small military objectives were
utterly demolished - even military
objectives as small as country cross
roads. The secret of the difference,
of course, lies in control of the air.
An army that has control of the
air-real control of the air. ability
to do what it likes in the air-can
destroy anything above ground
utterly and completely. An army
that has not control Of the air, but
can only fly into it on hit-and-run
basis or by night and at great alti-
tudes even then, cannot destroy
what it likes, must waste It's energies
and its ammunition in fantastic pro-
portion.
The physical damage to London,
to sum up, was more general and
more extensive than I had imagined
and much less effective on military
targets. If you love London the
damage you can see there now viii
make you very sad. The wanton,
haphazard ruin. And If 1t is to 60
on for a year, as the Londoners
themselves expect 1t to go on while