The Waterbury Democrat., 1940-11-01

I'm speaking from London. 1t
is late aftfrno and the people
of London are preparing for the
night. Everyone is anxious to get
home before darkness falls, before
our nightly visitors arrive. This
is the London rush-hour. Many
of the people at whom you are
looking now are members of the
greatest civilian army ever to be
assembled. These men and wo-
men who have worked all day in
offices or in markets are now hur-
rying home to chansa INTO the
uniform of their particular serv-
ice. The dusk is deepening-liS-
tening crews are posted all the
way from the coast to London to
pick up the drone of the German
planes. Soon the nightly battle
of London will be on. This has
been quiet day for us, but it
won't be a quiet night. We haven't
had quiet night now for more
than five weeks. They'll be over
tonight ard they'll destroy few
buildings and kill a few people
probably som, OF the people you
are watching now.
Now they're going into the pub
lie shelters. This is not pleas
ant way to spend the night, but
the people accept it as their part
in the defense of London. These
civilians are good soldiers.
Now it's 8 o'clock Sounds of
bells) Jerry is a little bit
late tonight-the searchlights are
in position the guns are ready
the peoples army of volunteers
is ready. .. They are the ones
who are really fighting this war
The firemen-the AFRAID war
dens-the ambulance drivers
ard there is the wall of the BAN
stIee-(sound of siren).
The nightly siege OF London has
begun. The city is dressed for
battle. Here they come, (Air-
plane noise,N Now The search
lights are poking long, white, in
ouisitive fingers into the black
ness of the night. (Shell noise.l
These are not Hollywood sound
effects. This is the music they
play every night in London The
symphony of war. That was
bomb!
The very young and the very
old. with that deep wisdom given
only TO the very young and the
very old, sleep in the shelters. DO
you see any signs of fear on these
faces? Now the army of the peo-
pie swings into action. The
bombs have started fires (shell
noise behind dialogue. When
bomber starts a fire he immedi-
ately returns, uses it as a target
and drops more bombs. hoping to
spread the fire. Yet the peoples
army ignores the bombs and the
dread -shrapnel which rains down
constantly. Brokers, clerks, ped
dlers, merchants by day-they are
heroes by night. The night is
long-but sooner or later the
dawn will come. The German
bombers are creatures OF the
night, they melt away before the
dawn, and Scurry back to the
safety OF their own air-dromes.
And there's the wall of the
banshee again. (Siren noise).
This time friendly wall >. the
all-clear signal tells us that the
bombers have gone.
It's Just a. M, and in this last
hour of precious sleep this
strange new world finds peace.
London raises her head-shakeS
the debris of the night from her
hair and takes stock of the dam
age done. London has been hurt
during the night. The sign Of a
great fighter in the ring is, Can
he get up from the floor after be-
ing knocked DOWN." London does
this every morning. London
doesn't look down upon the ruins
o. its houses-upon those made
homeless during the night-upon
the remains of churches. hospi
tails, workers flats. London
locks upwards toward the dawn
and faces the new day with calm
ness and confidence. The peo-
pies army go to work as they did
in that comfortable world, which
came to an end when the invader
began % attack the last strong
holds of freedom. Not all the
services run as they did yester-
cay. but London manages 10 get
10 work on time--cne way or an
other! In the center OF the city
the shops are open as usual. In
fact. many OF them are more open
than usual.
DR.. Paul Joseph Goebbels said
racen.ly that "the nightly air.
raids have had terrific effect
uDon the morals of the peoDie OF