Evening star., 1940-11-29

carried OF damage nave seen "
an accurate headline, buckingham
Palace Bombed" What kind OF a
picture did newspaper readers. get
from such headline? Probably the
total destruction of Buckingham
Palace. Actually, it was hit with a
small bomb. I did not go in it, but
it doesn't look as if it was rendered
uninhabitable or, in the accurate
sense of the word, that its inhabi-
tantS were bombed OUT
Incendiaries by Hundreds.
To say building was hit by a
bomb or bombed is an almost mean
ingless description. 1t might mean
everything from having tiles on its
roof broken with a small incendiary
to being utterly and completely de-
molished. violently made not to exist.
There is every variation in between.
As I said before, total demolition
is rare.
Incendiary bombs are being
dropped in London by the handful,
scores and hundreds. Incendlary
bombs have aluminium heads 22
inches in diameter. They contain
a chemical which burns with an
intense heat-2,500 degrees Fahren-
heit, I am told-the minute they hit.
But they are so easy to put out that
the fire department is rarely called
for them. If you can reach them
within a few minutes, a small shovel
full of sand will extinguish them.
All the roofs in London have sand
handy. Every roof is watched by
spotters on it or other roofs. These
small incendiary bombs do not cause
much damage and are sneeringly
regarded.
Oil bombs are cylindrical oil
drums, some say, filled with crank
case DRAWINGS and some say with a
special oil so sluggish it will hardly
flow until ignited and then flow
rapidly and spreads as its tempera-
ture rises. Whatever is inside it,
it is an extremely unpopular guest.
But it does no harm unless it falls
on some dwelling which is inf1am-
mable.
Explosives in Four Sizes.
The simple explosive bombs come
In four sizes, 1Oo-pound. $50, 500 and
1,oOO-pound. The smaller are much
commoner than the bigger. They
usually drop in what are called
sticks-three at a time, striking
along a straight line, perhaps 100
yards apart. The smaller ones Will
render an ordinary dwelling unln-
habitable, but have not the force
to demolish.
All of these bombs come down at
an angle, from no matter how high
they are dropped. But when they
are dropped from avery high the
angle is almost vertical and if they
hit the roof they tend to go down
through a building and explode in
the basement. This CUTS the build
ing, renders it uninhabitable. 1t
usually breaks all the windows In
adjoining houses and across the
street. But these may be replaced
or boarded up.
The smallest of these bombs,
hitting on field or on pavement,
makes a crater perhaps 10 feet
across and 6 or 8 feet deep. I have
seen bigger craters, up to 20 or 30
feet in diameter and 10 to Is feet
deep.
All these sizes of bombs are fitted
with one of two kinds of fuses; fuses
which cause them to explode on or
very shortly after contact, and time
fuses. Bombs with time fuses are
called time bombs. Because they
do, not explode on contact they are
apt to penetrate further either into
the ground or into a building. There
they lie, while the mechanism which
will presently explode them does its
work. Londoners use this. formula:
That time bomb does not prove
to be a dud until it has failed to
explode SO hours after contact. And
maybe not then. The delayed ex-
plosion is apparently achieved by
one of two methods: Clock work or
chemicals. In the chemical kind
the contact releases acid which eats
through metal and finally causes the
explosion.
Suicide Squad at Work.
There seem to be no ultimate
techniques on diagnosing time
bombs, but one method is said to
be listening to it with stethoscope.
This Is not recommended for anna
teurs, as whether you hear drip
ping or ticking inside, still casts
no light on when the explosion may
be expected. When time bomb falls
the inhabitants of the house move
out, the neighborhood is cleared,
the streets roped off. The suicide
SQUAD of time bomb removers about
whom so much has been written
then go to work. London is full OF
tales of tfAem-of their walking
through the streets with time bombs
on their shoulders, of the crew that
put one in the back of a taxi and
1t blew up while they were stopping
for a red traffic light, of the num-
Der they have safely removed and
allowed to explode harmlessly in
the country, of the number they
have rendered harmless by remov-
ing the decorating apparatus.
The largest of these bombs, the
500 and 1,000-pounders, straight or
time, can demolish small building,
make nasty dent in big one, but
destruction so terrific that people
take strangers to show it to them
Is only accomplished with what Lon
doners call a land mine.
Land Mines Destructive.
I could not find out the deriva-
ton of the name or whether it was
true that they were EMPLOYED mag
netically, by coming near any piece
of metal. But this is true about
them: That they are 10 inches in
diameter and 8 or 10 feet long,
that they weight better than a ton
and are dropped with parachutes
attached. Coming down by para
chute they come silently and mac
curately-there is no bomb sight
that can aim drifting parachute.
They explode on contact. Their first