Evening star., 1940-09-11
.DeIayed-Action
Missile Tears
Out One Corner
35-Ft. Crater Left;
Debris Covers Luwn;!
RoyuI Pair Absent
BY the Associated Press.

LONDON, Sept. ia de-
layed-action bomb hit Bucking-
ham Palace, residence of the
King and Queen of England,
Sunday night and exploded
Tuesday, demolishing one corner
of the north front and sending
flying glass over the first floor.
King George and Queen Eliza
beth were not at the palace at
the time and a palace spokesman
said today there were no
casualties.
Reporters were permitted TO n
spect the wreckage at the century,
old royal residence this morning.
The torn-out part was the glass-in-
closed swimming pool just under the
Queens sitting room facing an ex-
pansive shaded lawn, where the an
nual July garden party was given
in peacetime.
Great pillars of white stone were
toppled in fragments around a crater
Is feet deep and IS feet wide.
Servants in Shelters.
Shower curtains f1uttered in the
breeze beyond a twisted and torn
steel diving platform in the middle
of the gaping hole as footmen and
housemaids peered down from shat
tered windows of the three-story
building in the heart Of London.
Only household staff members
were there when the bomb struck
and they were in air raid shelters, q
palace attendant said. An empty
shelter directly under the swimming
pool was rot damaged.
There was very little damage in
side" the spokesman said. mostly
from flying glass and SCOT from
chimneys. Paintings and other art
objects were removed long ago"
People on London's streets still
were talking excitedly about the
bombing Of the Reichstag in Berlin
by British flyers as the spokesman
explained the damage to corre-
SpOndentS.
A piece OF masonry about 4 cubic
feet in size was thrown some so
feet across the lawn, and another,
weighing approximately 100 pounds,
sailed over the broad roof and fell
in the inner courtyard.
Pool Princesses' Favorite.
The pool was a favorite with IA
year-old Princess Elizabeth. who
already had won swimming medals,
and l0-year-old Princess Margaret
Rose.
A room adjoining the pool made
up the Belgian suite" which. in
happier times the palace spokes-
man said, was occupied by visiting
royalty.
The delayed-action bomb buried
itself in the earth about 10 PAGES
from the swimming pool, in a wing
OF the palace which is 80 feet long,
40 feet wide. one story high. Its
explosion smashed at least 100 VIM
doWs of the palace. Outside walls
were SCARED by flying fragments.
The blast demolished half the
stone and glass walls of the pool,
and left remnants of the glass sky
light hanging crafty.
The wing. in which there are no
sleeping quarters. was a conserva-
tory in Queen Victoria's time. 1t
was converted into a swimming pool
in 1886.
Debries Strewn Over Lawn.
Among the windows blown in by
the conclusion were those of the
Kings study, the Queens sitting
room, and the Belgian suite.
Glass splinters were imbedded in
many interior walls, and furniture
and hangings were coated with SCOT.
Tree branches, fragments of stone,
brick and Splintered wood were
Strewn over the lawn.
A corps of GLACIERS and workmen
was busy clearing away the debris
and repairing the damage, and
gardeners continued their tasks
(See BUCKINGHAM, Page A-3)