Evening star., 1941-07-29
By ALLAN NEVINS,

of Plymouth Lady AStor) on April
q, "tor the ordinary person to Wis
ualize a blitz unless he has lived
through one" That is true, and
true in the sense that blitz is far
worse than most people can imagine
before it occurs.
Again and again in Great Britain
a city has made what it considered
to be adequate preparations. Then
when the German bombers swept
over, the inhabitants found that
some aspects of the disaster were
more terrible than they had antlcl-
pated. and that their measures were
insufficient. Yet great as the sui
fering and social dlSlocatlon have
been, the raids have not materially
affected the war. All the savage,
indiscriminate German attacks have
failed to do that because, first, the
damage to vital war industries mas
been small, and because, second ana
more important, they have not
broken the spirit of the people.
In six months in Great Britain l
saw most of the worst stricken cit
les. The centers which had suf-
fered most heavily in proportion to
their extent and population seemed
to me to be Clydebank, Birkenhead,
Coventry, Southampton and Bristol.
Plymouth and Portsmouth should
undoubtedly be added to the list,
but them | did not see.
War Facilities Function.
The damage in great parts OF
Liverpool and London was appalling,
while in Birmingham, Manchester
and Glasgow it was very heavy, and
in Sheffield far from light. Belfast
(Which did not visit) has also been
hard hit; late in April one raid
cost 500 dead and more than 1900
injured. Yet in not one of the
centers which I was able to inspect
had the important war facilities
been put out of action or badly
crippled. In most of the cities fac
tories, docks, shipbuilding works and
vharves were operating much as
usual.
Clydebank, which was particularly
vulnerable because of its masses OF
tall stone tenements, suffered two
appalling raids on March 1915. I
happened to reach the city the
morning the second was ending.
Glasgow hospitals were choked with
the wounded, Glasgow homes filled
with evacuees. Herbert Morrison
later made a special announcement
in Parliament that on these two
nights about LOO people were killed.
The Lord Provost of Glasgow, Sir
Patrick Dollan, said that so per cent
of the houses in this community OF
about $4,000 people were destroyed
or uninhabitahle. Yet the great
John Brown Shipbuilding Works and
others. the wharves and docks that
make Clydside SO busy port area,
the vessels in the river itself, were
hardly touched. The Germans had
come over at great height, TO-
900 to 10000 feet; they had ringed
Clydeside with incendiary bombs
and then they had poured incen-
diaries and high explosives inside
the blazing oval. Accurate aim, had
been impossible.
The moon was full and blazing
timber yard supplied light like a
gigantic torch; yet from their high
altitude the bombers could hit
nothing but the general target.
Work in the area limped for few
days because many hands were
killed. wounded or exhausted. Then
it fell into its old stride again.
Historic Buildings Gone.
The situation seemed much the
same in other centers. In Bristol
damage from repeated raids was
heartrending. Architecturally Brls-
tol is not unlike a small edition OF
the older, more historic part OF
London, with winding streets, hne
old churches and lovely backwaters
holding quaint survivals of the past.
Many of its finest structures now
are gone. They range from that
beautiful relic of the renaissance,
St. Peters Hospital, with its ornate
timbering and its entrance curiously
embellished with scriptural designs,
to the recently built Great Hall OF
Bristol University. which went up
in flames along with the fine library
of Kings College that London
brought thither for safety" They
include 14th century almshouses, the
Temple Church with its memories
of the Crusaders the Hole-in-the-
Wall Tavern, where Stevenson is
said to have invented Long John
Silver.
The Art Gallery and library have
been damaged; the City Museum
was so heavily blasted that for a
time it's stuffed giraffe leered crazily
from the roofleSS, Wall-lesS upper
floor.
Yet in Bristol nearly all the i'm
portant war facilities were un-
scathed. The General Hospital was
half destroyed, but ships were un-
loading and loading at the great
basin in the heart of town. Many
fine old Fifteenth and Sixteenth
Century houses were reduced to
flinders; but the factories Whlcn
ring the city outskirts had been
littls hurt. Some idea of the ruin
In the shopping and residential
area may be gained from the fact
that at various intersections shop
pers became lost. Nothing but rub
BILE stretched on either hand and
the familiar landmarks were gone.
Even they had not learned OF all
the city's losses.
War Industries Hurt Little.
Yet the industrial districts were
mainly intact. Down at Avonmouth,
a few miles distant, the wharves
and port installations were safe.
As wartime asset Bristol was lit
tie hurt.
In Southampton it seemed to me
that fully one third of the business
area was demolished or rendered
unusable. At one point in the poorer
residential district rough rec
tangle of nearly ten acres was one
level desert of broken brick and
mortar. At another citizen point
ed ruefully to a broad depression,
,;.4asol with etopo chat IlSpd to be