Evening star., 1941-01-12
Attack Threatens
But Fails to Reach
Dec. 2o Proportions
By DREW MIDDLETON,
Associated Press Foreign Correspondent.

Associated Press Foreign Correspondent.
LONDON. Jan. 11.-This citadel
Of Britain stood firm tonight against
an onslaught of hundreds of fire
and explosive bombs dropped by
souadrons of heavy German bomb
ers in a short but intense raid,
The attack threatened but never
achieved the destruction done IN
Iondon's great fire of 1940-the fire
blitz" December % on the City
Iondon's crowded, old financial dis
trict.
If, as it seemed for awhile, the
Euftwaffe was trying to repeat that
devastation on an even wider scale,
observers said It failed.
Volunteer fire watchers and fight
ers rallied as incendiaries hurtled
down. They eXtinguished fires
which were so bright for time that
you could read a newspaper on the
blacked-out city's roofs.
Blazes Quickly Put Out.
An Associated Press reporter saw
at least so incendiaries swish to the
ground at one time and start rows
of bright blue lights. One by one
they went out as f1remen reached
them.
The dome of st. Paul's Cathedral
once again stood out impressively
against the flaming backdrop. But,
unlike the earlier raid, the main
blazes were speedily put out, even in
sections where there are no resi-
dents or night workers and even
though there were more planes and
more bombs in shorter time.
The strain on fire-fghting appa-
ratus appeared not to be as great
and there was no indication that it
was necessary to call in fire-fighting
apparatus from outlying districts.
Changing weather conditions were
believed to have caused the abrupt
all-clear after about four hours be-
cause of the risk of landing crashes
for the homing bombers.
Other Areas Raided.
It was learned later that raiders
also had dropped bombs on three
districts of Southeastern England.
In London, one bomb crashed
through the roof of the subway
causing some fatalities among oc-
cupants of an air raid shelter.
The raiders appeared to have de-
veloped a new dynamite sandwich"
technique. First they dropped in
cendiaries. then high explosives-as
they usually do after fire bombs light
up targets-but tonight they finally
loosed more incendiaries. 1t was be-
lieved they hoped thus to set fire
to debris caused by the high ex-
plosives.
From the supper hour until al
most 10 pm, an endless chain Of
Nazis sprayed the city with incen-
diary and high explosives, apparently
intending to make London tonights
target the LuftWaffe's 'one-toWn-a-
night" concentrated attack as Ports
mouth, the big English Channel
naval station, was last night.
20 Watchers for Every Bomb.
1t was described as the hardest
task so far for the capitals aug
mented force of fire watchers.
charged with quickly snuffing out
the barrage of incendiaries and
"Molotoff breadbaskets" which scat
ter clusters Of small bombs in mid
air.
One fire officer reported there
were at least 20 watchers for every.
bomb that fell and we had them
out in no time" but there was the
eerie spectacle of hundreds of fire
fighters battling incendiaries on
rooftops in the glare of hot flame
while the raids lasted.
One deafening blast after another
at times forced the roof watchers
into their observation cubicles or
drove them to underground shelter.
Associated Press observers tele-
(See LONDON, Page Aid