The Wilmington morning star., 1943-08-12

last a few gray streaks appeared
in the black sky, the drone of
planes faded, and at am, the
same voice which had announced
the raid by radio uttered the well
come word 'Otboy'-all clear.
Copyright ls43 by Henry c.
Cassidy; Houghton, Mifflin Co.,
distributed by AP Features.
END CHAPTER 8
Chapter 9
Out in the yard, our neighbors
were dragging their belongings
from the burned house. The fire
appeared to be under control after
eating out the roof and upper sto-
ry. People were swarming into the
street to take, stock of the dam
age. Through them, jouncing over
the cobblestone of Ostrovsky Pc
reoulok, Pavel drove up with my
car, and we raced off to the for
eign commissariat to do the story.
It was growing light by then,
and the streets were as full as
though it were midday. To my sur
prise, away from Ostrovsky Pere-
oulok, very little damage was ap-
parent. What had seemed to be a
whitening raid turned out to have
been light one. Most of the i'm
preston of intensity, given by that
first raid and subsequent ones,
came not from the violence, of the
bombing. but of the anti-aircraft
defenses.
Going down Arbat street, we
passed Foreign Commisar Molotov,
driving out of town as though 60
ing home from his usual nights
work. With the rest of Moscow's
four million, he had sat out the
raid in the city. Later, I learned
that Premier Stain had his own
afraid shelter inside the Kremlin.
One swift private elevator carried
him down from his second-floor Of
flee to the ground, and a second,
deep to underground, to the shell
ter. There a steel door shut and the
leader was safe. Inside was a
green-covered conference table
around which he and his Politburo
could work despite the raids.
In that first raid I saw, on my
10 f0yairr, icc ov,io
a bomb had fallen in Mokhavaya
street, midway between the Krem-
lin and the United States embassy,
less than one hundred yards from
each. 1t made crater, but did no
damage. That was the only bomb
I could find in the center of the
city. Neither the Kremlin nor any
other public building showed any
evidence of damage.
At $3.50 a. m., the foreign COM
issued communicate.
More than two hundred German
planes attempted a mass attack on
Moscow. it said, but only isolated
bombers broke through the defen- |
ses, the rest being dispersed, seven
teen brought down. Several private
houses We're set afire and a small
of persons was killed, it /
acknowledged, but no military OBJ
jective was reached. "That at
tempt" it said, Should be con-
sidered a failure"
1t certainly was. The Germans
tried to burn Moscow, as they did
London, but failed.
The Nazis were not easily to be
denied their prey.
The raids became siege. Night
ly, the Germans came to hammer
at the Moscow citadel. They press
ed home some heavy blows. A
shower of incendiaries reached the
capitals wheat-storage center, put
ting a great grain elevator in
flames. So intense was the heat
that the clothing of the firemen
caught fire, but they went for
ward, the men behind pouring wat
er on those ahead, and finally ex-
tinguished the blaze. A railway
yard, holding boxcars loaded with
bottles of combustible fuel, also
was fired. but saved. Here and
there, along the streets, the pow
dered plaster ruins Of bombed
houses became more and more ap-
parent.
Moscow fought back sturdily.
The enemy lost ten to eleven per
cent of it's attacking planes from
the very start of the bombings =
g. prohibitive price. Night fighters
accounted for most of them. Anti
aircraft guns and balloon barrages
took the rest.
The people stood the test we'll
Subway trains stopped running at
10 p. M, and many took refuge
there. The rest stayed at home. II
spent one night in the Palace Of |
Soviets station. Never had I sen |
people so patient, so calm, Wien |
around them others were fighting
and dying.
Most of the nights spent in he
foreign commissariat shelter, slice
the start of the raids usually o.
incided with the hour for he
nightly military communique.
One memorable night, I spent at
the Nemchinovka dacha, out he
Mojhaisk highway to get a glimse
of Moscow's defense from the wst
as the Germans saw them. I'm
Yeaton had made the dacha Ger
into a barracks for the staff of ne