The Wilmington morning star. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1909-1990, 1944-09-13
RobotBombs
BY RICHARD L. STROUT

never knew a time when I didn't pull
the bedclothes over my head in the last, ago.
nizing seconds after the robot motor had shut
off,
make this confession now, 5000 miles
away, as word comes from London that the
robot may soon disappear.
1t is hard to make people understand how
spectacular robot bombs can be. They adver-
tsed themselves extensively. They were noisy
you heard them coming, you heard them
hit; and at night they were like lanterns car
ried across the sky, for their tails were white
hot. To make it more dramatic, the search
lights picked them up. l watched two of
them in succession after midnight go over
Hyde Park. The whole city seemed silent.
breathless, as they went across The long
searchlights passed them from hand to hand.
Then, of course, the motor cut out, they came
down. You saw the flash, counted the Sec
onds, and got an approximate estimate Of
how far off they hit.
When the robot came down on the Guards
Chapel, near Buckingham Palace was stand
ing in the open window of The Christian Sci
ence Monitor office, perhaps five blocks away.
The noise had come very close. I thought it
was going to hit me- There was tremen-
dous explosion and tall mushroom column
noise Of falling objects. Fully minute later,
there was patter outside, like rain. I dis
covered it was lighter objects coming down
from high in the sky. That was very tragic
experience because the robot hit the chapel
on Sunday. 1t came right through the roof
The people persisted at prayer.
remember passing Queen Annes Mansions
at that time 1t is hollow History building
with interior court The court looked white
as I passed. The white stuff was crysallized
windoW-pane. That is about the worst Sec
ondary damage robots do, break all the glass.
Think what the Nazi attack would have meant
in winter!
with Marjorie Cassels, The Christian Science
Monitors efficient secretary, I saw day
time robot hit. My eye was just quick enough
to hold the blurred image for fraction of
a second as it slanted down. Then the usual
big explosion and when we went over the cas-
ualties were being taken out.
You get conditioned to falling robots after
a while. AS you walk along, your eye sub
consciously takes note of cover the next
tree, a bush good wet gutter. Any of them
might save your life.
The force of robot bomb is all out and
up. An ordinary 2,000-pound bomb will make
a crater perhaps 80 feet wide, 10 feet Deep
But robot bomb, equally deadly in blast,
will generally not 60 deeper than three or
four feet with a small crater
The most poignant scene I saw was one
Sunday afternoon in the rain after had cross
ed Lambeth Bridge. I paused to look about
in ancient church and heard sparrows in
the rafters. Obviously, new-fallen robot had
broken the glass. / went outside and soon
found row of workers houses demolished
They were bringing what personal possessions
they could find into an archway n Ter
Southern Railway viaduct.
It was a scene from Dickens. Four or five
burly Cockney workers with kerchiefs round
bare Threats were bringing in useless, denied
personal objects. They were being thanked
by a mild, stopped, threadbare man who was
obviously the survivor of bonbed-out fam.
iy The men would 60 out in the rain across
the way, dig awhile in the bricks and bring
back what they found to the archway The
pile told its own story: battered clock a
mattress or two, bent kitchen utensils. q
child's "ABC' book. I didn't dare ask about
the child The man was trying to be matter.
of-fact and courteous. Each time they brought
something in, he thanked them. The saliva cod
articles were quite preposterous One lar #
white substance I thought was sugar turned
out to be EPSON salts. It got later and 1.+er
and there didn't seem to be anything roor.
to- bring in. The mild man tried to show ~
gratitude and said he would take thero a11
out to cup OF tea.
That was just too much. saw the workers
choke and turn away, and after Wills ~
of them said gruffly to forget the tea Me
tried to say something more but couldn,t ~
then they all went out of the archwav IN; ~
the rain, and went, too. There really wa.n,t
anything more you could do.-Chr;s+;,r G.;
ence Monitor. wv