Blitz: The diary of an air raid
Phase 3
30 December 1940: 12.30am
London is on the brink of full-blown firestorm. Twelve firefighters are dead and many others are trapped within the burning streets.
It was strange really. I suppose you could say I was excited because of what was happening and yet you could cry your eyes out for what you saw, the destruction. I could hear it, hear the crashing and hear people screaming out. But the heat, the buildings tumbling around us, and the heat – I don't think I can describe it. It was like going under a shower where the water's too hot and it was coming back at you, soaking you.
Richard Holsgrove, wartime firefighter, then 17
Buildings are coming down all around the narrow alley called Shoe Lane. The brick walls of the Victorian book warehouse are starting to crack, but still, with no word from their station, the two friends Rosoman and Sansom hold their position.
And then, at 1am, two figures emerge from the surrounding fires.
The fire station sent another chap [with a senior officer] … to come up to us. He was going to take my place, where I'd been for about seven or eight hours. He was a rather quiet chap of about, I don't know, 19, 20, jokey and enthusiastic.
Leonard Rosoman, artist and wartime firefighter
Fire and Water: London firefighters' Blitz, 1940-42, remembered, edited by H S Ingham (Firestorm Publications, 1992)
A book of reminiscences llustrated by Leonard Rosoman.
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Rosoman swaps places with the young man, leaving his closest friend Sansom in the alley. Rosoman and his senior officer cross into a warehouse behind the alley, where they try to find a new vantage point for the hose.
We crossed Shoe Lane, opened a door and walked a few feet inside. We were just about to mount the staircase when [there was a] sound such as I have never heard in my life, which filled absolutely everything, every single inch. And then, in a funny sort of way, all movement stopped.
Leonard Rosoman, artist and wartime firefighterBefore every catastrophe, there is said to be a pause, a terrible silence. Time freezes solid … Always before in every crisis an alternative of escape appeared. But now we were sure in our souls there was none. It was absolute hypnosis. And then in the last part of the last second, you run. It is the last act of survival.
William Sansom, auxiliary firefighterIt was, in fact, a series of buildings outside where we'd been standing, collapsing. William Sansom survived it, but the fellow who'd come to take my place was killed outright, buried under about 15 feet of red-hot brick. Some attempt was made to rescue this man, but of course, we all knew it was pretty hopeless.
Leonard Rosoman, artist and wartime firefighterIt was impossible. I mean, what did Pepys feel when he saw the Great Fire of London in 1666? It was just unbelievable. When we went up to look out over the city of London, you could see the dome floating – almost as though it was rising above the sea.
Jessica Jacob, then 15Fires were now raging on every side of the cathedral. We could see the wind carrying the flames from building to building. There were moments when six pails of water would have saved them, but there was no more water, and even if there had been, there were no more men to bring it.
Walter Matthews, dean of St Paul's
30 December 1940: 1am
For five hours London has suffered a brutal air assault. But the night is not yet over.
German bombers are refuelling and heading back out. They are returning to deliver their final assault. The aim is to prevent the firefighters from containing the inferno, to take the firestorm now building in the streets around St Paul's and carry it out into the city at large.
Along the south coast of England, the radar stations watch for the first warning.
30 December 1940: 2.30am
At the White House in Washington DC, at 9.30pm Eastern Standard Time, President Franklin Roosevelt begins his 16th radio 'fireside chat' to the American people, entitled 'On national security'. Watched by invited guests who include film stars Clark Gable and Carole Lombard, he says: 'If Great Britain goes down, all of us in the Americas would be living at the point of a gun.'
30 December 1940: 5am
The radar screens are still quiet. An extraordinary piece of luck finally comes London's way: the second air attack that would have laid waste to London is called off. When Hitler is informed, he is furious. He knows that, without this follow-up assault, the firefighters finally stand some chance of containing the fire.
They were called back. The weather conditions for the planes getting back to Germany wasn't good. They couldn't achieve the firestorm that was intended. Not to the extent they were sent over for … If we could dampen down and keep the fire under control where we were, it wouldn't creep towards St. Paul's. And bit by bit by bit – although it was terrifying at the time – we started to control it.
Richard Holsgrove, wartime firefighter, then 17
The Times later says that 'but for the rather sudden development of bad weather over northern France there is little doubt that the firebombs would have been followed by more high explosives.'
That morning, we looked out over the City and we were astonished and thankful. The area on the east, west and north was laid waste and many of the buildings burned for days. The cathedral had survived, as if by a miracle, while all around the City was consumed by fire.
Walter Matthews, dean of St Paul's
That night, some 24,000 incendiary bombs fell on London and 120 tons of high explosives. Remarkably, only 163 people were killed. But, in all, the fire destroyed an entire square mile of London.
