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Authors: Lara Feigel
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of the sword on the bronze statue of Richard the Lionheart was bent forward by the blast. Inside the building, doors were broken and ceilings brought down. Some of the glass in Westminster Abbey was blown out by the force of the explosion. Although no one was killed, eleven people sustained injuries from the splintered glass and the plaster falling from the ceiling. After the wardens on the scene had reported the incident, the injured people were treated by nurses from the British Red Cross who were stationed in the building. Firemen from across the borough, including from Yorke’s sub-station, were immediately summoned to the scene.
7 e Houses of Parliament following the 26 September raid
By now, much of London was ablaze. In Officers and Gentlemen Evelyn Waugh recalled his visual memories of the Blitz at this time, describing the sky over London as turning a glorious ochre, as though a dozen tropical suns were simultaneously setting round the horizon.
Everywhere the searchlights clustered and hovered, then swept apart; here and there pitchy clouds drifted and billowed; now and then a huge flash momentarily froze the serene fireside glow.
These lighting effects made it easier for the drivers of fire engines to navigate as they drove at full speed to an incident through the blackout, although the glare of the fire was also dangerous in attracting more bombers.
As an auxiliary fireman, Yorke travelled with a trailer pump rather than an ordinary fire engine. These had been produced in vast quantities in the lead-up to war and were light appliances, easily handled by two or three firemen, which could pump 350–500 gallons of water a minute, as opposed to the 900 gallons pumped by regular fire engines. They were towed into action by light vans which carried the hose and other equipment. On the way to the fire, Yorke sat forward on his seat, apprehensively looking out for a bomb, or a crater not marked out with lamps, or for glass that would cut the tyres. Tonight, as always, the AFS were first on the scene of the fire, supervised by the regular members of the Fire Brigade who were stationed at the auxiliary sub-stations. They only called on the regular fire brigade to come and extinguish fires if they were beyond the control of the trailer pumps.
As the firemen set to work to put out the fire at the Houses of Parliament, more bombs continued to fall. Three more HEs landed on the building before one in the morning, and a cluster of incendiaries was then dropped at 1.53 a.m., damaging the gas mains. The firemen did not leave the scene when the bombers reappeared and so they were in serious danger of being hit by the explosion. Once you were the direct target of a bomb you had time to duck but not to get out of the way altogether as it landed. According to the literary ARP warden Barbara Nixon, HE bombs did not so much fall as rush at enormous velocity to the ground, issuing a tearing sound and a whistle as they descended. These bombs consisted of a high explosive mixture contained in a steel case, fitted with a fuse and exploder. They varied from 100 to 2,000 pounds in weight, although most were under 500 pounds. A 1940 air-raid manual described their destructive effects as being twofold. There were the effects of the blast, which was the air pressure created by the explosion, and those of the fragmentation, which was the breaking up of the steel case of the bomb into jagged pieces or splinters. These splinters were about an inch wide and were projected in large numbers in every direction at twice the speed of a rifle bullet.
Yorke and his crew tackled fires by attaching the trailer pump to a street hydrant outside and hauling a rope up the stairs to connect the pump to the fire. If a strong jet of water could be concentrated on the seat of the fire, then the conflagration as a whole could be brought under control, but it was often hard to access the seat of the fire in time to stop it spreading. Yorke
7 e Houses of Parliament following the 26 September raid
By now, much of London was ablaze. In Officers and Gentlemen Evelyn Waugh recalled his visual memories of the Blitz at this time, describing the sky over London as turning a glorious ochre, as though a dozen tropical suns were simultaneously setting round the horizon.
Everywhere the searchlights clustered and hovered, then swept apart; here and there pitchy clouds drifted and billowed; now and then a huge flash momentarily froze the serene fireside glow.
These lighting effects made it easier for the drivers of fire engines to navigate as they drove at full speed to an incident through the blackout, although the glare of the fire was also dangerous in attracting more bombers.
As an auxiliary fireman, Yorke travelled with a trailer pump rather than an ordinary fire engine. These had been produced in vast quantities in the lead-up to war and were light appliances, easily handled by two or three firemen, which could pump 350–500 gallons of water a minute, as opposed to the 900 gallons pumped by regular fire engines. They were towed into action by light vans which carried the hose and other equipment. On the way to the fire, Yorke sat forward on his seat, apprehensively looking out for a bomb, or a crater not marked out with lamps, or for glass that would cut the tyres. Tonight, as always, the AFS were first on the scene of the fire, supervised by the regular members of the Fire Brigade who were stationed at the auxiliary sub-stations. They only called on the regular fire brigade to come and extinguish fires if they were beyond the control of the trailer pumps.
As the firemen set to work to put out the fire at the Houses of Parliament, more bombs continued to fall. Three more HEs landed on the building before one in the morning, and a cluster of incendiaries was then dropped at 1.53 a.m., damaging the gas mains. The firemen did not leave the scene when the bombers reappeared and so they were in serious danger of being hit by the explosion. Once you were the direct target of a bomb you had time to duck but not to get out of the way altogether as it landed. According to the literary ARP warden Barbara Nixon, HE bombs did not so much fall as rush at enormous velocity to the ground, issuing a tearing sound and a whistle as they descended. These bombs consisted of a high explosive mixture contained in a steel case, fitted with a fuse and exploder. They varied from 100 to 2,000 pounds in weight, although most were under 500 pounds. A 1940 air-raid manual described their destructive effects as being twofold. There were the effects of the blast, which was the air pressure created by the explosion, and those of the fragmentation, which was the breaking up of the steel case of the bomb into jagged pieces or splinters. These splinters were about an inch wide and were projected in large numbers in every direction at twice the speed of a rifle bullet.
Yorke and his crew tackled fires by attaching the trailer pump to a street hydrant outside and hauling a rope up the stairs to connect the pump to the fire. If a strong jet of water could be concentrated on the seat of the fire, then the conflagration as a whole could be brought under control, but it was often hard to access the seat of the fire in time to stop it spreading. Yorke
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