Salt Lake Telegram | 1941-02-28 | Page 16 | Three Day Bombing

Three Day Bombing By PAUL MANNING SWANSEA England England- After three nights of ot brutal aerial bombardment the people of this Welsh seaport city Pop were like some battered punch-drunk punch fighters too weary to do more than take stock of the beatin beating received For the first Sunday in centuries centuries centuries cen cen- no church services were held Either no chur churches hes were were left standing or else there were no congre congregations ati ms In several instances there were no ministers to preach the sermons Instead there was the pathetic pathetic pathetic pa pa- sight of refugees trekking trekking trekking trek trek- king slowly out of the city and up through the coal valleys Carrying bedding pushing small jammed to overflowing with a few remaining remaining re re- re- re possessions salvaged from what was once their homes Some headed for temporary temporary temporary tem tem- rest camps in the upper upper upper up up- per valleys Others pushed further back into the fastnesses fastnesses fastnesses fast fast- nesses o of the great Welsh coal coalfields coalfields fields where they could get refuge with relatives Fifty miles from Swansea on a lonely Welsh mountain plateau I saw the first exodus from this stricken city It was' was a family of three returning returning returning return return- ing home in pine pin boxes The hearse stuck in a bank and as the driver dug the wheels free he said it was th the first time in many years this family family family fam fam- ily had left their village to visit relatives in Swansea All AI were killed the first night 11 F S A xA t a 1 H t k i t r rr r t mod i i t when bombs d dropped were mostly high explosives Many square blocks in Swansea are now nothing but buta a mass of smoking rubble and twisted girders girders' No one has any my correct idea of the death toll oil because pioneer squads for or many day days will not riot have completed the big f job b of f digging dig dig- digging ging gin bodies from the ruins Most of the streets in the blitz blitzed d area are as deserted as some soine ome Arizona ghost town In fact act that is what it reminded me of when the ambulance bells ells stopped clanging and fire fighting ceased After the injured had all been removed to o the hospital and the flames checked firemen literally fell asle asleep p in their tracks tracks tracks-ex- ex exhausted hausted by three nights of heart breaking toil Occasionally you stumbled across a fire crew of three sound asleep their backs propped against a mound of bricks Here and there you would see a man picking his his' w Y around bomb craters over rubble to the spot whet e a his store tore had once stood But he didn't linger long because that pile of masonry and twisted steel was to him too depressing a sight He would merely take a last look then turn to make his way back to the tho military barriers to rejoin rejoin rejoin re re- join his wife 6 aa a aJ af f J x 6 i a ad d t dye dyeS S Sa 6 r a z nn y yAir i Air raid workers carry that liquid symbol of British calm tea out tea out of the ruins ruins of a bomb blasted Swansea shop st l i a aR R ix t t te e M u r This former Swansea thoroughfare is now a mass of rubble 1 1