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(Reports on Britain Under the Bombs)

Night after night, in the hot summer and early fall of 1940, a deep,

under the waves of German

an American voice with a slight steady voice came over the Atlantic Ocean

from England to America, telling of England's battle for survival

bombers

. This strong and steady voice,

accent of North Carolina, belonged to Edward R. Murrow, head of the European staff of the Columbia Broadcasting System.

"This is London," said Murrow, while the bombs fell and flames spread

His voice had a tone of sorrow for the

no matter what it had to endure. It

Nazi bombs on the streets of the city. suffering of that ancient city, and a tone of confidence, too -- a feeling of

belief that London would be there, could not be destroyed.

The heavy raids

began in the middle of August, and

started to fall along England's Channel

Coast. The German bombers cast dark shadows over the white cliffs of Dover, and England's Home Guard prepared to fight on the beaches, on the cliffs, and in the hills, until the last Englishman died or the invaders were driven off

. Air Marshal Goering's bomber pilots were sure of their ultimate triumph over England. Hitler and Goering believed that when London became a burned city like Warsaw and Rotterdam

, England would surrender.

They had the English Channel as a barrier against But the English were more fortunate than the Poles in Warsaw and the Dutch

in Rotterdam.

Nazis in the sky.

The hardships of London really started in the first week of September,

German bombers

Marshal Goering when Hitler was at last convinced that the English did not intend to give in.

On September 7, 1940, nearly four hundred

boasted, hammered the city with bombs in broad daylight

.

delivered its bombs right into the enemy's heart."

Fires burned, houses fell, gas pipes burst, and dark smoke rose from

the streets. Men, women, and children felt the effect of the bombs. Radar sirens wailed

,

another, ambulances rushed from one place of agony to

and fire fighters faced the flames hour after hour. the Nazi ground forces, and they had the Royal Air Force(RAF) to battle the "This is the historic hour when our air force for the first time

It seemed impossible for any city to take so much punishment and continue to endure. It seemed impossible for people of the city to do their daily jobs, to work and eat and sleep and carry on the business of life, with the crash

of bombs all around them

above.

But the city endured. Trains brought commuters in from the

The fires were brought suburbs

. Buses bumped

along the streets. and planes spitting fire in the skies

under control. Bottles of dairy milk arrived in door ways, and women took them in, as though the war were a thousand miles away. Newspapers

appeared and people bought them, hurrying to work and

reports of the battle raging over London.

And Edward R. Murrow went on the air, saying in his deep, steady

He did not speak them with any attempt to voice, "This is London." He spoke as though nothing could ever keep him from saying

those words.

sound heroic. He simply voiced the quiet truth of the city's existence. Murrow knew that Britain's fate depended upon the resolution of the people in the shops and streets, the men in the pubs

, the housewives, those watching for fire on the roofs, the people who had a thousand difficult and painful things to do.

Much depended upon the handful of pilots who rose day after day and

to meet the flocks

of Nazi bombers. The pilots in the night after night

still fighting.

But the people of London were also in the front lines, and they did not

They couldn't reach up

to They had to dig quickly in cellars

have the satisfaction of being able to fight back. and smash

the enemy planes. reading RAF reached the limits of exhaustion and then went beyond those limits,

rescue their friends who had been buried underneath the wreckage

. They had to put out endless fires. They had to stand firm and take whatever the enemy threw at them.

In a broadcast on October 1, 1940, Murrow declared:

bomb,

"Mark it down that these people are both brave and patient, that all are equal under the

that this is a war of speed and organization, and that

provides for the defense and decency whichever

political system best

of the little man will win."

Murrow's projection of eventual victory for the ordinary people

The Nazi powers were finally defeated by the proved to be accurate.

Allied nations.

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