JOURFIXE

29 декабря 1940 Люфтваффе совершили свой самый массированный налёт на Лондон за всю историю "Битвы за Британию"

FIRE BOMBS RAINED ON LONDON

MANY BUILDINGS HIT IN NIGHT RAID

FAMOUS WREN CHURCH DAMAGED

Waves of enemy aircraft attacked London for some hours last night, raining hundreds of incendiary bomhs indiscriminately over a wide area of the capital and its outskirts.

In spite of the heroic efforts of the firemen, many buildings were set on fire. Among chose damaged were two hospitals, a famous Wren church, a museum, and several schools. The enemy appeared to be concentrating on setting fire to as many buildings as possible.

HEROIC WORK BY FIREMEN

R.A.F. FIGHTERS IN ACTION

It was the first alert in London since Friday and the warning came at an early hour. Within a few minutes of the sirens raiders were overhead showerin incendiary bombs. A raiders passed signal was sounded shortly before midnight.

A bomb started a blaze on the roof or a Wren church, and commissionaires and messenger boys ran in from the streets to salve the furnishings, which included a heavy brass lectern, vestments, and pews. Almost as soon as they had left the roof crashed in.

A heavy barrage was put up by the anti-aircraft guns and British fighters intercepted the raiders.

Firefighters worked magnificently, climbing over roofs and leaning perilously out of windows to deal with burning incendiaries. But as fast as they extinguished them the air became filled with the machine-gun-like clatter of another Molotov breadbasket.

TWO HOSPITALS HIT

While the Brigade was fighting number of small fires started by the first raiders another wave of enemy machines dropped more incendiary bombs. Several baskets of fire bombs were dropped in one area alone, and another batch fell on a church.

From report received after the raid had been in progress for some hours it was apparent that many London districts had teen targes for the raiders' incendiaries and high explosives. Two London hospitals were struck. Several boroughs reported casualties, and in one or two cases victims were trapped under wreckage.

Roof-watchers proved their worth and on buildings where they were on duty the incendiaries were quickly extinguised.The spotters also did valuable work in directing firemen to building where fire bombs had lodged on roofs hidden from the strect.

THE SKY LIT UP

The wind fanned the flames, and in many instances firemen worked against terrific odds. The sky over the capital was lit up by flames with the brilliance almost of daytime, and the sky was filled with dense volumes of smoke.

In one thoroughfare a block of commercial buildings was set on fire and blazed fiercely for some hours. Flames roared out from windows and clouds of sparks were blown on to adjoining buildings.

A War Reservs constable was killed when a high-explosive bomb fell in a square which had previously been attacked with incendiaries. The bomb fell outside a hotel, and threw coping stones and chimney pots off the roof.

Eighty horses were killed when a high-explosive bomb fell on a brewery. In a church which was hit 400 people were sheltering in the basement, but they were evacuated without casualties. A shelter was hit by another high-explosive bomb, but no one was hurt.

A trench shelter was hit and it is feared that there were a number of casualties. Several persons who had been in the shelter were rescued; but it is believed others are trapped.

At the height of the raid, when buildings were flaming beacons for enemy airmen, British fighters went up to the attack. Machine-gun fire was heard and A.A. guns ceased firing. In some areas there was an almost complete absence of heavy bombs, but more incendiaries than ever before rained down in these districts.

P.S. Здесь интересно упоминание "Molotov breadbasket" - было бы неплохо узнать истоки этого выражения...

"Molotov breadbasket"

Мне кажется, что это как-то связано с "коктейлем Молотова", хотя про происхождение самого "коктейля" я сказать ничего не могу (т.е. почему бутылки с зажигательной смесью назвали так).

When Soviet People's Commissar for Foreign Affairs Vyacheslav Molotov claimed in radio broadcasts that the Soviet Union were not dropping bombs but rather delivering food to the starving Finns, the Finns started to call the air bombs Molotov bread baskets. Soon they responded by attacking advancing tanks with "Molotov cocktails". At first, the term was used to describe only the burning mixture itself, but in practical use the term was soon applied to the combination of both the bottle and its contents.

Molotov bread basket (Finnish: Molotovin leipäkori) is the Finnish-given name for Soviet RRAB-3 droppable bomb dispensers that combined a large high-explosive charge with a cluster of incendiary bombs. It was used against the cities of Finland during the Winter War of 1939–1940.

In 1939 the Soviet Foreign Minister, Vyacheslav Molotov, claimed Russia was not dropping the bombs on Finland, but merely airlifting food to starving Finns. The Finns soon renamed the RRAB-3 cluster bomb "Molotov's bread basket", and in addition to naming the bombs after the politician, Finns started calling the improvised incendiary device that they used to counter the Soviet tanks, the Molotov cocktail, "a drink to go with the food".

Я слышал, что бутылки с зажигательной смесью в оригинале у финнов назывались "коктейлем для Молотова", потом при переводе на английский название сократилось. Однако у Вики на этот счет другое мнение - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Molotov_Coctail
...
В статье http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Molotov_bread_basket уточняется тип "хлебной корзины" - ротативно-рассеивающая зажигательная бомба РРАБ-3 (в нынешней терминологии - кассетная)...

Most of the bombs were dropped from what the Finns, in grim humour, call Molotov's breadbasket - a hollow cylinder, 8 ft. long, 3 ft. in diameter, with propeller on the end. It is filled with a thousand small incendiary bombs and shrapnel bombs, and as propeller turns the sides of the cylinder open to allow the small bombs to fall out and scatter.

"Molotoff" means a Russian bomber in popular Finnish