This marked the beginning of a second Blitz. James Lees-Milne was living in 96 Cheyne Walk.
On Friday 16th June he has lunch with Philip Frere, who has a job at the Ministry of Aircraft Production, who tells him about these pilotless ‘planes and the same day the Home Secretary, Herbert Morrison, tells the House of Commons about them. The following day J L-M writes that talk is of little else but the pilotless ‘planes. He rushes to the window to try and see one but is disappointed.
On Sunday 18th June a V-1 flying bomb hits the Guards Chapel during a service, killing 121 and wounding 141. James goes to see the damage after lunch and later, getting out of a bus in Beaufort Street, sees his first rocket “rushing overhead at great speed northwards”. On Friday 23rd June “against a velvet purple sky, a rocket plane sailed over Lots Power Station, a huge red flame issuing from its tail, and a dimmer light at the fore. There was a flash over Hammersmith way, and a second or two later an explosion which shook my windows.”
On the night of Monday 23rd June a bomb fell in the river opposite Turner’s house (119 Cheyne Walk) and badly damages James’s house, although the bomb killed no one on this occasion. The makeshift windows put in on the morning of Friday 30th June are blown out again that evening when a bomb explodes in Battersea. Early in July he moves his bed to the basement of 93 Cheyne Walk. There are frequent references to buzz bombs in his diary after that, of which the night of Friday 28th July is worth quoting.
I went to bed soon after 11 in our cellar. At 12.30 a bomb fell with great noise. The basement was filled with fumes, so I guessed the bomb had been pretty close. Got out of bed, put on gumboots and Burberry, and walked into the road. Even in the clear light of the moon I could see a cloud of explosive steaming from the river in front of me. This fly bomb had cut out its engine, and recovered twice befor finally falling. As I watched I heard people in the street shout, “Look out, another’s coming!” And they rushed down to their shelter. I was left transfixed, and knew there was no time to descend into my basement, down the rickety area steps.So I looked at the light of the bomb coming straight at me. Then the engine stopped, and I knew we were in for it. I lay flat on my face on the pavement, as close as could be to the embankment wall. I heard the bomb swish through the air. It too fell in the river, only closer than the last, and sent a spray of water over me. At dawn I met a policeman picking up a fragment of the bomb from the road. It was over a foot long. It must have hurtled over my head.
On Tuesday 12th September there is a new development.
At about 6 a.m. I with thousands of others in London was woken up by an explosion like an earthquake, followed by a prolonged rumble, which at first I mistook for thunder. The explosion was followed by a second. Both, I learnt later, were caused by V2 rockets which other people have heard before. I am told that quite thirty have so far been dropped on different parts of the country. This morning’s are said to have fallen at Chiswick. They have greater penetrative but less lateral destructive power than the V1’s. They are very exciting and not frightening at all , for when you hear them you know you are all right.
It was not one way traffic. In one night in October 1943 the RAF dropped 261,0000 bombs on Hanover killing 1,245 people and leaving 250,000 homeless. This incredible statistic is from the BBC so may be incorrect. You may have read that five WW II bombs were defused there yesterday.