The Second Great Fire of London in December 1940 was one of the most destructive air raids of the Blitz during World War II. On the night of 29–30 December 1940, approximately 100,000 bombs fell on the city. Fires started by the raid included an incendiary bomb that broke through the dome of St Paul’s Cathedral.
About Second Great Fire of London in brief
The Second Great Fire of London in December 1940 was one of the most destructive air raids of the Blitz during World War II. On the night of 29–30 December 1940, approximately 100,000 bombs fell on the city. Fires started by the raid included an incendiary bomb that broke through the dome of St Paul’s Cathedral, which was being guarded by a fire watch team at the behest of the Prime Minister Winston Churchill. The raid was focused on a part of the city that contained many non-residential buildings, such as churches, offices, and warehouses. Many of these were locked and were not covered by the Fire Watchers Order of September 1940, which applied to places of work with at least 30 employees, warehouses with an area of 50,000 cubic feet and sawmills or timber yards with more than 50,00 cubic feet of timber.
12 of those killed in the raid were firefighters, while 250 were injured. Firefighters’ efforts were hampered by a water shortage. Efforts to draw water from the River Thames was hampered by the low tide. The fire brigade’s difficulties were further exacerbated by wind, combined with the concentrated area of the attack. A famous photograph, St Paul’s Survives, was taken from the roof of the Daily Mail building by Herbert Mason.
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This page is based on the article Second Great Fire of London published in Wikipedia (as of Jan. 01, 2021) and was automatically summarized using artificial intelligence.
