29 CBS European War Crisis

Thursday, August 29th. And today, brought another exchange of bombings by the British and Germans. Berlin had its first real taste of death from the skies. There were casualties and some damage. And London had another of its nightly raids.

This one lasted more than seven hours. The bombing of the city and of England and Wales generally was the most ferocious stuffs far in the war. But now the news direct. London and Berlin afterwards a report from Rome.

First the news from the British capital reported by Eric Severide. Go ahead, London. This is London. When they all clear finally sounded around its own this morning, London had had its longest air rate of the war.

It lasted for seven hours and six minutes. Single planes were constantly touring over the capitol. One would circle over the center of town, while another dropped explosives and fire bombs in the suburbs. This morning, they tell us the damage was not very great, particularly to military objectives, because the planes were flying too high for accuracy.

Among the places reported destroyed are one church and a Woolworth store. Hundreds of fire bombs were dropped down towns and villages over southern England. It's impossible, of course, to get a very accurate check of the damage inflicted.

In one south-east town, Warden had to put out 65 fire bombs. From last night's raids, there are no reports of machine gunning. I think there were fewer tired and red eyes this morning in London than earlier this week.

More people are sleeping through the raids, but still they are weary of them. The newspaper salesman outside St. Martin in the field scorned out this greeting on his homemade poster. Good yawning everybody. Some observers here believe these night raids over the capital are purely designed for their nuisance value.