06/04/2026
One of the reasons (and there are many) why I love reading diaries of those who have gone before us, is eyewitness accounts. Writers for novels, movies, TV shows, etc. do a great job making the viewer feel like they are there, in the action. But when you get an actual, genuine account, there’s nothing like it. For example, this entry is written by a soldier who is with the 887th Signal Corp. Army during World War II. He stationed in London and witnesses an intense night of bombing. Instead of going to the bomb shelters, our author decides to take to the streets to watch the action……
“ September 15, 1943. Was watching planes go over by the hundreds till it got dark, they were still going till about 9:30. I could hear them droning overhead while I was writing a few letters and all at once the sirens started to blow their alarms. The guard yelled for everybody to go to the basement to the bomb shelter, but I wanted to see the excitement so I went outside in the street. The plane circled over our billet twice and then they dropped a flare. You could’ve read a paper by the light it made. Then there were hundreds of anti-aircraft guns went off. When the first gun let go, Bob Cody, standing by me, jumped about 2 feet off the payment and said good God. The thing cracked so loud he thought it was a bomb, but by the time the flare was almost to the ground the plane dropped a blockbuster. It shook the streets when it hit. I don’t know how much damage was done, but it sure did make a noise, sounded like the world caved in, and they dropped a number of smaller ones. They caught the planes in the search light beams, but they didn’t hit them with the anti-guns, there was shrapnel fell all over the streets. The people run for the street shelters, taking blankets and things to sleep there all night. They said we were crazy to stay on the streets and I guess they were right.”
