10 Incredible Stories Of Bravery During The Blitz. Robert Davies GC On 12 September 1940, in a night of heavy raids over London, a huge bomb fell to the ground and became buried almost underneath St Paul’s Cathedral. Lieutenant Robert Davies of the Royal Engineers was sent to tackle the unexploded device. The bomb had fallen at 2.25 am and forced its way 8 metres down into the ground. It could not be disarmed, and detonating it would have destroyed the cathedral. The only option was to remove it intact. Davies led a team of men in their painstaking task of digging out the bomb, which took them three days to complete. They had to be extremely careful, as one wrong move could have set it off.
I’ve got a client alumni visit thing at St Paul’s in early Oct, which includes a tour of bits Joe public don’t usually get to see. I’m hoping for some Blitz tales. I work round the corner but have never been in bizarrely. I’ll update you chaps if there’s anything of note.
The most serious threat was a H.E. delayed action bomb which fell just to the north of St Pauls Cathedral. It buried itself some thirty feet into the ground and the two who defused the bomb, Lieutenant R. Davies and Sapper J. Wylie of the Royal Engineers became the first military personnel to receive the George Cross for their actions. September 12th - September 14th 1940 George Wyllie (British Army soldier) - Wikipedia George C Wyllie GC
I think a bigger threat was the parachute mine that landed unexploded at the Dome end of the building on the night of 16-17 April 1941. It was rendered safe by a Naval Mine Disposal officer, Ronald Smith, but it only got about a paragraph worth of coverage in the papers at the time, perhaps because they had already done to death 'the UXB at St Paul's' story about Robert Davies the previous year. The mine came to rest on the surface around where the large shrub/small tree is in this photo below. Bear in mind the blast above ground level by a parachute mine would probably have been more destructive than the earlier bomb buried out the front of St Paul's, and the mine was much closer to the infamous dome. The fuzes used in these mines could be very temperamental and extremely sensitive. They were actually designed as self-destruct mechanisms to prevent the mine from being recovered when dropped on land or shallow water, but the mechanism regularly jammed 'temporarily!!!!' on impact. According to an official report, (The National Archives – ADM 1/11517), the mine was completely covered by the parachute, which was impossible to remove. Lieutenant Smith had to crawl underneath and inside the parachute to get at the mine. In this dark and difficult position he commenced to unscrew the disc from the bomb fuze prior to fitting the gag. This gag was designed to recreate the pressure of sea water and thereby prevent the detonation of the self-destruct mechanism. It looked something like a pop rivet. To fit the gag was a very fiddly operation entailing the removal of a very small screw holding on a tiny cover plate the size of a penny. This action could sometimes be enough to cause the fuze to start running. Before Smith was able to fit the gag a large fire engine was driven past at speed, only some ten yards away. The vibration set up by the passage of the fire engine started the clockwork mechanism of the bomb fuze. This made a very distinctive whirring noise and this would run for up to seventeen seconds before detonating the mine. Depending on whether it had already run for a few seconds before jamming, then it could detonate the mine almost instantaneously. One can only imagine Smith’s reaction when he suddenly heard this fuze starting whirring! The report goes on to reflect this and states ‘Under the best circumstances Lieutenant Smith had 17 seconds to act or make good his escape; he did not attempt to take any advantage of this period of grace which in fact might have been anything less than 17 seconds, but very gallantly continued his operations, and was able to insert the gag before the mine exploded. Had the mine exploded there is no doubt that the major part of the Cathedral would have been devastated.’ I have been trying to find a photo of Smith. He deserves more recognition. He did receive the George Medal for his efforts but a photo of him has proved elusive. I'm not sure, but I think he may have been Ronald James Smith who lived at one time in Cossington Rd, Westcliffe-on-Sea and in later life in Warren Road, Leigh-on-Sea, and died in 1987. The search for a photo continues! By the way, round the back of the Cathedral you can still see shrapnel marks from other nearby bomb blasts.
The story was also probably not told at the time because parachute mines were censored in the press until 1944.
Extraordinary and humbling courage, indeed. St Paul’s, in the public eye much of late for the most sombre reasons, reminds us why it is one of the greatest buildings the Country has to offer and serves as a manifest symbol of National continuity. We can but wonder what would be in its place today, save for the Robert Davies(s), George Wyllie(s) and so many - often anonymous - others of those times. Thoughts inevitably turn to Herbert Mason’s iconic photograph showing the great dome standing defiantly amidst the burning and damage from the blitz on 29-30 December 1940, signifying the fortitude of the City’s inhabitants and its defenders: Herbert Mason's St.Paul's Cathedral Photograph 30.12.1940 What is less well known is that the great dome might not have survived the bombings in the round were it not for repair works from just over 10 years earlier. One of the things I enjoy about this site is when following-up one set of sometimes surprising events or remarkable people in WW2, I’m distracted by another forgotten yet quirky story. For example, when I recently passed some snippets picked up on ww2talk (about Operation HUSKY glider pilot Eric Wikner) to a local history buff, in the midst of our chat I was asked what I thought should happen to ‘these’? ‘These’ were a couple of file boxes bulging with personal letters, copies of original documents and a range of press cuttings about St Paul’s. The story goes that on Christmas Eve 1924, Dean William Inge was sitting in his office contemplating that evening’s seasonal services, when he was advised that Mr John Todd, a Surveyor to the City of London, wished to see him. Mr Todd then informed the Dean that the building was unsafe and that it was his regretted duty to serve notice of closure until it was again brought up to statutory standards. This probably spoiled the Dean’s day. Over the next two months, degrees of disagreement arose between the Old Etonian, Oxbridge educated Dean (and nominee for a Nobel Prize) and the City Officer, a teacher’s son from Hedon, East Yorkshire. That St Paul’s had safety issues was not unknown, but things were going downhill fast. Pieces as big as a wheelbarrow had seemingly ‘fallen off’ in recent times and large cracks were being masked. The sticking place was principally how to make safe the domes; the Cathedral had three and there was a risk of failure: The Dean favoured a quick economical “fix”, budgetted at £200,000, which Mr Todd described as “useless,” advocating a more substantial but long term solution, likely to cost £2,000,000. Three week’s later, no real action being manifest, Mr Todd served a second Notice in his secondary capacity as Surveyor of Dangerous Structures. This was seen by the Dean as an “act of insolence.” Two months later, in March 1925 and with still no meaningful progress ……. …. Mr Todd tendered his resignation from his Dangerous Structures role to the City’s Corporation. It was accepted, but media editors and columnists sensed behind the scenes influences: The following month, remedial works - still not to the long term standards John Todd had set out - but significantly more than the Dean had envisaged - were initiated and took 6 years to effect, the Cathedral largely being closed in the interim. Over recent years, the Cathedral website had reflected (no longer mentioned and perhaps a little mealy mouthed): “Some of the strengthening interventions may have been excessive; however they were to provide valuable structural support when the Cathedral suffered two significant bomb strikes during the Second World War”….. But without mention of Mr John Todd, even though the view of many in the know nearly 100 years ago chimed with: Earlier this year, an exhibition about the repairs of a hundred years ago (interrupted by the Covid lockdowns) came to an end. Again, what mention of John Todd? His intervention evidently still rankles; the last Dean even highlighting the asserted “act of insolence” saga during BBC’s Songs of Praise on 8 September 2019. St Paul’s still carries a heavy and costly maintenance burden. A few years ago I made an associated donation, but for several reasons I will now think more closely before making another. I may be swayed by remembering the actions of Davies, Wyllie and their ilk, as well as John Todd. I also proffered my thoughts on where the Todd documents should not go to, to the current custodian.
It is amazing it survived the Blitz when you look at the destruction around the immediate vicinity. I was once told that a plumb line is regularly hung from the centre of the dome, and depending which way the building is leaning water is pumped under to level it up. Don't know how true that is. When you are outside on the stone gallery you can see the side facing the wind has eroded much more than the other side, as sea-shells can be seen protruding from the stonework. I guess this means one side of the structure weighs much less than the other. Another Sir Christopher Wren building not far from St Paul's, St Jame's Church, Garlickhythe, also had a bomb go through it that failed to explode. A 500 lb bomb buried itself in the south-east corner.
Hello, Thank you for reminding me about St James Garlickhythe. I recall they had a close shave in WW1, subsequently commemorated in an annual ‘Bombing Service.’ A former incumbent, John Paul, once gave me a personal tour. Some of his sermons were remarkably forthright, but made you think - he once described one of his countrymen as the antichrist. Rather an accomplished choir too.
I recently discovered this forum while researching my family's history, focusing on my great-great-uncle, John Todd, a surveyor in London. The insights and knowledge shared here have been invaluable in piecing together his story. To my understanding John Todd was granted 'The Freedom of The City of London,' and this document has been passed down through generations to my brother.
