January 28, 1918 - Don Martin's first air raid in London

Don Martin diary entry for Monday, January 28, 1918: 
My first air raid. Warning at 8, over 1:15 a.m.

The air raid I have been fearing and yet hoping for came. I was in Simpson’s eating when warning was given. When I finished walked to the Savoy. People were hurrying to shelter. Guns boomed about 9. They were London’s barrage. I looked from windows of my room but could see nothing. Hung around lobby. Firing continued for a half hour. Then quiet for an hour or two when word sent that another squadron Germans coming. Then things happened. I heard all I care to. Was standing in lobby about 12:30 when there was a terrific crash. A second later another much nearer. The Savoy rocked; windows smashed; women screamed and fainted. Everyone thought hotel was struck. I had just finished a letter to Dorothy saying raid was over and I am safe. The bomb which shook us hit Savoy Mansions directly back of hotel and ripped out whole front. Another hit Covent Garden (now a market) and wrecked it. Another wrecked a 4 story bldg on Longacre and killed about 40 persons who had taken shelter there. Charlie Wheeler of the Chicago Tribune and I walked around to see damage. Then I went to Fleet St. returning at 3 a.m. and going to sleep. I can’t exactly say I like air raids.

      Don Martin wrote a letter to Dorothy on  January 28 telling about the air raid. This would be the biggest event of his three-month stay in London. Here are excerpts; he stopped writing the letter when it was announced that the air raid was continuing. He finished the letter the next day.

Dorothy,

The air raid everyone has been expecting came tonight... The noise of the guns, fired at the aeroplanes, makes a din about like the noise down in front of John Knox’s when, on the night before the Fourth, the boys have put thousands of small torpedoes on the track when a car comes along. I was in a restaurant next door at 8 o’clock when the police whistles were heard outside. No one seemed excited where I was. I was finished so I came over here [Savoy Hotel] and here I have been ever since. The lobby is pretty well filled, and the big restaurant down one fight is packed, because this is about as safe a place as there is. The signal was given at 8 and guns have been going off ever since – and it is now 11 o’clock. There is no way of knowing tonight whether bombs did any damage. You will probably know from the papers almost as soon as I do. The probability is that a good many people somewhere have been killed. I went out in the Strand – and looked up but could see nothing but the moon and stars. I didn’t stay long because it is foolhardiness. One might lose an arm or a leg or his eyesight and then spend the rest of his lifetime wondering why he hadn’t had sense enough to stay inside.  

The streets were first filled with people hurrying into buildings and toward the subway stations. Policemen were hurrying them along, and everyone was offering suggestions to everyone else. I had but a short way to go, and was perfectly safe., yet two or three persons stopped and said – “Come on in here.” A lot of elderly men and women are sitting about the lobby looking thoroughly frightened and a good many officers in uniform are standing about “en camouflage.” Ask Grandmother what that means. Everyone pretends to be indifferent but everyone is a bit restless just the same, because a bomb is a serious thing and sometimes the aeroplanes are invisible but directly over here.

The guns which we hear are on embankments and substantial buildings, and a good many are in the parks. They send up a constant barrage in the hope that the aeroplanes will be destroyed. I was tempted to go up on the roof of the hotel where I might see all there was to be seen but I should rather be safe than sorry or dead and I fancy you approve that bit of philosophy.

The battle in the air may last for two or three hours yet. Maybe no one will be hurt and there may be hundreds killed. It is usually the people in the poor sections, where the buildings are frail, who suffer,

Just now the firing has stopped and some people are going out and getting in automobiles, apparently eager to get to their homes before another flock of the air machines arrives. Some Canadians who live here and whom I know just came in. They were out during the early part of the raid. They say they could see the fliers and see the shells break all around them. Still the Canadians are not going out again – and neither am I till the “Clear” signal is given. The moment the air is clear the police shout “All’s clear” and in all the hotels and other public places announcement is made. There is some satisfaction in having come safely through one of the raids but still as only about one person in a hundred is hit or hurt, it seems nothing much to brag about. 
The last information about the situation was just passed around by the hotel management. It is that 30 machines are within 20 miles of the city. So I guess there is more excitement to come. The lobby is filling up again and the hotel attendants advise people not to go out.