St Paul's Survives

St Paul's Survives is a photograph taken in London during the night raid of 29/30 December 1940, the 114th night of the Blitz of World War II. It shows St Paul's Cathedral, illuminated by fires and surrounded by the smoke of burning buildings. It was taken by photographer Herbert Mason in the early hours of 30 December, from the roof of Northcliffe House, the Daily Mail building on Tudor Street, close to Fleet Street.

The photograph has become a symbol of British resilience and courage, and is considered one of the most iconic images of the Blitz. It became "instantly famous", and turned the Cathedral into "a symbol of togetherness, survival and suffering". The raid during which the photograph was shot became known as the "Second Great Fire of London": more than 160 people died, over 500 were injured, and hundreds of buildings were destroyed.

The Blitz (shortened from German Blitzkrieg, "lightning war") was the sustained strategic bombing of Great Britain and Northern Ireland by Nazi Germany between 7 September 1940 and 10 May 1941, during the Second World War. London, the United Kingdom's capital city, was bombed by the Luftwaffe for 57 consecutive nights. More than one million London houses were destroyed or damaged, and more than 40,000 civilians were killed, half of them in London.

When this picture was taken, almost every building immediately around St Paul's had burned down, with the cathedral surviving in a wasteland of destruction. Its survival was mainly due to the efforts of a special group of firewatchers who were urged by prime minister Winston Churchill to protect the cathedral. Twenty-nine incendiaries fell on and around the cathedral, with one burning through the lead dome and threatening to fall into the dome's wooden support beams. Members of the volunteer St Paul's Watch would have had to climb through the rafters to have any chance of putting it out, but the bomb fell outwards from the roof onto the Stone Gallery, where it was quickly extinguished.

...
Wikipedia