Queen Mum: Hitler gave me a knee-trembler

Brave: Queen Mum and King inspect bomb damage at Palace

By Robert Jobson, 13/09/2009

THE Queen Mum told how she was left trembling with fear after a Nazi bomb landed on Buckingham Palace, in a letter which can be revealed for the first time today.

She wrote: "My knees trembled a little bit for a minute or two after the explosions."

Referring to her husband, King George VI, she went on: "We both feel quite well today, tho' just a bit tired."

Secret: War letter written by the Queen Mum

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In keeping with the spirit which made her a national treasure, the Queen Mum added: "We must win in the end. Dear old Buckingham Palace is still standing and that is the main thing." It was after the raid that she made her famous statement about Hitler's blitzing of London: "We can now look the East End in the face."

The letter to "darling Mama", mother-in-law Queen Mary, has been revealed to mark the launch of her official biography next week.

It and others were made available to author William Shawcross from the Royal Archives at Windsor. The insight into the Queen Mum, who died aged 101 in 2002, is fascinating because little is known of her personal views. She gave her first and last newspaper interview in 1923.

In the letter she writes graphically about the bombing. "I hardly know how to begin to tell you of the horrible attack on Buckingham Palace.

"We heard the unmistakeable whirr of a German plane. We said, 'Ah, a German,' and before anything else could be said, there was the noise of aircraft diving at great speed and then the scream of a bomb.

"We had only time to look foolishly at each other, when the scream hurtled past us, and exploded with a tremendous crash in the quadrangle.

"I saw a great column of smoke and earth thrown up into the air.

"There was another tremendous explosion and we and our two pages remained for a moment or two in the corridor away from the staircase in case of flying glass.

"Everybody remained wonderfully calm and we went down to the shelter. I was so pleased with the behaviour of our servants. They were really magnificent."

robert.jobson@notw.co.uk

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