The Germans undertook a massive and intensive air raid of London yesterday afternoon. It was the first raid conducted on such a scale and with such intensity since the beginning of the war. The British were evidently shocked by the surprise attack and responded rather weakly. As a result, the Germans succeeded in setting the dockyards on fire and demolishing many buildings and workers’ houses in the East End. The fire is still raging today. I drove around the East End and stood on the hill in Greenwich Park from where I could clearly see columns of fire and clouds of smoke rising from various locations in the port. They say as many as 400 have been killed and 1,500 wounded.

Raids continued throughout the night of the 7th to the 8th. German planes went on pounding the city, taking their bearings from the tongues of fire. The workers’ districts – the East End and Kilburn – suffered most of all. Many proletarian shacks have been destroyed. Industrial facilities, power stations, gas plants and so on have escaped serious damage. The Finnish embassy, though, has been wrecked. I don’t know whether or not the Germans are targeting military objects; if they are, they are doing a bad job of it. It’s hardly surprising: yesterday and today the German planes have been flying at an altitude of about 7 kilometres.

British resistance last night was very feeble. The sky was ablaze with searchlights, but they rarely picked out the enemy planes. The anti-aircraft guns were mostly silent. Strange. The people are greatly alarmed at the absence of any proper retaliation. The government will face serious difficulties if this continues.