St Paul's has long been associated with the Second World War, the dome rising high above the destruction of the Blitz and Sir Winston Churchill declaring the Cathedral must be saved at all costs.
But Wren's great masterpiece can also owe its survival to a lesser-known act of bravery, carried out by a Cornish Officer and Scottish Sapper on 12 September, 1940.
A nighttime raid over the City had left one bomb, unexploded, lodged 30 feet deep in the road outside the main west end of the Cathedral. Weighing 4,400lb (2,000kg), the bomb was positioned close to a nearby gas main, which had been damaged by the raid.
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