The Fighting Begins (Original Narration and Acting Parts)

[Narrator: Richard Burton ("The Journalist")] In the afternoon, a company of soldiers came through and deployed along the edge of the Common to form a cordon. I felt more secure now that the army was in control, even though the hammering continued and there was a steady streamer of smoke from the pit. That evening, a falling star with a trail of green mist landed in the woods with a flash like Summer lightning. This was the second cylinder... At dawn came the thud of a gun from the Common, then there was a violent crash that shook the ground, houses slid down into ruin, and I realised with horror that my home was now within range of the Martians' Heat Ray... Overhead, dark clouds were driving fast, and then, startlingly, it was as though the clouds had been pierced by a thread of green fire. It was the third falling star...