The Little Blitz: The Luftwaffe's Last Attack on London by John Conen

Author:John Conen [Conen, John]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Publisher: Fonthill Media
Published: 2014-12-03T08:00:00+00:00

The damage suffered to the overhead wires, high tension cables, and gas and water mains in Chiswick High Road disrupted bus and trolleybus services for over a month. Earlier in the raid, all telephone lines from Chiswick were reported out of service after the local telephone exchange was hit. The London Underground Central line, between Wood Lane and Ealing Broadway, was suspended. In Ealing, twenty people were reported trapped in Northcote Avenue after high-explosive bombs fell. The final death toll was ten. A bomb falling at the junction of Longmead Road and Church Road in Hayes blocked the road and ten people also died here. At Ruislip, barracks occupied by WRENs were damaged and two of the servicewomen were slightly injured.

Fatal casualties also occurred in Paddington, Mortlake, Kensington, Hammersmith, and Wandsworth, as well as Harrow Weald to the north-west, and Edmonton to the north. The Queens Road Home in Croydon (a charitable home for adults and children occupying an eight-acre site), previously damaged by bombs in 1941, was hit for a second time, two blocks being wrecked in addition to the quarters of the master and matron and the children’s ward. Nine died, including two members of staff, and forty were injured. Another bomb demolished the Queens Head pub and several houses nearby.14 In Wimbledon a number of large high-explosive bombs fell. The first fell outside Verran’s garage and filling station on Merton Road, tearing up tramlines and igniting a gas main. The garage was burnt out and many houses in the vicinity were damaged. The Downs Lodge Convent was hit by a bomb and several nuns were amongst the casualties, and five residents of the nearby Catholic homes of rest for old people in The Downs were killed, many being trapped under heavy debris. Rescue work went on for twelve hours in freezing weather, such was the weight of the debris.15 The Nelson Hospital in Merton was set on fire and it was necessary to evacuate all the patients. In Chislehurst the Golf Club was severely damaged by fire.

A Mass Observation diarist, living to the north of London in Broxbourne, Hertfordshire, reported ‘a noisy night, with an air-raid where the raiders apparently travelled to town by the Lea Valley. We brought both the children into our bed, and Faith (a relative) joined us there too, while a noisy raid went on. The nearest bomb was about a mile away, a small one, but after the raid I was roused by the noise of a fire, and apparently of small ammunition exploding.’16

Another Mass Observation diarist also based to the north of London, at Potters Bar, recorded this as the worst raid he’d experienced: ‘woken up in the middle of the night by explosions and then followed over an hour of terrifying tumult. I thought the gunfire would bring the house down; it was one continuous bedlam of noise and the whole house shuddered … even more frightening than the demented drumming of the guns was the buzzing of the enemy

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