Piece of V-1 Flying Bomb From The Weald House Tragedy 30th June 1944.

[Falschirmjager]

Thought id share this one as have been researching this terrible event for a magazine article. At 3.37 am of Friday 30th June 1944 a V-1 Flying Bomb was engaged by Anti Aircraft fire as it came in. The gunners fire struck the V-1 but it failed to exploded as hoped. The V-1 then crashed directly onto Weald House at Crockham Hill Sussex which at that time was serving as a refuge for 30 children aged five and under and had a staff of eleven adults. Of the 30 children only 8 survived the blast along with 8 of the 11 adults-it was one of the worst events of kind to have happened in WW2. I made the trip down to Sussex to meet up with an elderly gent who at the time was 10 years old and had visited the site after the initial clear-up with some school pals. He discovered a piece of the V-1 with a shrapnel hole in it and I was able to take pic of it for the article. Before I left he handed me a packet and said " I think you had better have this besides if I kick the bucket it will only end up being thrown in the bin" in the packet he handed me was the very piece of V-1 that he had found at the site. Its a sad reminder of so many tiny lives lost in one terrible wartime tragedy and one of the most heartwrenching researches I have even undertaken. Regards Tim.Attachment 864157Attachment 864158

[HistoryMan]

Very sad story but not uncommon I would imagine in those days.
Quite a number of children were killed in this V2 attack on Woolworth's at Deptford, London, 168 killed, 123 injured.

The Darkest Hour

New Cross Memorial - remembering all those who died when the store was destroyed on 25 November 1944

[harryamb2]

it was a terrible thing to happen to those people and babies.