In an effort to break the British spirit the Germans began
heavy nighttime bombing of London the Blitzkrieg (lightening
strike). Bombs rained down on Brentford almost every night
between September and December 1940. The first casualties
occurred on 29th September when a bomb fell on St Paul's
Recreation Ground; one person was hospitalised and 16
suffered minor injuries. The first fatality came on 29th
September when a bomb landed on Mafeking Ave. One person
was killed and another taken to hospital. Two houses were
destroyed. The worst incident during the Blitz was on 29th
November when a bomb dropped on Manor Gardens,
Gunnersbury Ave. It set the gas main on fire and destroyed
nos 15, 16, 17,and 18. Nine people were killed. There was
only sporadic bombing in Brentford in 1941, none at all in
1942 and just one incident in 1943 when a shell from our own
anti-aircraft guns (the 49th AA brigade was stationed at
Gunnersbury) dropped on the railway track and damaged St
George's Church. In 1944 bombing began again in earnest. On
Febuary six people were injured when a parachute bomb hit
the playing fields behind the Congregational church in Boston
Manor Rd. This happened at 10pm and could have been much worse
than it was since a dance was in progress at the nearby Baths
Hall. The Germans now began to bombard Britain with a new type
of weapon; the flying bomb (doodle-bug). Known as the V1
(which stands for Vergeltungssswaffe Eins- 'revenge weapon one')
these 'pilot less planes' were launched from ground ramps or
from aircrafts and carried a tonne of explosive. A flying bomb
fell on Apple Garth on 12 July killing five and injuring
34. Other flying bomb hit Ferry Lane on the 17th injuring six;
Chestnut Ave on the 21st injuring 56 and Boston Manor Rd (24
injured). In September of 1944 the Germans launched their
most insidious weapon yet - the V2 rocket. The first to land
in Britain plummeted out of the sky, totally without warning,
in Chiswick . In an attempt to mislead the Germans, news of
the V2's arrival was suppressed and people were told that a
gas main had exploded. On 21 March 1945 a V2 rocket exploded
on the Packard factory in the Great West rd, just over the border
in Isleworth. The bomb destroyed part of the factory, 662 houses
were damaged; 32 people were killed and 492 injured. Fragments
from rocket explosions in other boroughs fell in the great West
Rd, Windmill Rd, Boston Park Rd, and in Carville Crescent. Oil
bombs landed on Brentford Ait with the result that nearly a
third of the island caught fire. The record of World War II
'incidents' kept at Chiswick Library suggest that 26 people
were killed in Brentford due to the bombing, 63 seriously
injured and that 149 suffered minor injuries.
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