Wimbledon’s single worst night of bombing during the Second World War happened exactly 72 years ago this week. On 6 November 1940 no fewer than 67 incendiaries fell within an hour.
Each weighed a kilo.

However, these were small compared with the other shells and bombs that hit the town, first during the Blitz between August 1940 and May 1941 and then from February to August 1944. Horrors included the 1800- kilo Satan and the pilotless V1 rockets – known as doodlebugs – and their successors, the V2s. 

Overall, more than 12,000 houses were damaged, some 2000 people made homeless, 1071 injured and 150 people killed in Wimbledon during the war. Among the streets hit were Stanley Road, Haydons Road, Revelstoke Road, South Park Road, Home Park Road and Woodside. Some 90% of all the munitions exploded on impact. The remainder were left as a serious hazard and had to be collected for disposal.

For many months after the war started in September 1939, the town’s priorities were preparations and evacuations but Wimbledon first experienced Nazi aggression directly on 16 August 1940 following a raid on Croydon airfield.

Bombs were dropped following the rough line of Merton High Street and Kingston Road westwards. This became a pattern for subsequent attacks and it was believed that returning German pilots were jettisoning unused bombs on Wimbledon. It had no major strategic sites to make it vulnerable, unlike some other parts of London, but the railway station was a large junction and there were two obvious potential targets – the KLG spark plug factory on the Portsmouth Road and the Triang Toy factory which had been converted for production of machine guns. There was also military training on the Common and a prisoner of war camp existed near Westside.

The All England ground’s Centre Court was used as a first aid point and mortuary and this was hit more than once. More specifically, as home to both Air Chief Marshal Hugh Dowding of the RAF and the War Minister Leslie Hore-Belisha (see Heritage page 7 September 2012), Wimbledon held personnel who would have been major trophies for the Nazis. Fortunately they were denied in both cases.

The Wimbledon Society is working with the Wimbledon Guardian to ensure that you, the readers, can share the fascinating discoveries that continue to emerge about our local heritage.

For more information, visit wimbledonsociety.org.uk and www.wimbledonmuseum.org.uk.

Click here for more fascinating articles about Wimbledon's heritage