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At 8.02 pm on Oct 14, 1940, a 1,400 kg bomb fell by the doorway of United Dairies on Balham High Road, London SW.
The explosion destroyed the roof above the northbound platform of Balham underground station where 500 people were sheltering from the air raids.
But it was not the bomb itself which caused an estimated 66 deaths among those hiding away.
A double-decker bus driving past fell into the crater and ruptured a water pipe, drowning many of those on the platform.
On this day German bombers were overhead and people had taken to the shelters, including the platforms at Balham underground station. The trains would have still been running at the time, and commuters would have been stepping over people using the station for protection. Although just 13 metres below ground, the platforms were considered deep enough to be classed as an official shelter point.
At exactly 2 minutes past 8pm, and - even though the station was one of the deep stations on the network-, the armored piercing bomb that landed in the road above collapsed the roof of the connecting under ground tunnels. The number 88 bus, on its last run of the day, driving in the blackout, did not see the large bomb crater in the road and crashed straight into it. The lights went out and the waters began to fill the platform area. The subsequent flood of water and soil into the tunnel was to kill nearly 70 people.
The exact number of dead is unclear, with reports ranging from 64 to 68 people, although the Commonwealth War Graves Commission officially records 66 deaths. In addition, more than 70 people were injured.
The station was fully functional once again by Jan 1941.
Thanks to dutiful record-keeping by the Home Guard, the names of the 66 identified victims are publicly accessible. The youngest victim was 4-year-old Michael Ravening, who died with his mother. Arthur George Sexton, also 4, was killed alongside his parents respectively.
Mr. Roy John Dibble, a 97-year-old, was the eldest victim of the tragedy.
The explosion destroyed the roof above the northbound platform of Balham underground station where 500 people were sheltering from the air raids.
But it was not the bomb itself which caused an estimated 66 deaths among those hiding away.
A double-decker bus driving past fell into the crater and ruptured a water pipe, drowning many of those on the platform.
On this day German bombers were overhead and people had taken to the shelters, including the platforms at Balham underground station. The trains would have still been running at the time, and commuters would have been stepping over people using the station for protection. Although just 13 metres below ground, the platforms were considered deep enough to be classed as an official shelter point.
At exactly 2 minutes past 8pm, and - even though the station was one of the deep stations on the network-, the armored piercing bomb that landed in the road above collapsed the roof of the connecting under ground tunnels. The number 88 bus, on its last run of the day, driving in the blackout, did not see the large bomb crater in the road and crashed straight into it. The lights went out and the waters began to fill the platform area. The subsequent flood of water and soil into the tunnel was to kill nearly 70 people.
The exact number of dead is unclear, with reports ranging from 64 to 68 people, although the Commonwealth War Graves Commission officially records 66 deaths. In addition, more than 70 people were injured.
The station was fully functional once again by Jan 1941.
Thanks to dutiful record-keeping by the Home Guard, the names of the 66 identified victims are publicly accessible. The youngest victim was 4-year-old Michael Ravening, who died with his mother. Arthur George Sexton, also 4, was killed alongside his parents respectively.
Mr. Roy John Dibble, a 97-year-old, was the eldest victim of the tragedy.
