80th anniversary of first V-2 rocket to hit London commemorated

Image: The Staveley Road V-2 rocket memorial

Sunday 8 September marks 80th anniversary of the first V-2 bombing in Chiswick

On a damp Friday evening 80 years ago, what some thought was a gas mains explosion shook Chiswick, claiming three lives and injuring 19 others. But the explosion was no gas blast, it was the impact of the first V-2 rocket ever fired at London. This Sunday, Londoners marked the 80th anniversary of this silent terror that heralded a new era in warfare.

At the time, Londoners were accustomed to the sounds of falling bombs and the ominous whine of V-1 rockets. The V-2’s speed and stealth offered no such warning. Travelling faster than the speed of sound, the rocket arrived with a deadly surprise.

Although some reports claimed that the impact was heard in central London, survivors from Chiswick described the sound as surprisingly faint, leading them to initially believe it was merely a gas explosion.

The gravity of the attack soon became apparent when military experts from the RAF and the British and US Armies arrived to inspect the site. The blast had created a massive 20-foot-wide crater, destroying eight houses and damaging 50 more. By sheer luck, the missile landed on the corner of a street adjacent to a large playing field, limiting the damage.

The missile struck the road outside 5 Staveley Road, hitting a sparsely populated area. A Home Office report noted that the presence of the empty field helped dissipate the shockwave, preventing even greater destruction.

Nevertheless, the attack claimed the lives of three people: three-year-old Rosemary Clarke, 68-year-old Ada Harrison, and Private Bernard Browning, who was home on leave and en route to meet his girlfriend. Browning was buried with full military honours in the local cemetery.

Images: Map of the bomb site, a photograph taken in the aftermath

Aftermath 

The aftermath was grim. Repairs took a year, during which local resident Marian Lamonty told the Daily News she had been living in a single room while waiting for her home to be repaired. Post-war, the playing field was partly filled in to accommodate the Staveley Road Secondary Modern Boys School, which later merged with Chiswick Community School before being redeveloped into housing.

Today, Staveley Road appears as a typical suburban street, though a gap between two houses marks the site of an electrical substation—coincidentally close to the missile’s impact point.

In 2004, a memorial was established near the site to honour those lost in the attack with a plaque detailing the history of the V-2 rocket strike.

On the same evening as the Chiswick attack, V-2 rockets also struck Kew and Epping, though these incidents caused no casualties. The V-2 campaign ultimately claimed an estimated 2,754 lives in London and caused significant suffering across Europe, while also resulting in the deaths of approximately 20,000 Nazi slave labourers forced to produce the rockets.

The last V-2 to hit the UK fell on 27th March 1945. The rocket programme consumed nearly as much effort in Germany as the Manhattan Project did in the US.

Image: Andrew, Andy and Dimitri on BBC News at Staveley Road

Three runners run 37-miles from Staveley Road and raise £15,000 to commemorate the anniversary

To commemorate the anniversary, three British runners—Dmitri Macmillen, Andrew Macmillen, and Andy Lewis— ran a 37-mile route across London on Sunday. Their run took them past sites impacted by World War II bombings and V-1 and V-2 rocket attacks.

The runners’ goal was to raise funds for Ukraine and draw parallels between the aerial bombardments faced by Londoners during the 1940s and the current situation in Ukraine. As of Monday 9 September, they have raised £7,690 out of their £15,000 goal.

You can see their fundraiser by clicking here.

Air Defence Marathon organiser and runner, Dmitri Macmillen, 32, said:

“It was a long day, but we managed to complete the 37-mile route in one piece! We’ve been overwhelmed by the support we’ve received, and we’re so grateful to everyone who has donated so far.

“The media interest was great – we gave interviews to BBC News and to a Ukrainian news channel live from Staveley Road, our starting point, on Sunday morning in which we explained the historical significance of the site, and why we were doing the Air Defence Marathon for Ukraine.

“We have now raised over half of our £15k fundraising target, and we are keeping our JustGiving page open until 30 September to get as close to our target as possible.”

Image: The three runners made it onto Ukrainian TV News