On the 25th November 1944 New Cross High Street was busy with South Londoners . Woolworths on the corner of Goodwood Road, and the adjacent Co-op were packed with shoppers. One report mentions that a sought after supply of saucepans had become available and many were queing outside Woolworths in the hope of being able to purchase one. At 12.26 PM there was an enourmous explosion as a V2 Rocket impacted into the Woolworths store.
Comtemporary reports from a number of witnesses indicate that the V2 had been seen in its last moments of flight, a line drawn across the grey November sky.
The store bulged outwards and then imploded and in the carnage 168 people were die and 121 were seriously injured. It was the 251'st Rocket to be sucessfully launched. This was the worst tragedy in the entire V weapon campaign and one of the worst civilian disasters of World War II.
As the store exploded there was blinding flash of light an an enourmous roar followed by a dense cloud of smoke and powdered dust. Witnesses several hundred yards away felt the warm blast on their faces,some were physically pushed backward by its force. The Co-Op Store next door also collapsed killing more people inside. The bodies of passers by were flung for great distances, and an army lorry was overturned and destroyed killing its occupants. A double decker bus was spun round causing yet more deaths and injuries,its occupants were seen still sitting in their seats covered in dust..
There were piles of masonory and peices of bodies all around, where Woolworths had been was just an enourmous gap.
The debris stretched from the Town Hall to New Cross Gate station and it was to take 3 days to clear this and to retrieve all the bodies from the debris.Today the site has been totally re-developed but the extent of the damage area can be seen from where the new buildings commence both in the New Cross Road and in surrounding streets. Lewisham council have erected a blue plaque on the building to commemorate the tragedy.
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