Flyingbombsandrockets.com

Key V-Weapon Statistics for SE14

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• Total Missiles: 20 (15 V1 Flying Bombs and 5 V2 Rockets)

 

• Total Fatalities: 286 deaths

 

• Fatality Rate per Missile: 14.3 deaths per missile overall

 

• V1 Flying Bombs: 21 deaths across 15 impacts (1.4 deaths per V1)

 

• V2 Rockets: 265 deaths across 5 impacts (53.0 deaths per V2)

 

The figures highlight a sharp contrast: while V1 pulsejets were loud, carried visual warnings, and were often intercepted by air defence, V2 rockets arrived silently at supersonic speed with no warning, resulting in significantly higher casualties per strike.

 

 

The 3 Worst V-Weapon Incidents in SE14
 

New Cross High Street (Woolworths) – 25 November 1944

 

• Weapon: V2 Rocket

 

• Casualties: 168 killed, 120+ injured

 

• Impact: The deadliest single V-weapon strike in the United Kingdom.

 

Folkestone Gardens, Trundley Road – 7 March 1945

Weapon: V2 Rocket

 

• Casualties: 53 killed

 

• Impact: The rocket struck between two blocks of residential flats owned by Southern Railway. Both multi-story blocks were obliterated, killing dozens of railway employees and their families living inside.

 

Shardloes Road & St Donatts Road – 1 November 1944

Weapon: V2 Rocket

 

• Casualties: 36 killed

 

• Impact: Hit a residential corner in Brockley, destroying a dozen Victorian terraced homes and tearing up the local tram tracks.
  
  The Disaster at New Cross Woolworths​

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On Saturday, 25 November 1944, at 12:26 PM, the busiest stretch of New Cross High Street was packed with weekend shoppers. Inside the local F.W. Woolworths store, over 130 staff and customers were browsing for Christmas gifts, household saucepans, or stopping for drinks at the tea bar.

 

Without warning, a supersonic V2 rocket—travelling over 3,000 mph with a 1,000 kg warhead—struck the roof of the Woolworths building.

 

The physical impact and blast wave were catastrophic:

 

• Total Demolition: The Woolworths structure collapsed into a pile of rubble. The neighbouring Royal Arsenal Co-operative Society store pancaked, and nearby office buildings, including a ration book issuing office at 288 New Cross Road, were destroyed.

 

• Street damage: The explosion overturned military lorries, blew out storefronts for hundreds of yards, and spun a passing No. 53A double-decker bus around on the street, killing passengers inside and shoppers waiting at the bus stop.

 

• Human Toll: 168 people died—primarily women and children, including 33 children and infants in prams, while over 120 people suffered severe blast injuries.

 

Emergency services, including National Fire Service units and local rescue squads, laboured for three days to clear the debris and recover victims stretching from Deptford Town Hall down toward New Cross Gate station.

 

Today, the site has been rebuilt and houses an Iceland supermarket, bearing bronze memorial plaques to honour the victims of the single deadliest civilian V-weapon strike of World War II.