| Original caption: “London civilians killed By Flying Bomb — Civilians were killed and others injured when a flying bomb hit a building in Aldwych, London. An injured man smokes a cigarette as he is helped by passers-by after the incident.” A Fieseler Fi-103 Vergeltungswaffe 1 (V-1; “Vengeance Weapon 1”) flying bomb hit the Aldwych area of London. The V-1’s engine cut out over Waterloo Station, and it dropped behind the Law Courts Buildings. Despite the Luftwaffe’s inability to achieve precise targeting, the V-1 hit the Air Ministry at Adastral House, opposite the British Broadcasting Corporation’s (BBC) Bush House station. Many people were outside when the bomb came down, falling onto the crowded street. People were incinerated in buses on the street and from flying shrapnel and glass from the Air Ministry’s windows. 48 people were killed, and 200 were injured, but some sources say that 198 were killed. This may be due to the Air Ministry’s underreporting of casualties at the time of the attack as a security measure. In the East Court of Bush House, alarm bells rang, indicating “enemy action imminent.” Several young women inside Adastral House (61 Aldwych, now Saint Catherine’s House), gathered at a window, trying to catch a glimpse of the “ghastly thing.” The V-1 fell in the middle of the street between Bush House and Adastral House. The device exploded 40 yards east of the junction of Aldwych and Kingsway. The Aldwych was packed with people out on their lunch hours when the V1 struck. Others were at their desks, and some of the girls from the Air Ministry were sunbathing on the roof. The modern steel frame buildings stood up well to the blast, and indeed, much of it was absorbed by the blast wall outside the Air Ministry. This, though, would have caused the blast to channel down the street rather than dissipating in collapsing buildings. The blast wave from the V1 was murderous. Numerous people in the street were mown down and killed or maimed, more died in the ruins of buses, and the girls on the Air Ministry roof also perished. Some workers at the Air Ministry were sucked out of office windows by the blast and vacuum and perished. BBC postal boy Derrick Grady (October 20, 1929 – October 22, 2005) recalled: “Just as we arrived at the side entrance to the building, we heard the V-1 and its engine cut out. 1 of my friends shouted, “There it is!” and we saw the buzzbomb clearly just above the Northeast wing of Bush House before it disappeared behind the buildings. We turned and flung ourselves to the ground. I was in mid-air when the blast hit me. I still have no idea why I wasn’t hurt. When we got to our feet, there were injured people all around us. All my colleagues were unhurt, so we started to get people into the building where help was rapidly forthcoming. The Fire Brigade and large numbers of Ambulances seemed to appear in no time. Also, at that time, there were other emergency workers who formed Rescue units. After some time, I was able to climb the steps, which led from the courtyard at Strand level up to Aldwych. This was very near to the point of impact, which was just outside the doors leading to a Post Office on the ground floor of the North East wing of Bush House. At that time of day, the Post Office was crowded. When I got to the top of the steps, the whole area across the junction of Kingsway and Aldwych was covered by occupied stretchers. I asked a Rescue man if he wanted help loading these stretchers onto Ambulances, and he said to me, ” Not any of these, lad, they won’t be going anywhere!” I went and found my jacket which earlier I had put under someone’s head. It was covered in blood. I went back to work.” Telephone switchboard clerk Daphne Claire Ibbott (April 16, 1921 – January 14, 2021) was with other women exchange employees when the V-1 hit. “It was 1300 Hours when I returned to the office, and the boss being at lunch, I went to chat with the 2 girls in her room, which was on the corner of Aldwych and Kingsway. At about 1315 Hours, I saw the flash of an explosion reflected in the eyes of the girl sitting opposite. Then, I was enveloped in a thick black fog, but I could just make out a line of tiny gas jets across the desk in front of me. I put them out with my bare hands. As the fog cleared, I saw a girl lying on the floor, but I could not lift her. She had been screaming with panic until I said that is was ‘All right; it’s all over now.’ I saw no damage at all as I walked out and joined a crowd walking downstairs, each 1 holding a handkerchief to the head, so I did the same, and found blood. There were 79 steps to the ground floor; I left by the main door and believe I walked over the body of the doorman, lying under 1 of the massive front doors. Outside, a policeman was coming towards me, holding his cap and trying to remove all the dust on his uniform. He pointed across to Bush House and said, “First aid over there.” I did not know I needed first aid, but I went, and stumbled on a brick in the middle of the road. I still saw no damage until I had to climb over a collapsed revolving door and broken glass. A woman then took my arm and down another flight of steps towards the first aid basement in Bush House, but as we turned a corner, I could walk no more. I looked down at my feet and saw that my beige socks were bright red. 2 messengers came running towards me. I put my arms across their shoulders, and they half-carried me along, as I realised that my right foot was hanging sideways. There was no pain. I was placed on a chair to await attention and saw a red pool collecting around my feet, so I got down and sat on the floor. The milkman beside me had been delivering to Adastral. He said he must get back to his float (which must have disappeared), but he did not know that a slice of skin had been removed above his ear; it was the size of half a crown. A young woman came for my name and address. I mouthed the words but no sound came until she shook my shoulder, then I tied my tiny handkerchief round the wide gash in my leg to hold it together. I was soon stretchered up to a tine jeep-like vehicle and taken to the clearing station at the Adelphi, where male medical students, too young for call up “Are you going to see to my legs?” He had not thought to raise the blanket which covered them. When he did, he raised to collect the other students, and they watched as he pulled my leg bones into position. I still felt no pain, although I pretended that it hurt! Then I was whisked off to another tiny ambulance, and the porter put a jelly baby [candy] in my mouth. As we were about to drive off, shouts made us wait and an Air Force officer was loaded in. He had abdominal injuries. There was only just enough room for the 2 of us. I asked him the time — he looked at his watch and said “Ten past two”. We were both fully conscious. On arrival at St. George’s Hospital, Hyde Park Corner, we were given numbers and our injuries described to medical staff. I was admitted to a large ward and needed a bed apn just as 2 male orderlies arrived with a stretcher trolley. There was no privacy, no time for screens. The ‘operating theatre’ was the huge basement. As I was wheeled down a ramp from the lift, I looked all around and saw stretcher trolleys separated from each other by movable screens. When I came to rest, a surgeon stood at my feet, holding a large, wet sponge. I looked through a gap in the screens at a nurse packing a holster in the side of a patient adjacent, and the surgeon said “Don’t be nosey” I replied, but I’ve never been in a place like this before” as I looked at the single light bulsbs everywhere, 1 only over each patient, Then I received an injection and slept. That evening I awoke believing I was curled up in a tight ball with knees under my chin. I felt for but could not find them and cried because I was so cold. A nurse brought a hot water bottle she placed at my back and assured me I still had my legs. Later, sister asked if I would like to be evacuated; it would be either to Wales or Slough. About 10pm. I was stretchered out and along with others, laid on the pavement. My shoes and clothes were also on the stretcher. A couple of passing Privates asked me if I was okay. I assured them I was. We were loaded into a converted Green Line bus, and I drifted in and out of consciousness as we travelled to Slough. That midnight, the Almoner arrived and asked if I was wearing my own nightdress!! I wanted to tell her that I was not in the habit of carrying my nightie around in case I got bombed, but I just said no. Some of the injured were from Peabody Buildings in the poorer part of London, many suffering from shock. 1 small, dumpy 90-year-old was the life and soul of the ward. I think we were all bomb-happy. After 2 weeks in hospital, I went by train to Yorkshire to convalesce in Easingwold, where my uncle was the Postmaster. For the 1st time I saw my face in a mirror, and it was bright yellow, like my hands. Not sure if it was penicillin or acriflavine, but think the former because tiny beards had grown on all the cuts on hands and face. My hair was still full of grit and powdered glass, much of which was embedded in my scalp (I still get a bit coming out of my skin). After the leg plaster and other bandages had been renewed twice, I got really mobile. Every afternoon, I sat on a seat on the village green and used rug wool to knit soles for slippers. My aunt knitted the uppers, and we sold them in aid of Forces comforts. They sold like hot cakes because no 1 could spare clothing coupons for slippers. Rug wool was the only wool available without coupons. Soldiers billeted in the village sat and talked with me, and I was known as The Doodlebugger, but in a nice way. I helped my aunt in a small farm shop where trade increased dramatically. People wanted to see a real bomb victim from London, with a leg still in plaster. After 3 months, York hospital signed me off, and I traveled back to London in a train jam-packed with miscellaneous troops. I sat on my upturned suitcase in the corridor; there were 6 unrationed eggs among the clothes. A sailor stood astride my knees all the way to London, and we never spoke!” Fire personnel lined up corpses in front of their rescue vehicles. Other vehicles, torn to pieces by the “robot” bomb, were searched for victims. Ladder trucks evacuated workers from the upper floors. As the mushroom cloud of the explosion rose over Fleet Street, frightened Londoners exited double-decker buses, continuing their business despite the danger. The July 13, 1944, Daily Mirror reported, “There is a tinge of excitement, but folks mostly carry on as usual.” Surivvors, wrapped in blankets or whatever was available, were taken to first aid. The Australia House, their London embassy, was heavily damaged. The Daily Mirror reported, “Aldwych Bomb Filled the Sky aith a 1,000,000 Papers – When a buzz bomb fell near Australia House, Aldwych, recently, a Daily Mirror representative was standing a short distance away. “Just after the bomb landed I looked towards the sky and it seemed as if a million wild geese were on the wing,” he said. “It was papers from one of the buildings where the incident happened.” Quite a number of injured girls attempted to re-enter the buildings when they could not find their particular pals. The Royal Free Hospital in Gray’s Inn-road, London, was also hit recently. Despite great structural damage and widespread blast, the casualty list was low. The buzz-bomb which killed Mr. A. M. “Doc” Salomon, the film director, made a direct hit on the power house of Warner Brothers Teddington Studios.” Ananda Max “Doc” Salomon (January 15, 1891 – July 5, 1944), Warner Brothers’ 1st employee, eventually headed their London office. He was on the roof of the Teddington Studios, making recordings of V-1 sounds, when the buzz bomb impacted the Aldwych. Salomon lingered for 5 days before dying. His ashes were cremated and returned to the United States. The Aldwych was cleaned and repaired, and the dead buried. Now, people pass the site of the explosion every day, without knowing that hundreds died there. On February 18, 1996, the Provisional Irish Republican Army prematurely detonated a bomb on the 171 Bus on the Aldwych, killing the bomber, Edward O’Brien (September 18, 1974 – February 18, 1996) and destroying the double-decker bus. The bus driver, Robert Newitt (1947 – ????), was permanently deafened and had cochlear implants in 1997. 6 others were injured. | |
| Image Filename | wwii0951.jpg |
| Image Size | 911.63 KB |
| Image Dimensions | 2920 x 2252 |
| Photographer | |
| Photographer Title | |
| Caption Author | Written or Adapted by Jason McDonald |
| Date Photographed | June 30, 1944 |
| Location | Aldwych |
| City | London |
| State or Province | London |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Archive | |
| Record Number | |
| Status | Caption ©2026 MFA Productions LLC Please Do Not Duplicate or Distribute Without Permission; Image in the Public Domain |
Author of the World War II Multimedia Database