London Devastated in Huge Raid

10th May 1941: Hundreds of bombers lay waste to large areas across the capital, destroying the House of Commons and many historic sites, killing almost 1,500

The collapse of a burning building at No 23 Queen Victoria Street, London, EC, (Salvation Army HQ), 10th/11th May 1941.

London had been regularly bombed since 7th September 1940. There had been no let-up for the first 57 nights, and there had been intermittent heavy raids ever since. Even though London was well prepared with a variety of shelters, both public and private, and many people volunteered for air raid precautions or firefighting, there was no means of preventing death and destruction when the bombers came.

Firefighters tackling a blaze in Victoria Street, East London, on the night of 10th/11th May 1941.

So when the radar began showing large formations of bombers forming up over France in the evening of the 10th May, it was quickly realised that ‘this is going to be a big one’

A view across London of the fires surrounding St Paul’s Cathedral.

The first bombs fell on central London just before 11 pm and continued across most London boroughs until nearly 6 am. An especially low tide on the Thames made drawing water for firefighting difficult, and there were more fires than usual. There was damage to many important buildings, as well as to thousands of ordinary homes. Over 700 tons of high explosives and 100,000 incendiary bombs were dropped by roughly 500 aircraft. The first waves of aircraft returned to France, ‘bombed up’, and came back to hit London again.