London: Bethnal Green tube disaster memorial unveiled

A memorial has been unveiled to the 173 people who died in one of London’s deadliest single disasters of World War Two.   

On March 3, 1943, the BBC reported a 300 bomber raid on Berlin, and Londoners braced themselves for retaliation.   As sirens sounded, people headed for the shelters.   Then 500 yards from Bethnal Green tube station (pictured), a new battery of anti-aircraft rocket launchers opened fire.

There was a rush for the steps leading down to the station, and close to the bottom, a woman stumbled.     Others fell over her, and a deadly crush began.    Altogether 173 people were suffocated or crushed to death, including 62 children, and another 100 people were injured.    In fact, no bombs fell on the East End of London that night.

A survivor who was 8 at the time, said at today's ceremony that it was 'fantastic' to see the memorial finally unveiled 73 years after the event. He spent nine months in hospital after suffering injuries to his spleen, legs, neck and arms.

For more, see London's Disasters from Boudicca to the Banking Crisis. 

Bethnal Green tube station disaster - a memorial at last

Sixty-nine years after the event, work has finally begun on a permanent memorial to the 173 people who died in one of London’s deadliest single disasters of World War Two.   

On March 3, 1943, the BBC reported a 300 bomber raid on Berlin, and Londoners braced themselves for retaliation.   As sirens sounded, people headed for the shelters.   Then 500 yards from Bethnal Green tube station, a new battery of anti-aircraft rocket launchers opened up.

There was a rush for the steps leading down to the station, and close to the bottom, a woman stumbled.     Others fell over her, and a deadly crush began.    Altogether 173 people were suffocated or crushed to death, including 62 children.    In fact, no bombs fell on the East End of London that night.

Survivors and relatives of victims attended a ceremony to mark the beginning of work on the memorial, which is expected to take 3 months.

Fires in orphanages

Up to 15 people, including a dozen children, have been killed in a fire at an orphanage in South Africa’s KwaZulu-Natal province. The director of the Hope in Christ Home was said to have been suffocated by smoke, along with her four children, eight orphans and two other adults. The cause is being investigated.

One of the worst ever orphanage fires happened at St Joseph’s Orphanage, Cavan in the Irish Republic on February 23, 1943. The establishment was run by nuns from the Poor Clares.

The fire seems to have been caused by an electrical fault in the laundry, and the alarm was raised in the early hours of the morning by one of the girls. Local people saw smoke coming out of the building and tried to put out the flames, but without success, and when the fire brigade arrived, they too were defeated by the blaze.

One local man managed to get a ladder up to a dormitory window, and bring down five girls, while some others jumped from the windows and survived. Altogether, though, 35 children and one adult lost their lives.