Tuesday 12 June 2012

The Bombing of Vicarage Terrace

It was the night of the 18th/19th June 1940, when Cambridge first got to experience the horrors war would bring.

It was just before midnight when the air raid sirens sounded and about fifteen minutes later a Heinki 111 bomber was reported to be flying low over Gwydir Street.

Within moments two HE bombs were dropped destroying numbers 1-6 Vicarage Terrace and badly damaging numbers 7-10. Houses in Edward Street and St. Matthew Street also suffered damage.

Ten people were reported to have been killed, by this attack alone, and up to nine were injured.
This was the first air attack on the city and is believed to be one of the earliest attacks to focus on a target in England during the war.

These article may also be of interest : 
                                                         World War 2 Air Attacks on Cambridge 1940 - 1942 
                                                                The Cambridge Evacuee's