Beat me to it Notts, hadn't realised either. On a dark note, would that be the worst tragedy in Swindon's history? Guess we must have been a target for the Luftwaffe because of the railway works.
http://www.swindonweb.com/index.asp?m=8&s=116&ss=1550
Single bombs fell relatively harmlessly on Graham Street and York Road, but a third landed in Rosebery Street, killing 10 people, including a 12-year-old boy.
...
After those isolated raids in 1940, however, they didn’t come back until 1942, and even then the scale of the bombing again did not match that endured by other towns and cities.
This time it was high summer, and three separate attacks raised the death toll from 11 to 48.
The first attack was potentially the most lethal, but once again Swindon was lucky as the first significant raid on the Railway Works – which also turned out to be the last - failed.
In broad daylight, at 6.30am on July 27, 1942, the plane swooped low over the town, and people standing in a bus queue dived for cover as it bombed and machine-gunned the factory’s own gas works.
Fire broke out in a gas holder, but it was quickly put out, and bullet holes in its side were plugged with clay, preventing any major damage.
Cattle grazing on the outskirts of the town were said to be the only casualties of the attack.
But three weeks later, on August 17, 1942, came the worst night of bombing the town would ever see.
Two separate incidents caused 19 deaths in Ferndale Road and another 10 in Kembrey Street.
Four people were killed at 475 Ferndale Road, and there were also deaths at numbers 257, 386, 465, 467, 469, 471 and 475.
...
A further 12 days elapsed before the next raid, on August 29.
This time, eight people were killed by a bomb falling on numbers 83, 85 and 87 Drove Road.
They were to be the final civilian casualties in Swindon.
The town saw out the last three years of the war peacefully, with its huge works and its remaining houses mercifully – and still
inextricably - untouched by the conflict.
I find that fascinating. So Swindon was, in the grand scheme of things, largely ignored. Unfortunately not totally ignored though as the above shows.
