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October 14, 1940 Disaster at Balham Tube station
Mike Harris at BBC People’s War recalls sleeping at Balham Underground station before his evacuation from London.
When I was a young boy I remember going down the Underground at Balham station on the Northern Line during the worst of the German air raids. I well remember the sound of the first train in the morning which woke us up from the bunk beds we were sharing. I remember the stuffy atmosphere but the sense of togetherness among the people.
He was fortunate not to be there on the 14th October 1940 when at 8.02pm a 1400 kilo semi armour piercing bomb penetrated 32 feet underground and exploded just above the cross passage between the two platforms.
The water and gas mains, along with the sewage pipes, had been broken: water poured down, flooding the tunnels below, and gas hampered rescue efforts. Almost all of the casualties would have resulted from the blast and debris. Yet stories soon developed of trapped people drowning in the flood waters and of miraculous escapes by people swimming along the tunnels to the next station. Colin Perry wrote in his diary:
" This bomb I think penetrated the steel-encased Tube below the ground, and I hear too that something, by a million to one chance, went down the ventilator shaft of the underground station. The water main was burst and the flood rolled down the tunnels, right up and down the line, and the thousands of refugees were plunged into darkness, water. They stood, trapped, struggling, panicking in the rising black invisible waters.
They had gone to the Tubes for safety, instead they found worse than bombs, they found the unknown, terror. Women and children, small babes in arms, locked beneath the ground. I can only visualize their feelings, I can only write how it has been told to me, but it must have been Hell. On top of this there came a cloud of gas. People not killed outright were suffocated, the rest drowned, drowned like rats in a cage. "
See Boy in the Blitz: The 1940 Diary of Colin Perry.
It was easy for such stories to take a hold but there is no mention of these scenarios in the official accounts of the rescue. In total sixty six people died, although over the years there has been confusion over the exact number and only recently Transport for London has agreed to revise the memorial plaque at the station.
The recovery of bodies was to take almost until Christmas yet remarkably the damage was repaired and trains were running through the station on 8th January 1941, and the station itself reopened on the 19th January.
Nick Cooper’s London Underground at War has a very comprehensive account of the Balham aftermath drawn from official sources, and a huge amount of detail on everything about the Tube during the war.
http://ww2today.com/14th-october-1940-disaster-at-balham-tube-station
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2016667/Colour-pictures-revealed-London-blitz-Nazi-bombers-World-War-II.html
http://www.bombsight.org/explore/greater-london/wandsworth/balham/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Balham_station#Second_World_War
@ col mikel COL Mikel J. Burroughs @ ltc stephen LTC Stephen C. @ ltc stephen LTC Stephen F. @ ltc frank LTC (Join to see) @ ltc john LTC John Mohor @ maj william Maj William W. 'Bill' Price @ maj stephen LTC (Join to see) @ capt marty Maj Marty Hogan @ smsgt doc SMSgt Minister Gerald A. "Doc" Thomas @ tsgt joe TSgt Joe C. @ sra christopher SrA Christopher Wright @ msg andrew MSG Andrew White @ sfc joe SFC Joe S. Davis Jr., MSM, DSL @ ssg robert SSG Robert Webster @ sgt david SGT (Join to see) @ sgt david SGT David A. 'Cowboy' Groth @ sp5 mark SP5 Mark Kuzinski @ spc margaret SPC Margaret Higgins Alan K. Cynthia Croft
Mike Harris at BBC People’s War recalls sleeping at Balham Underground station before his evacuation from London.
When I was a young boy I remember going down the Underground at Balham station on the Northern Line during the worst of the German air raids. I well remember the sound of the first train in the morning which woke us up from the bunk beds we were sharing. I remember the stuffy atmosphere but the sense of togetherness among the people.
He was fortunate not to be there on the 14th October 1940 when at 8.02pm a 1400 kilo semi armour piercing bomb penetrated 32 feet underground and exploded just above the cross passage between the two platforms.
The water and gas mains, along with the sewage pipes, had been broken: water poured down, flooding the tunnels below, and gas hampered rescue efforts. Almost all of the casualties would have resulted from the blast and debris. Yet stories soon developed of trapped people drowning in the flood waters and of miraculous escapes by people swimming along the tunnels to the next station. Colin Perry wrote in his diary:
" This bomb I think penetrated the steel-encased Tube below the ground, and I hear too that something, by a million to one chance, went down the ventilator shaft of the underground station. The water main was burst and the flood rolled down the tunnels, right up and down the line, and the thousands of refugees were plunged into darkness, water. They stood, trapped, struggling, panicking in the rising black invisible waters.
They had gone to the Tubes for safety, instead they found worse than bombs, they found the unknown, terror. Women and children, small babes in arms, locked beneath the ground. I can only visualize their feelings, I can only write how it has been told to me, but it must have been Hell. On top of this there came a cloud of gas. People not killed outright were suffocated, the rest drowned, drowned like rats in a cage. "
See Boy in the Blitz: The 1940 Diary of Colin Perry.
It was easy for such stories to take a hold but there is no mention of these scenarios in the official accounts of the rescue. In total sixty six people died, although over the years there has been confusion over the exact number and only recently Transport for London has agreed to revise the memorial plaque at the station.
The recovery of bodies was to take almost until Christmas yet remarkably the damage was repaired and trains were running through the station on 8th January 1941, and the station itself reopened on the 19th January.
Nick Cooper’s London Underground at War has a very comprehensive account of the Balham aftermath drawn from official sources, and a huge amount of detail on everything about the Tube during the war.
http://ww2today.com/14th-october-1940-disaster-at-balham-tube-station
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2016667/Colour-pictures-revealed-London-blitz-Nazi-bombers-World-War-II.html
http://www.bombsight.org/explore/greater-london/wandsworth/balham/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Balham_station#Second_World_War
@ col mikel COL Mikel J. Burroughs @ ltc stephen LTC Stephen C. @ ltc stephen LTC Stephen F. @ ltc frank LTC (Join to see) @ ltc john LTC John Mohor @ maj william Maj William W. 'Bill' Price @ maj stephen LTC (Join to see) @ capt marty Maj Marty Hogan @ smsgt doc SMSgt Minister Gerald A. "Doc" Thomas @ tsgt joe TSgt Joe C. @ sra christopher SrA Christopher Wright @ msg andrew MSG Andrew White @ sfc joe SFC Joe S. Davis Jr., MSM, DSL @ ssg robert SSG Robert Webster @ sgt david SGT (Join to see) @ sgt david SGT David A. 'Cowboy' Groth @ sp5 mark SP5 Mark Kuzinski @ spc margaret SPC Margaret Higgins Alan K. Cynthia Croft
WWII World War Two
World History
Military History
Death
London
Posted 7 y ago
Responses: 4
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Thanks SGT John " Mac " McConnell for sharing the video and account of Mike Harris as he recounts as a "young boy ... going down the Underground at Balham station on the Northern Line during the worst of the German air raids."
My father was a young pre-teenager [born in February 1928] in London at this time. He shared his recollection of going into the underground stations during air raids and going to school underground for a time before they got sick and tired of being underground. I lost some relatives during the inaccurate bombing and V-2 raids on London.
Her is a prewar image of dad as a young man with his older sister and chimp :-)
FYI COL Mikel J. Burroughs LTC Stephen C. Capt Seid Waddell Capt Tom Brown SFC William Farrell SSgt Robert Marx Maj Marty Hogan PO1 William "Chip" Nagel SPC Margaret Higgins MSgt Jason McClish AN Christopher Crayne LTC Bill Koski SPC Tom DeSmet SGT Charles H. Hawes LTC Wayne Brandon SGT (Join to see) SGT Michael Thorin
My father was a young pre-teenager [born in February 1928] in London at this time. He shared his recollection of going into the underground stations during air raids and going to school underground for a time before they got sick and tired of being underground. I lost some relatives during the inaccurate bombing and V-2 raids on London.
Her is a prewar image of dad as a young man with his older sister and chimp :-)
FYI COL Mikel J. Burroughs LTC Stephen C. Capt Seid Waddell Capt Tom Brown SFC William Farrell SSgt Robert Marx Maj Marty Hogan PO1 William "Chip" Nagel SPC Margaret Higgins MSgt Jason McClish AN Christopher Crayne LTC Bill Koski SPC Tom DeSmet SGT Charles H. Hawes LTC Wayne Brandon SGT (Join to see) SGT Michael Thorin
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Great history read while I get ready this morning. Thanks SGT John " Mac " McConnell and good morning brother.
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