Incident Number: 2374
location: Royal Victoria Yard, Deptford
Date: 16 August 1944
At 7:25 am a flying bomb landed at the Royal Victoria Yard, Deptford killing 7 and injuring 74. the heavy rescue squads, cranes and ambulances was sent to the scene by 8 am. Roll call at the scene was not taken until 9.21 because there was no local ARP unit of staff organisation working at the scene and 3 were found to be missing. The area covered by the explosion reached as far as Sayers Street and included the Cooperage area, Engineer's Fitting Shop, Cooperage Office, Blacksmith's Shop and Paaive Defence Store. The time of the incident coincided with the time that the men were passing into the yard to start work. The incident was closed at 12pm and the 5 bodies were removed from the scene at 13:20 to the Watson Street Mortuary but they had to wait 2 hours before they could collect the bodies. 3 bodies had been recovered from the Cooperage Office and Andrews was missing from the garage adjoining the Office but was never located and another body was recovered from the Engineering Shop..
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