Railway Gun rests at Halwill Junction (above) before proceeding to Ashbury Station area (below) to fire a live shell into Okehampton Artillery Range impact area - over the heads of many people and houses!! ..what would Health and Safety say about that today - wear a tin hat?!
The London Necropolis Railway Station, a privately owned station in Westminster Bridge Road, after London's biggest night raid of the war.
One of the heaviest night attacks of the Blitz on London was on 29 December 1940. In Moorgate Underground station, countless incendiary bombs caused fires to rage. Strong winds intensified the fires and temperatures soared above 1,000° Fahrenheit causing railway track to warp and supporting beams to give way. Pools of melted metal and glass formed on remaining platforms. Almost every building in the Barbican and Moorgate area was destroyed that night, and 12 firemen were killed. The following morning Police Constables Arthur Cross and Fred Tibbs photographed the destruction. All City stations except Liverpool Street were closed. Notices read 'due to enemy action trains will be subject to delay'.
As the nightly German attacks over London continued, the city’s Underground railway stations were used as air raid shelters (above). The authorities disapproved of the practice at first, but then did what they could to make them more comfortable, and life underground soon developed its own culture. These Londoners are sleeping on the escalators in one London tube station.
Clapham tram depot after a heavy air raid, march 1941.
Bomb damage at Balham Underground station, October 1940. This view shows part of the huge crater in the road caused by the bomb which penetrated the station tunnel, killing 111 people. LT-type bus, LT669, which fell into the crater, can be seen on the right.
Elephant and Castle Underground Station (1940).
Bomb shelter in a London Underground station.
Londoners shelter in a tube station during the second world war.
