Aftermath of Reading Air Raid
Photograph from Reading Chronicle Collection - February 1943
Air raid damage to the Town Hall on Blagrave Street and Blandy and Blandy's offices.
On the afternoon of the 10 February 1943, a single German fighter plane bombed and machine-gunned Reading town centre. The bombs fell in a line from Minster Street, through Wellsteeds Department store and the Market Arcade to the Town Hall on Blagrave Street. The death count was 41and over 100 more people were injured. One bomb hit the People’s Pantry, a restaurant in the Market Arcade (later the Bristol & West Arcade). Casualties might have been higher had it not been a Wednesday afternoon, which was early-day closing, so the town centre was less busy than normal.
This photograph was taken for the Berkshire Chronicle but was not published.
Museum object number
See related topic: Reading Chronicle