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© Transport for London
Collection of London Transport Museum
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Elmers End bus garage. Exterior view showing severe structural damage to the building caused by a V1 flying bomb dropped during an air raid on the evening of 18 July 1944. Seen here are the remains of the offices and Home Guard headquarters. Cleaning up work seems to have begun already with a crane operating on site.

Photographed by Topical Press, 19 Jul 1944

Location: Elmers End garage, Bromley, SE25

Image no: U35829

Inventory no: 1998/35062

20th Century London caption: This view shows severe structural damage at Elmers End bus garage inflicted by a V1 flying bomb. It was dropped during an air raid on the evening of 18 July 1944. The remains of offices and Home Guard headquarters stand among the wreckage. The crane suggests that the cleaning up operation has already begun. London was being targeted by V1 flying bombs designed to explode on impact. The bombs, also called 'doodlebugs', were invented by the Germans and used as part of a major offensive from June 1944. Over 15,000 Londoners died in air raids during the course of the war.

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