The greatest civilian loss of life in the UK in WW2. Bethnal Green disaster 3 March 1943.

On 3 March 1943, 173 people were killed at Bethnal Green tube station. I seem to recall reading – perhaps in the Guiness Book of Records – that these deaths were caused by mass panic during an air raid warning but that is clearly not the case. These people were crushed to death by the weight of their own bodies. In this video I shall look at how this happened and at some of the myths surrounding this event. Bethnal Green is today on Central Line of the London Underground. The Central London Railway, which became the Central Line in the 1930s was opened in 1900 and by the beginning of the World War Two the line extended to Ealing Broadway as it does today in the west but ended at Liverpool Street in the east. The New Works Programme of 1935–1940, a project costing £42,286,000 in 1936 was, amongst many other things, to extend the Central Line from Liverpool Street to Stratford and to connect it and take over existing lines to Epping, Ongar and Hainault. Bethnal Green is fhe first station after Liverpool Street but was not yet ready when the war started. As a result of the war, all construction stopped on the London Underground – unlike in Moscow where it actually continued. The underground station and tunnels had however been dug and thus were available as an air raid shelter run by London County Council. The station as a shelter could host up to 10,000 people although the maximum it held were 7,000 at any one time. It had 5,000 bunks, a canteen, a sick bay with a trained nurse regularly in attendance, a visiting doctor, a concert hall capable of holding 300 people and a public library with around 4,000 books. The reason it has so many books was because the local lending library had been hit by a bomb and the books moved there for storage. It needs to be pointed out, however, that there were almost 100,000 people living in the Bethnal Green area in 1939. However the way into the shelter was not the wide open entrance we see today but something more resembling the entrance to a works area – which it was. Inside, it had no hand rails, the lighting was bad, only one 25W bulb and the timber slats which were used to form the concrete stairs had not been removed. This timber had rotted in the damp climate and thus made the stairs uneven and this was to have tragic consequences. The East End, because of the docks as well as the industrial infrastructure had been a target for the Luftwaffe since the first raid which occurred on the night of Saturday 24 August 1940 to Sunday, 25 August. From then on, during the Blitz, London was constantly bombed with the East End taking the brunt. We can read of the opening of the air raid shelter at the future Bethnal Green tube station in an article published in the Sunday Mirror on the 6th October 1940. “The Man Who Gets Things Done – Herbert Morrison, new Minister of Home Security, beloved by Londoners, is the man who gets things done. Standing on the platform of the uncompleted Bethnal Green Underground station, 65ft below ground yesterday, he asked London Passenger Transport Board and local council officials why it was not being used as a shelter. He was told there were certain technical difficulties. ‘Is there anything to stop the people using it right away?’ he queried brusquely. He was told there were not. ‘Then open it tonight’ said Herbert Morrison. That is why several thousand men, women and children of the East End who last night found sanctuary in the station and tunnels – part of the new Tube extension not yet in use – bless the name of Britain’s ‘livliest’ Cabinet Minister. A.A. Shells were bursting in the sky during an alert when Mr Morrison and Admiral Sir Edward Evans arrived to inspect the station. Mr Morrison, after chatting with the experts, reached his decision about the opening of the station as a shelter in five minutes, Council officials told him that everything was ready to make the shelter comfortable. Someone said the pit in the concrete track should be boarded over. ‘Let them sleep on the track’ replied Morrison. Mr Morrison said in an interview: ‘You can tell the people we are going to utilise every inch of shelter we can find and we’re going to do it quickly’ Herbert Morrison was born in 1888 and was a Labour MP. He was Minister of Transport in the second Labour government until 1931 and then he became leader of London County Council. On 12 May 1940,shortlyafter becoming Prime Minister, Winston Churchill appointed him to be the first Minister of Supply. On 4 October 1940, he became the Home Secretary and Minister of Home Security, a role he held until 23 May 1945. His main claim to fame however may be that the Morrison shelter, a more or less do it yourself air raid shelter for one’s back garden, was named after him. In recent years, he has been partially blamed for the Bethnal Green disaster.