Sister Killed, Four Nurses Injured
Stories of miraculous escapes and high courage
A Sister was killed and hours nurses severely injured when German raiders deliberately attacked a South-East hospital during Wednesday night.
High explosive and oil bombs were dropped and a kitchen an the female reception ward suffered most.
While nurses and patients were being rescued from the debris caused by the first attached the enemy came back and dropped a 1,000lb bomb outside one of the newer hospital buildings.
Despite their terrifying experiences, nurses, doctors and rescue workers carried on far into the night with inexhaustible energy and high courage, until all the 100 patients an injured members of the staff had been removed from the danger area to beds in the emergency hospital services’ enlargement.
Here is the story of this cowardly attack on women, the aged and the sick, as placed together by a Kentish Times reporter who interviewed nurses, doctors and rescue workers:-
The bombs were not jettisoned. The bomber, or bombers, dropped one bomb in the first instance, which landed squarely on the kitchen, and then, while rescue work on this incident was still going on, swooped over the hospital again and dropped two ore high explosive bombs and six oil bombs.
The only fatal casualty, a hospital Sister, was caused by the bomb falling on the kitchen, a comparatively small building attached to the nurse’ quarters and the maternity wards. It was a total wreck.
Sources: Bromley & District Times, 18th October 1940
