Putney Dance Hall Bombing

It was November 7th 1943 and my mother Dorothy, grandmother Christine Simmonds and cousin Joan Collins (not that one!) decided we would all go to the 'pictures', (cinema or movies as we say today). My dad another Frank couldn't make it as he was on duty as a fireman in Fulham.
After the show we arranged to go in the Milk Bar in Putney High Street which was situated under the dance hall, on the junction of Putney Bridge Road and Putney High Street, we were to have a quick drink, before putting my cousin on a 93 bus to Morden. The rest of us lived in Kingwood Road Fulham which was in the opposite direction.
There were four cinemas in Putney, The Regal, Putney Palace, Hippodrome and The Globe. We went to the Hippodrome that night.
During the main film the air raid siren was sounding and the usual message was flashed on the screen to give you the option to take cover etc. We opted to stay to the finish, which wasn't too long off.
As we were leaving the cinema around 11.00pm the anti-aicraft guns could be heard in the distance, so we decided to make our way home and give the Milk Bar a miss. (which the Luftwaffe didn't).
I waited at the 93 bus stop outside the Regal Cinema to see my
cousin Joan on to the bus. Mum and Nan had been on the opposite side of the road waiting for a Trolley bus to Fulham, and assumed they were on their way.
Very soon the anti-aicraft guns were blazing away and shrapnel was falling near, our bus queue took cover against the wall or in the foyer of the cinema. As soon as there was a lull in the A.A. guns firing, the queue rushed to the kerb and we seemed to be pushed further down the line. I suggested to Joan that we walk over Putney Bridge to the terminus outside Putney Bridge District Line Station where we'd stand a better chance of getting her home that night. Putney Bridge was only a hundred yards or so away and we had taken only a few steps on the bridge when the familiar swooshing sound of a bomb coming in our direction could be heard. We had no time to react, when a terrific explosion was heard behind us. As we turned the pall of dust and smoke and some flames could be seen just beyond where we had been standing in the queue. We walked back to The Regal and found a very disturbing scene.The bus queue obviously was no longer there, there were bodies in the foyer of the Regal and a young soldier was being dragged in screaming in pain by two other soldiers, his lower limbs were badly damaged. I regret to this day that I didn't stay to help, but decided to get my cousin Joan back to my home. We walked home very sombrely. I don't think we'd heard of the word 'counselling' in those days.
Mum and Nan had been on the trolley bus when the bomb exploded and after the initial shock Mum realised that I may still in the bus queue on the opposite side of the road. Somehow in the confusion we missed each other and when I got home, I thought Mum would be there; she wasn't. Thinking the worst I started to make my way back to Putney. I had just reached the end of my road and found mum in a very distressed state, we fell into each others arms and wept. She had been looking through
the dead and injured in the Regal foyer expecting to find me and Joan.
It wasn't until the next morning that we realised how much of a tragedy it had been, and how lucky we were since the crowded dance hall had taken a direct hit, and underneath was the Milk Bar.
Over a hundred people had died that night many from Fulham.
The following week was a sad one when funeral processions were being held in various parts of the borough.
A story going round in Fulham during the next few days (Possibly apochryphal) was of a young man, arm in arm with his girlfriend, who were about to leave the Milk Bar when the bomb hit. The story goes that she was pulled by blast from his arm and killed, and he walked out uninjured. It was said that it left him with a severe speech impediment.
Having fairly recently looked at a WW2 bomb map of Wandsworth, I noticed that many clusters of bombs were around Putney Bridge, Battersea Bridge and Albert Bridge.

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