In fact about a fifth of the City of Canterbury was lost that night as the result of both incendiary and heavy bombs. There were about 100 heavy bombs dropped that night together with about 6,000 incendiaries. The attack lasted some two and a half hours but the resulting fires also accounted for a large part of the damage to properties. The reason for so much fire damage was that the majority of the buildings in this area including Burgate to Watling Street were of timber construction similar to those that can still be seen today in Mercery Lane or The Weavers. The raid was carried out by about fifty bombers. Fortunately for the City, this was a lot fewer planes than the R.A.F. were sending to Germany due to the increasing allied air superiority. This was thanks in no small part to the gains made two years earlier during the Battle of Britain, much of which was fought in the skies around Canterbury.

St. George's Church

In this St. George Street area, the remains of the Church which bears its name can be seen in the top centre of the above picture on the left-hand side of the road with the tower supported by scaffolding [see insert to the left]. It was in this Church that Christopher Marlowe was baptised. Also in this immediate area, the Corn Exchange and Long Market were totally destroyed, as was the birth place of the author of The Ingoldsby Legends, Richard H. Barham, in Burgate. During this night 43 people died, 40 were badly injured and 41 received less serious injuries. Included in the dead was Mr. George Marks, the local ARP controller and Town Clerk.

There were additional raids made against the City on the nights of June 3rd and June 7th but neither of these attacks were as heavy as the first attack on the 1st. By the way, who was "Baedeker"? Not as one might suspect, a German General or Air Marshall but the German issuer of an English Travel guide. It was from this book that the German war machinery chose their non-military targets!

Some time after writing this article I received the following message from Tom Page, D.F.M.:

"Just been reading your Canterbury At War, St. Georges Street. I remember flying over the City on the morning after the Baedeker raid June 1942 in a small aircraft with the CO of RAF Manston and looked down on the devastation.. Later went on to take part in many bomber raids over Germany including Berlin and Cologne. There is not many of us left now after all these years. My squadron lost 902 Aircrew. "They Shall Not Grow Old"."