Fear

Dan Miller:

On March 3rd, 1943 an air raid siren sounded in London. The citizens of London knew they were at war with Germany and that a retaliation attack was possible. But with nothing but the sound of the siren, panic and mass hysteria was the result. 1500 people tried to get down the steps of the Bethnal Green train station tunnel for protection. One lady, carrying her small baby, tripped on the stairs and fell. Within a few seconds 300 people were crushed into the tiny stairwell. The chaos lasted less than 15 minutes, but 172 people were dead at the scene, with one more dying the next day.

No German bombs fell that day. The largest number killed by any single bomb in the entire war in England was 68. The crush at Bethnal Green was the largest loss of civilian life in the UK in World War II. But bombs didn’t kill those people – fear did.