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Old November 15th 03, 05:21 PM posted to uk.transport.london
Mark Brader Mark Brader is offline
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First recorded activity at LondonBanter: Jul 2003
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Default News - Safety Row

Paul Weaver:
Wasn't there an incident in the East End in WWII?


Richard J.:
Details at http://tube.tfl.gov.uk/content/metro/03/0303/04/

(Ignore the photo captioned "The worst civilian disaster of the second
world war" which shows an unrelated incident...)


Also ignore the part about "For 48 hours prime minister Winston
Churchill withheld information on the tragedy". The disaster
happened on on the evening of Wednesday, 1943-03-03; most of the
details were publicly announced the following evening and reported
in the Times for the day after that.

What was not published at the time was the location of the disaster;
the Times merely described it as "a London tube shelter", withholding
not only the station, but also the district and, probably the most
important thing to conceal, the fact that it was an incomplete station.
A report on the inquest, two weeks later, revealed that it was in
"East London".

Also not published initially, as the web page says, was the part about
what caused the crowd to surge in the first place -- i.e. a new
defensive weapon whose sound was presumably mistaken for a new bomb.
--
Mark Brader | "If I quoted each [part] that had serious problems,
Toronto | [the author] could sue me for copyright infringement."
| -- Steve Summit

My text in this article is in the public domain.