Broad Weir, Old Market
28 August 1942 · Bristol, Bristol
View this record on the map →- Date
- 28 August 1942
- Record type
- Historic bombing site
- Bomb type
- HE
- Location
- Bristol, Bristol
- Position accuracy
- Confirmed event, street-derived point
What happened
A single Luftwaffe bomber attacking in daylight scored a chance hit on buses standing at Broad Weir, near the corner of Philadelphia Street. Fire spread through the vehicles, and the incident is widely described as the largest loss of life caused by one bomb in Bristol during the war.
Casualty note
Deliberately left blank. Published figures for this incident range from five killed and 24 injured to 45 killed, and this site has not been able to resolve the difference from a source it trusts.
Also worth knowing
The casualty figure is genuinely disputed rather than merely uncertain: Bristol24/7 reports 45 killed, while other local accounts give five killed and 24 injured. Both cannot be right, and no figure is asserted here until a reliable source settles it. Wikipedia's Bristol Blitz article does not cover the incident at all.