Ramsgate town centre — the five-minute raid
24 August 1940 · Ramsgate, Kent
View this record on the map →- Date
- 24 August 1940
- Record type
- Historic bombing area
- Bomb type
- HE
- Casualties
- 31
- Location
- Ramsgate, Kent
- Position accuracy
- Rough area
What happened
The Luftwaffe dropped more than 500 bombs on Ramsgate in roughly five minutes, damaging or destroying some 1,200 houses.
Casualty note
29 civilians and two soldiers killed; ten seriously and forty slightly injured.
Also worth knowing
The town's deep shelter tunnels, completed shortly before, are credited with keeping the death toll far lower than the scale of destruction would suggest — around 300 families later lived in them permanently. Fireman Moore received the George Medal for dragging a wounded colleague to safety under machine-gun fire.