32 people were killed and 41 injured – half of them seriously,in an air raid in 1942. The pictures here show Stuart Street.
More than 600 properties were damaged, 20 demolished and 80 needed extensive repairs.
More than 500 people were left homeless.
Most casualties were in Stuart Street, hit by two high explosive bombs.
The sirens sounded at 9.30pm when two German bombers were spotted. When the planes dropped flares, it was said to be like daytime.
Several houses in Dudley Road and others in the Uplands Drive area were damaged by firepot incendiary bombs.
The first two high-explosive bombs were believed to be targeting Bomber Command HQ at St Vincent’s but one fell in the road in Bridge Street and the other in Stuart Street.
The second was the more serious. An air raid shelter took a direct hit and was demolished together with a score of homes, killing 20 people.
The next batch fell in the Uplands Drive area, scoring direct hits on four Ermine Close homes. An eye witness in Stuart Street said when emergency services arrived, the scene of devastation was bathed in the weird light of the moon.
He said: “Dust, glass and bricks were scattered randomly with bleeding, mutilated bodies, limbs no longer attached and unrecognisable pieces of human bodies lying everywhere.
“The air was rent with the cries and screams of the injured victims and the shouts of rescuers.”
Builders were taken off the Beeden Park building site to dig extra graves for the casualties.
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