Bombing of Sandhurst Road School

[1] The German attack was part of a raid by 28 Focke-Wulf Fw 190A-4U3 fighter-bombers escorted by Messerschmitt Bf 109 fighters, which took off at noon from an airfield in German-occupied France.

[citation needed] Due to inefficiencies of the warning system, the air raid siren had not sounded by the time the German planes arrived.

[4][2] In the same raid four barrage balloon sites were destroyed in Lewisham, a large gas holder in Sydenham was set alight, a Deptford power station suffered three direct hits, and the President's House at the Royal Naval College, Greenwich sustained damage.

It was noted that local Civil Defence services arrived at the school quickly and special thanks were made to volunteers, the Heavy Rescue Squads, REME soldiers billeted at St Dunstan's College and Canadian forces from Bromley Wood.

[citation needed] Some issues were raised about how the police were unable to control parents at the school digging for their children, but given the nature of the incident this was noted to have been virtually impossible to stop.