A HAPPY market day crowd in Louth. People going about their every-day business, smiling, chatting. 
Then suddenly screams and terror as a plane dives low over the town and machine guns the crowds. 
Sounds fantastic?  Impossible?

But it happened - on February 19, 1941.
The Second World War came to Louth with a bang that day with an horrific attack on the civilian 
population.  It was late afternoon and market day crowds thronged the main streets waiting for their 
buses home.  No one knew it but high above a solitary enemy plane had decided to target the town.  
Without warning it swooped low over the roof tops and raked the crowds with machine gun fire.

Then came a series of heavy crashes as bombs were dropped.  Several houses and shops in Ramsgate 
sustained damage and some were completely demolished.  People were buried in the ruins and police 
formed a cordon around the devastated area while rescue workers searched for survivors.  Windows 
were shattered over a wide area.  After dropping the bombs the raider made off in the direction of 
the coast.

Police Sergeant Alfred Piggott was a witness to the attack and said the plane was trying to bomb 
the railway station. He said: "There was a train in at the time. One of the bombs skidded down the 
station approach and hit cottages at the top of Ramsgate."

Eight people died including a woman whose body was never found after her shop received a direct hit.

EIGHT people were killed and nine others were badly injured.

Among the dead was Florence Towl who kept a shop.  Her body was never recovered because the 
building sustained a direct hit.  Also killed that day were Robert Graham, 16, George Bradley, 42, 
Peter Donald Arliss, aged just 12 months, Lilian Mary Dannatt, 42, Alice Emerson, 61, Pte Clement 
Lewis Cater, and Susannah Hutton (70).  Crowds lined the streets for the solemn funerals of the raid 
victims. There was a brief respite but Louth was brought into the front line again that year when 
another plane attacked on the night of September 7.  Two high explosive bombs were dropped at the 
top of Grimsby Road.  A house and bungalow were completely destroyed and other houses were badly
damaged, with windows shattered and roofs stripped over a wide area. The enemy fighter twice circled 
the town, at one point swooping low enough to come under machine gun fire.  The raider was fought off 
by British fighter planes and was afterwards brought down in another part of the county.  Seven people 
were killed that night and six others injured.  Mr A W Jaines lost his wife Mary and little daughter 
May and his son John was hospitalised.  Also killed were three members of the Hallett family who were 
staying with Mr and Mrs Jaines, Mrs Jaines' mother Elizabeth Ward, and Emma Timms.  The names of all 
the civilians killed in that fateful year are recorded on the town's War Memorial in Ramsgate.  They 
are a grim reminder of the days the war came to Louth.


The Roll of Honour is in the Town Hall

Peter Douglas ARLISS   12 months
Ella Balnche BIRKBECK
George BRADLEY    42
Lilian Mary DANNATT  42
Alice EMERSON  61
Alfred William FINCH
Robert Michael Leslie GRAHAM     16
Jean HALLETT
Walter HALLETT
Susannah HUTTON  70
Mary JAINES
May Elizabeth JAINES
Emma TIMMS
Florence Gertrude TOWL
Elizabeth WARD
Pte Clement Lewis CARTER

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******* Created 26-April-2006 *******