The maps below show the location of sites in Newmarket which were bombed:
Composite Images of the Bombing, part of a slide show from Michael Mingay’s website, as displayed at the Newmarket Journal office on 18th February 2021, the 80th anniversary.
Bomb 1. Freeman, Hardy & Willis (shoes), Masonic Club, Hepworths (outfitters) and Home & Colonial (grocers).
Bomb 2. On the Square Library and J.W.Doore (Jeweller)
Bomb 3. Carr (chemist), Hayhoe (fruiterer) and Le Bon Bon (confectioners)
Bomb 4. H.Gilbert (ironmonger) {the fascia board is from the previous owner T.E. Simpson)
and Eaton House… Galloway (tobacconist), Sporting Chronicle, Bryant (dentist) and Sturgess (ladies hairdressers)
Bomb 5. Post Office
Bomb 6. Boots (chemist), Green (hairdressers), A1 Jones (tobacconist)
Bomb 7. White Hart Hotel
Bomb 8. Proctor (florist/fruiterer)
Luckily the Memorial Hall and Doric Cinema are set back from the road and hence bombs 9 and 10 fell harmlessly in front of them.
The same type of bomb, unearthed at Wembley in 2015
Society members with the salvaged piece of one of the bombs once green with red markings
Civilian Casualties
List compiled by NLHS members, Bill Smith, Tony Pringle, Sandra Easom and former committee member David Occomore.
Footnote: Many more people (over 200) were injured during the raid but subsequently recovered. Details of any injured military personnel were not made available because of the information restrictions at the time.
The Bombing of Newmarket – Published August 2011
This is the latest and most comprehensive publication by the Society about Newmarket during World War II. It deals specifically, and in graphic detail, with the events of the 18th of February 1941, a day of infamy in the town’s history.
Update August 2015: At present we have only a vey few copies left for sale but it is hoped to do a reprint at some time in the future. Enquiries can be made to this website address (see Index page).
There have been earlier publications by the Society dealing with the the bombing and the war. In 2000 the booklet ‘One Afternoon in February’ was produced, edited by the then NLHS Vice Chairman, David Occomore, but is now out of print. In 2006 a more general account of the effect of the war on the town appeared in the book ‘When Newmarket Went to War’, a joint effort between David and our present Vice Chair, Sandra Easom.
Now much more written material and photographs have become available, and they have been compiled to produce this impressive A4 size book, solely edited by Sandra. It contains many first-hand memories of that fateful day and is illustrated by a wealth of pictures, many reproduced in colour.