Nunhead Lane V1 rocket In memory of the 24 people who died from a V1 missile strike at this site on 22 June 1944 {Main panel:} At 8.50 am on Thursday 22 June 1944 a V1 missile or 'Doodlebug' hit a factory on this site killing 24 people, mostly teenage girls. The factory building comprised of (sic) three large Georgian houses converted into a corset factory. The workers in this factory were making silk parachutes for the war effort. Most of the fatalities were sheltering in a bomb shelter in the rear garden. When the factory took a direct hit it collapsed upon the shelter, trapping the people taking cover there. Initially the buried survivors could be heard singing, but by the time they were dug out all had perished. London's summer of 1944 became known as the 'Doodlebug Summer' when, starting on 13 June, a series of new missiles were launched towards the capital; the Germans last desperate and ill-fated effort to turn the tide of the Second World War.
