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We saw the Nazi pilot wave at us - then he bombed our school: Survivors remember in the day the Luftwaffe massacred 38 pupils at a London school

By Amanda Cable

Last updated at 10:00 PM on 04th September 2009

Spirits were high at Sandhurst Road School in Catford, south London at 12.30pm on Wednesday, 20 January 1943, and for good reason.
Younger pupils tucked happily into their lunch in the dining room, while an excited group of older children prepared for a trip to the theatre.
Many of the older girls had been cooking that morning and were looking forward to showing their efforts to their mothers back at home.
Rescue workers at the bombed Sandhurst Road School in Catford, where 32 children and six staff were killed

Meanwhile, in the playground, a little girl aged around seven skipped merrily by herself. When she heard the roar of an engine overhead, she stopped and waved, assuming the swooping plane was an RAF bomber.

The pilot waved back and she turned her sweet little face upwards in a smile.

She probably never had time to spot the swastikas under the wing, before German pilot Hauptmann Heinz Schumann sliced her down with a round of machine-gun fire.
Turning his plane, he swooped again, pressed the bomb release on his Fokker-Wolf FW 190A-4 and dropped a 1,100lb bomb right into the heart of the school building.

In the resulting horror, 32 children and six staff were killed; 60 others were hurt, many buried for hours under the rubble and suffering from devastating injuries.

Six children later died in hospital, while hundreds of parents hunted desperately for their missing children in the chaos.
The sweet-faced girl who skipped in the playground seconds before her death was never identified - but the bombing became one of the most notorious and tragic incidents of World War II.

I was stunned today when viewing the main picture of the rescuers, as the policeman at the front of the picture was my father edward watkins sergeant at near by lady well police station, he was first on the scene whilst cycling home from work, he found dead children sitting at their desks whilst frantically searching for my eldest sister who should have been there ,but she had just left with my mother to visit the dentist .He continued to dig with his bare hands through rubble in search of the victims of the bomb ,the whole experiance changed my fathers personality forever and our family life was never the same again .My mother i remember telling me that the aircraft made a roof top high first run and she could clearly see the pilot ,the second run dropped the bomb.He also returned and straiffed the play ground.
- lawrence watkins, dereham, norfolk, 05/9/2009 21:09