Buckingham Palace bombed
Royals

ITV documentary ‘Our Queen At War’ explores WWII impact on the Queen

Th Palace came under attack 16 times

New ITV documentary Our Queen At War will explore how the Second World War affected the Queen.

The film, which airs tonight, will revisit the moment Buckingham Palace was bombed during World War II.

Her Majesty’s parents King George and Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother were inside at the time.

But when did the attack happen, where was the Queen and were there any fatalities?

Here’s everything you need to know.

Buckingham Palace
Buckingham Palace was bombed 16 times during World War II (Credit: Cover Images)

When was Buckingham Palace bombed?

During the Second World War, Buckingham Palace and its grounds were attacked 16 times.

Bombs directly hit the palace on nine of these occasions.

On September 13, 1940, King George VI and Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother were in residence when the palace came under attack.

That evening, a single German raider dropped five bombs, two of which exploded in the inner quadrangle.

Second after, a third bomb hit the Royal Chapel in the South Wing, a fourth was dropped on the forecourt and the last fell near the Queen Victoria Memorial.

The Palace was left with significant damage with many of the windows completely shattered.

After surviving the attack, the Queen Mother later said: “I am glad we have been bombed.

“It makes me feel I can look the East End in the face.”

The Queen World War II speech (Credit: Shutterstock)
The Queen and Princess Margaret stayed at Windsor Castle during the war (Credit: Shutterstock)

Where was the Queen?

The Queen and her sister Princess Margaret were not at Buckingham Palace during the attack.

When the war started, the King and Queen sent their daughters to stay at Windsor Castle for safety.

King George and Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother would try to visit their children in Windsor at weekends.

Her Majesty and Princess Margaret were looked after by the royal nanny, Marion Crawford.

Fortunately, Windsor Castle was never bombed during the war.

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Did anyone die when Buckingham Palace was bombed?

During the attack, four royal workers were injured.

One of the Palace employees later died from their injuries.

King George and Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother managed to escape unharmed.

In a letter to her mother-in-law Queen Mary, the Queen Mother described the night of the attacked, recalling the “unmistakable whirr-whirr of a German plane”.

As the aircraft lowered from the skies, she heard “scream of a bomb”.

“It all happened so quickly that we had only time to look foolishly at each other when the scream hurtled past us and exploded with a tremendous crash in the quadrangle,” she added.

Our Queen At War is on ITV at 9pm tonight (April 22.).

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Nancy Brown
Associate Editor