AN ELDERLY woman has recalled the day the last V2 rocket hit Orpington.

Saturday (March 27) marked the 65th anniversary of when Ivy Millichamp of Kynaston Road, Orpington, was killed when the rocket landed.

Mrs Millichamp, aged 34, was in her kitchen when the explosion happened. Her husband Eric was sitting in the living room and survived the blast but was injured alongside 23 others Lorna Mackenzie lived in Court Road, Orpington and was 17 years old when the blast happened.

Mrs Mackenzie, who now lives in St Paul's Square, Bromley, said: “I was on my way home from work and stopped off in Petts Wood to go to the cinema.

“A message came on the screen telling me I needed to go to the box office and the lady said I needed to go home and at first I thought it was to do with my mum as she was in hospital suffering from a brain tumour.

“I met my father at Orpington Station, his head was covered in bandages. He had been in the kitchen when the blast happened making a cup of tea and the door flew off.

“It ended up saving him a bit as it shielded him from falling rubble.”

The 81-year-old added: “My sister, Evelyn, had severed an artery in her head, it was absolutely horrid and there was blood all over her.”

After the blast the family had to stay in temporary accommodation while their house was rebuilt which took around three months.

The rocket had been launched in The Hague in The Netherlands and was capable of travelling 200 miles.

It was 14m in length and was the 1,115th V2 rocket to be launched.

More than 2,700 people died across London and more than 6,500 people were injured as a result of the rocket during the Second World War.

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