The Borough suffered heavily from bombing in World War 2 and from 1940 to 1944, 890 alerts were sounded, 384 people were injured by enemy action and 33 killed. There were more than 200 incidents with 12,234 houses slightly damaged, 413 devastated and 192 destroyed, while thousands of incendiary and anti-personnel bombs were dropped with 440 high explosives, 64 oil and 30 flying bombs falling on the Borough.