SIXTEEN workers were killed and 30 injured in an air raid on the Ministry of Aircraft Production (BMARCo) factory, Springfield Road.
The sirens sounded at about 2pm, on 27th January 1941 a low-flying Junkers Ju-88 appeared over Hall’s Hill, shadowed by a pair of Hurricanes.
It dropped 14 bombs in the New Beacon Lane area, leaving one dead, eight injured and 20 homeless.
Half-an-hour later it crossed the town towards BMARCo’s.
A secret agent based in the town had informed German High Command the Grantham factory was the sole UK manufacturer of the Hispano Suiza aircraft 20mm cannon – a vital weapon in the air.
Home Guard machine gunners on the factory roof fired into the low cloud where they hear, but could not see, the aircraft, which had circled the factory.
It dropped four bombs on the factory as the gunners opened fire, then disappeared over Hall’s Hill with one engine blazing.
The first bomb landed near Buckminster Gardens damaging 237 buildings and leaving 88 people homeless. The second struck the joiners shop, rolling under a bench and failing to explode. A third hit the factory causing extensive damage and the fourth hit an air raid shelter, killing two workers.
The pilot of the Luftwaffe plane was Oberleutnant Freidrich Rinck who had taken off from Amsterdam.

He had selected BMARCo as his target to celebrate his 100th mission.
The Junkers crashed near Boston, where the four-man crew set fire to their plane before being arrested