Bethnal Green Tube Disaster

Let me take you back to the second world war
A time of great valour a time of folklore
To a place in the eastend they call bethnal green
Battle scarred by the blitz
Can you picture the scene?
There's a tube station all londoners know
It's between barmey park and paradise row
It was used as a shelter by families all around
When the siren gave the warning
They'd go underground

I've heard people say
It was a terrible place
The conditions were dire
But these were desperate days
To risk disaster on top
Or disease down below
Better to sleep with the devil you know

For my dear mother's life
A shoe was the cost
For the want of a step
Two hundred were lost
News had gone around
The germans had a new bomb
Rocket powered it would soon come
That night the sirens had called them to the tube

Worrying 'bout bombs and rockets
As they queued frightened by a strange sound
The crowd began to run
It was only a new anti-aircraft gun
But once panic sets in and fear runs wild
There's no hope for man, woman nor child

Some talk of lost lovers or of losing a friend
Some talk of the bodies laid end to end
Brothers and sisters whole families gone
Not one of them were killed by a bomb
When war is done and they count the cost
On nineteen steps two hundred were lost