Tuesday 19th December 1944

The Hoffmann Manufacturing Company was established in Chelmsford in 1898. Established by cousins Geoffrey and Charles Barrett and bankrolled by American ball bearing machine manufacturer Ernst Gustav Hoffmann from whom the Company took its name, the company rapidly expanded and soon achieved worldwide fame for their precision-made bearings boasting accuracy better than 1/10,000 of an inch (2.5 micrometres) for all their products.

Hoffmann bearings were later used in the first transatlantic flights and extensively on machinery during World War I. For many years it was Chelmsford's main employer with more employees than the nearby Marconi Company.

Hoffmann bearings were later used in the first transatlantic flights and extensively on machinery during World War I. For many years it was Chelmsford's main employer with more employees than the nearby Marconi Company. They also supplied all the major motor manufacturers including Rolls Royce, Bentley, Daimler, Austin, Riley and many more.

Hoffmann also supplied the Aircraft Industry throughout both World War 1 and World War 2. Standard types of bearings were usually suitable for most aircraft needs.
During World War II the factory was a key target for attack and was attacked from the air on several occasions.

At 1.28 a.m. on 19th December 1944 a German V-2 rocket fell close to Hoffmann's works in Chelmsford, causing the town’s greatest loss of life from a single wartime incident.

Official figures put the total fatalities of the V-2 incident at 39 dead and 138 injured, including 47 seriously. Thirty of the dead were workers on the night shift at Hoffmann’s, including ten men, nineteen women and one unidentified body, the majority killed in the fire that the rocket started. Nine others died in Henry Road.

A memorial service was held at Chelmsford Cathedral four days later for the victims of the V-2 rocket. It attracted a large congregation including representatives and survivors from Hoffmann’s, the Home Guard, Police, Civil Defence Services and local dignitaries.

On 29th December 1944 nineteen of those killed at the factory, including the unidentified person, were buried in a communal grave at Chelmsford Borough Cemetery with the service conducted by the Provost of Chelmsford Cathedral, the Very Rev. W. E. R. Morrow.

On Friday 5th January 1945 the Essex Chronicle reported:

"In one grave, V-Bomb victims lie side by side. Profoundly moving were the scenes in the cemetery of a town in Southern England, when victims of a recent V-bomb incident were buried side by side in one grave.
Crowds of people gathered outside the cemetery gates. The long procession to the grave was headed by the local Salvation Army, which plated appropriate music at slow march. The standard-bearer carried the 'Army' flag, which was surmounted by white ribbon streamers. Most of the mourners carried flowers. Bereaved mothers had to be supported by friends.
The band played 'Promoted to Glory'. Facing the procession as it approached the grave was a flagstaff with the Union Jack at half-mast. There were Union Jacks, too, on the walls of the grave.

The mourners gathered around the grave, facing and close to the surpliced clergy. The band, on a grass 'island' near by, had ceased playing. Away in the distance an aircraft wove a vapour trail in the sky. The winter sun cast a slanting ray across the green-covered bank. Then from the Rector came the words of the Burial Service: 'I am the resurrection and the life, saith the Lord; he that believeth in Me, though he were dead, yet shall he live.....". Prayers followed. Then a few homely words to the sorrowing ones: - We are proud of them. We shall not forget their sacrifice. They thought not of themselves. We commend them to God's loving care....and He too will comfort you who sorrow.

Then the voice of a Roman Catholic priest, and the responses of his curates. More prayers; and finally the Benediction.

The mourners began to move slowly around the grave. They dropped flowers on the coffins. Softly the band started to play again. Men as well as women wept openly. A lad in khaki and another in R.A.F. blue supported a woman by the arms. And the pilgrimage went on, while the clergy went to console little groups of mourners."

On the second anniversary of the incident a memorial garden was dedicated by the Chelmsford Cathedral Provost at the communal grave in the Borough Cemetery, designed by a member of Hoffmann’s’ staff. Memorial services were also held at Chelmsford Cathedral and London Road Congregational Church and a memorial plaque to the victims was unveiled in the factory’s canteen. The memorial garden includes the following inscription:

"This garden is dedicated to the memory of 29 employees of the Hoffmann Manufacturing Company Limited, 19 of whom lie in this grave, who were killed by enemy action on 19th December 1944; and to the memory of 7 employees who were killed by enemy action on 19th July 1942 and 19th October 1942. They shall remind faith the Lord of hosts in that day when I make up my jewels."

Joyce Dorothy Philibrown was one of the workers who was killed on that night and whose body was interred in Chelmsford Cemetery. Joyce was born in 1920, the daughter of Albert Harry Phillibrown and Alice Catherine Phillibrown. Her father died in 1940, and by 1944 Joyce was living with her mother at 7 Little End, Stanford Rivers. Her name appears on the war memorial in St Margaret’s church, Stanford Rivers.