November 1940 a German bomb crashed down direct into The Morning Star Inn, causing in a single explosion Swanscombe's worst wartime disaster. All that was left after the explosion was, where the pub had stood, a "heap of bricks and twisted rafters"¹ surrounding the smouldering pit that had been the cellar, although the staircase leading to the clubroom upstairs extended up out of the wreckage. Distressed families of those known to be in the pub at the time gathered at the street corners awaiting news of the casualties as bodies were gradually recovered from the ruins. The official casualty lists revealed the death toll to be 27, with six others seriously injured and five people slightly hurt. "The landlord was amongst the dead, although his wife and son survived. The barmaid who was killed had given notice the week before the raid but had stayed on that evening because of the match. One of the other victims was a merchant seaman on seven days' leave who had spent two days travelling from Scotland to see his wife and children and was having a drink with his father in the pub at the time of the bombing: both were killed." On 30 July 1940 another Luftwaffe raid led to the death of more than a dozen civilians, with 22 seriously injured. Its proximity to London and position under the German flight path to the city meant that Swanscombe fell victim to this kind of damage several times during the war. On 30 July 1944 a V1 rocket landed on Taunton Road. Half of one side of the road was wiped out. 13 were killed and 22 seriously injured. Governance Swanscombe was originally part of Axstane Hundred and in 1836 also became part of Dartford Poor Law Union. When Dartford Rural District was created in 1894 Swanscombe parish became a member, as did most of the parishes of Axstane, but in 1926 it separated to form its own Urban District. However under Local Government Act 1972 Swanscombe was joined to Dartford District in 1974. Although it lost its Urban District Council the area continued as a Civil Parish, now under the aegis of Dartford Borough Council, and in 1981 Swanscombe Parish Council was upgraded to Swanscombe and Greenhithe Town Council, thus electing its own mayor for the first time. The name recognises the importance of the settlement of Greenhithe within the parish.