14 replies to this topic

[mab01uk]

Just discovered a bomb fell in my back garden during the London Blitz.........

 

"The Bomb Sight project is mapping the London WW2 bomb census between 7/10/1940 and 06/06/1941. Previously available only by viewing in the Reading Room at The National Archives, Bomb Sight is making the maps available to citizen researchers, academics and students. They will be able to explore where the bombs fell and to discover memories and photographs from the period.

The project has scanned original 1940s bomb census maps , geo-referenced the maps and digitally captured the geographical locations of all the falling bombs recorded on the original map."

http://bombsight.org...51.5050/-0.0900

 

[Ethel]

[Ealing/Shepperton German accent]Ah very interestink [/Ealing/Shepperton German accent]
 
Anyone giggling at the idea of a bomb census.
 
"Have you, or a member of your family, been bombed in the last 30 days?"

[minimans]

My primary school was a new post war build on the site of a bomb blast on Brandlehow road in Putney. I was always told it was an aerial mine as the whole block was flattened but on this map it just shows as a HE bomb. a HE bomb landed across the street from our house on Fawe park. But looking at that map I guess anyone living in London had a bomb land within arms length!

Both my parents were kids during the war but were not evacuated like it seems a lot of kids were, My dad would talk about it sometimes if pressed but Mum would never say a word about it. I rather think dad thought it was an exiting time rather than scary, he said you got used to it in the end and after a couple of weeks you hadn't died or been injured they just got on with it....................Strange times indeed.

Edited by minimans, 19 October 2017 - 12:57 AM.

[pusb]

I wish they would do something like this for the rest of the country, be interesting to see how close my house got to being bombed. In the war the Jaguar, Alvis, Dunlop and Daimler factories were all within a few miles of my house so must have been plenty of bombs dropped close by.

[peterh2]

PUSB

 

I've just read Coventry Thursday, 14 November 1940 by Frederick Taylor. Very sombre reading. I did my apprentiship with Massey Ferguson in what had been the big shadow factory in Banner Lane.

[Cooperman]

I recall that as a small child during WW2 we had one window pane which was cracked by a bomb which landed about 1/2 a mile away and killed a mother and daughter whilst the husband/father was at work.

 

One other thing I remember from when I was almost 5 was being taken out to see a street-lamp lit up for the first time after the blackout regulations ended. I was born and lived in St. Albans.

[andy159]

I wish they would do something like this for the rest of the country, be interesting to see how close my house got to being bombed. In the war the Jaguar, Alvis, Dunlop and Daimler factories were all within a few miles of my house so must have been plenty of bombs dropped close by.

 yep im in nuneaton and there were quite a few over here too, im not sure if nuneaton was used as a bit of a decoy to save coventry

[Ethel]

I grew up in the 60's &70's, even then the war featured heavily in comics and games. We had an abandoned AA battery site to play on too.

 

Makes you wonder how much evidence is left. I know there are still scars on the V&A. I suppose it's knowing where to look, that map explains an usual sunken area on a bit of park I'd noticed.

[pusb]

 

I wish they would do something like this for the rest of the country, be interesting to see how close my house got to being bombed. In the war the Jaguar, Alvis, Dunlop and Daimler factories were all within a few miles of my house so must have been plenty of bombs dropped close by.

 yep im in nuneaton and there were quite a few over here too, im not sure if nuneaton was used as a bit of a decoy to save coventry

 

 

There's quite a bit of detail on the Nuneaton bombings:

 

https://www.nnwfhs.o...-the-bombs-fell

[andy159]

 

 

I wish they would do something like this for the rest of the country, be interesting to see how close my house got to being bombed. In the war the Jaguar, Alvis, Dunlop and Daimler factories were all within a few miles of my house so must have been plenty of bombs dropped close by.

 yep im in nuneaton and there were quite a few over here too, im not sure if nuneaton was used as a bit of a decoy to save coventry

 

 

There's quite a bit of detail on the Nuneaton bombings:

 

https://www.nnwfhs.o...-the-bombs-fell

 

oh thanks for that

[mab01uk]

Found this story of a V2 Doodle Bug which hit a residential road in Surrey in 1944..............

 

In the far corner of Cuddington cemetery are a row graves of civilian war dead of World War 2 - including a family of three - all killed on or shortly after 16th June 1944.

A little web searching unearthed an eyewitness account of the event in Worcester Park, Surrey when a V2 'doodlebug' was brought down by ack-ack fire destroying a number of houses in Caldbeck Avenue:

"FRIDAY 16TH JUNE 1944 was a day just like any other; it was bright and warm and I was either on holiday from school or it was after school.

Like most of the other houses at our end of the street we had a brick built air raid shelter in the back garden, not too far away from the back door.

It must have been just before 9:30 PM when the siren sounded. The routine was mechanical - get up, dressing gown or a coat and slippers and shoes and off to the shelter. Our house was end of terrace and we would go downstairs out the back door around the side of the house and across the road to our neighbour's shelter. On this occasion, as we went out of the back door my mother said "let's use our shelter, we've cleared it out and it might only be a short raid"

There were five of us; my mother carrying my baby sister of just four months wrapped in a shawl; my father shepherding all of us; my brother and myself. My brother caused a flap by going back into the house to find the cat but my father got him back in the shelter.

As we ranged ourselves across the seats that were across the back of our now tidy shelter we could hear the drone of what turned out to be a V2 or doodlebug. I can see my father now standing in the doorway of the shelter hands against the wall on either side to balance himself and bending his knees as he sank down to maintain his view of the bomb that he could clearly see coming straight for us. He turned and leaped across the shelter and threw himself across us.

I can remember banging my head against the wall, probably the result of my father trying to shield us from the blast, but that was all. The noise must have been tremendous but I didn't hear a thing. The incredible thing was we were alright. My father had a cut on his knee (but not in his trousers!) and I had banged my head, but that was all.

When we collected ourselves we came out of the shelter and round the side of what was left of the house, into the road. The bomb had landed in the middle of the road.

Apparently it had been hit by ack ack fire which had tipped it up so that it hadn't fallen to the ground but had literally dived in creating a massive crater. On both sides of the road was utter devastation; houses closest to the point of impact were just reduced to piles of rubble whilst for those further away it was as if some giant hand had torn the fronts off them and then attempted to gouge out what was inside. Contents of bedrooms were being spewed out into the street as the unsupported floors gradually caved in.

Fires had started from fractured gas mains and the cries of trapped people could be heard some seriously trapped under piles of masonry, others safe but unable to get out from under the stairs - the under stairs cupboard having become an all too popular "shelter".

There was an all pervading smell in the air which remained as one of my most vivid memories - I don't know what it was but I think it may have been stale air that was released when the buildings were destroyed. The houses were fronted by dwarf walls many of which had survived but had been blown over; for some reason I found this amusing.

By now anxious friends and relatives had started to arrive and also the emergency services. We were whisked away. Of our friends and neighbours 10 were killed and over 40 injured - it was not a day just like any other after all.

About a week later, week I watched a funeral in Worcester Park that included a number of little white coffins - they were my friends."

http://www.worcester...2/air-raid.html

 

Blitz Spirit

http://www.worcester...itz-spirit.html

 

(WW2 People's War is an online archive of wartime memories contributed by members of the public and gathered by the BBC. The archive can be found at bbc.co.uk/ww2peopleswar)

Edited by mab01uk, 20 October 2017 - 07:36 PM.

[minimans]

It must have been a V1 not a V2, the doodlebug was a V1 and could be heard before impact. The V2 was a super sonic rocket that was only heard after the impact.

[mab01uk]

Yes my mum used to say they listened for the V1 doodle bug engines in the air raid shelter hoping it did not cut out before it had passed overhead......

[mk3 Cooper S]

PUSB

 

I've just read Coventry Thursday, 14 November 1940 by Frederick Taylor. Very sombre reading. I did my apprentiship with Massey Ferguson in what had been the big shadow factory in Banner Lane.

I drove up Banner lane today. The Massey factory is a housing estate now :-(

[minifreek1]

My Grandad was stationed in London with the RAF Regiment (1st intake), and he manned a Bofors Gun and would shoot down V1's. When they first started to come over, he and his crew shot down 1 of the first, they all dived down to claim a shell from the gun. Obviously they didnt know which shell shot the V1 down, but they all claimed it was theirs LOL

 

He was there during the blitz, obviously survived... lived until I was 12 in 1983.... he was 70.

 

I still have 1 of the 2 shells he brought home....