Bombsight.org - Londoners, did your street get bombed?

jessmum · 07/12/12 - 13:57

Interesting website now up and running showing locations of all the bombs dropped over London during the blitz.

Have a looky!

www.bombsight.org

[Deleted User] · 07/12/12 - 13:59

Interesting site; currently experiencing a "high load" though so I'll try again in a little while

solenoid · 07/12/12 - 14:18

I've found my nan's road where she lived during the war. She said her windows were smashed from a bomb explosion yet the nearest bombs that fell were a road away.

They must have had some power!

[Deleted User] · 07/12/12 - 14:22

Where I grew up we lived in a block of modern 1960s red-brick semi-detached houses, whereas all the other houses on the street were old fashioned Victorian townhouse affairs that had been converted into 3 or 4 flats.

Always speculated that a WW2 bomb had landed on our block and nice to have it confirmed. Fascinating and a little creepy. One tends to think it was just central London and the Docklands that got it bad - the whole of London is absolutely covered in red dots.

Steve35 · 07/12/12 - 14:29

solenoid wrote: »

I've found my nan's road where she lived during the war. She said her windows were smashed from a bomb explosion yet the nearest bombs that fell were a road away.

They must have had some power!

They're bombs!:rolleyes:;)

Keiō Line · 07/12/12 - 14:33

Wish it was a "wiki" where people could add their stories.

On my old road a bomb fell destroying four houses (now six houses). No one was killed, but several years after the war ended a child was killed playing in the ruins when a wall collapsed on him. Together with other fatalities in similar circumstances it served as a catalyst for clearing up all bomb sites in the late 1950s

In the outer areas you can see lines of bombs being dropped as the bombers flew over.

Would be nice to find out why some apparently innocuous areas were bombed several times (clustering). Wonder what was there.

Apple_Crumble · 07/12/12 - 14:36

I wonder if they will do a UK one? That would be interesting, though I imagine it would take a lot of research.

Just looking at the map - there seems to have been three bombs dropped in the vicinity of Redlibbets Golf Club, which is east of London. Anyone know the story behind that?

Croctacus · 07/12/12 - 14:39

Mine didn't because during the war this was all fields, well apple orchards. The houses here were built at the end of the war.

21stCenturyBoy · 07/12/12 - 14:42

No, but the next street was bombed.

You'd have though they'd have gone all out targeting my area because even then it was a centre of the UK Jewish community!

Keiō Line · 07/12/12 - 14:50

21stCenturyBoy wrote: »

No, but the next street was bombed.

You'd have though they'd have gone all out targeting my area because even then it was a centre of the UK Jewish community!

I think they did target synagogues, but only when they were returning from their targets with bombs left.(they also targeting churches and other community buildings in this way)

solenoid · 07/12/12 - 14:54

Compared to the US bombers near the end of the war German bombers were very inaccurate.
And even the US bombers were inaccurate compared to modern cruise missiles. Which can also go awry.

soulboy77 · 07/12/12 - 15:32

There's a lot missimg. I know the bombed sites around where I use to live and they are not marked.

CLL Dodge · 07/12/12 - 15:47

Sorry, we are experiencing a high load at present. Please try again later.

Tourista · 07/12/12 - 16:35

soulboy77 wrote: »

There's a lot missimg. I know the bombed sites around where I use to live and they are not marked.

Just realised that this is a "blitz" list. It doesnt cover the damage to my house as it was damaged in 43 according to the lady who used to live there.

The blast wrecked part of the back wall, and it was rebuilt using the shattered brick rubble. We only knew the lady was telling the truth when we had the bathroom replastered, and wondered why the wall didnt seem quite right and didnt have a whole lot of full bricks.

The council wasnt much help, as many of the work orders for repairing the damage during the period were destroyed in the 50's.

ClarkF1 · 07/12/12 - 16:45

A cluster of bombs fell round the corner. Not mentioned on the map though. Blew the school windows out apparently.

V2 just up the road in '45 damaged 2000 houses including mine. Not got a straight door-frame in the house

Arcana · 07/12/12 - 16:49

There's a little red dot right over what is now my apartment block.

I think there was a 'children's home' on this site before they built the apartments in the 90s but I don't know what use the building had during the war.

bobbyd · 07/12/12 - 17:05

Keiō Line wrote: »

Wish it was a "wiki" where people could add their stories.

On my old road a bomb fell destroying four houses (now six houses). No one was killed, but several years after the war ended a child was killed playing in the ruins when a wall collapsed on him. Together with other fatalities in similar circumstances it served as a catalyst for clearing up all bomb sites in the late 1950s

In the outer areas you can see lines of bombs being dropped as the bombers flew over.

Would be nice to find out why some apparently innocuous areas were bombed several times (clustering). Wonder what was there.

There's quite a few stories here ...

http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/ww2peopleswar/categories/

Keith_13 · 07/12/12 - 17:42

Our office building was destroyed, the facade was reinstated with a modern office behind. The bomb on the site is exactly located.

[Deleted User] · 07/12/12 - 17:47

No, but the school just around the corner was bombed. That was my school a long time ago, and there's a plaque in memory of all the students and teachers who lost their lives in the bombing.

[Deleted User] · 07/12/12 - 18:03

I think almost everyone has gotten bombed.

fat controller · 07/12/12 - 18:45

Anyone else able to see the wee red dots, but not able to get the info about the bombs? I take it that its simply a website load problem?

Ads · 07/12/12 - 18:46

Apparently there was a bomb right a the end of my road. Its a really interesting site

valkay · 07/12/12 - 19:00

I remember visiting London during the 1960s and the area around St Pauls was still all bomb sites. It seemed that Britain took much longer to rebuild after the war than the rest of Europe.

swingaleg · 07/12/12 - 20:03

The street I lived in during the 70s was bombed during the First World War by Zeppelin..............:eek:

phylo_roadking · 07/12/12 - 20:15

I wonder if they will do a UK one? That would be interesting, though I imagine it would take a lot of research.

London's far "easier", for the material is culled from a relatively small number of crosscheckable sources - Fire Service records, Police records etc.

In the outer areas you can see lines of bombs being dropped as the bombers flew over.

A "stick" of bombs....most Blitz era German bombers couldn't control the numbers of bombs dropped when the bombardier pressed the "tit"...but they would be travelling at 150mph plus when it happened...so the bombs fell in a line...

Would be nice to find out why some apparently innocuous areas were bombed several times (clustering). Wonder what was there.

Honestly? Usually NO real reason at all

Crews would be briefed on certain strategic objectives for London - the Imperial Docks, power stations, railway stations etc....but after a couple of weeks, once they switched to night bombing, all bets were off. Usually a bomb aimer would simply aim at the heart of the nearest biggest fire :eek: Then get the hell outta Dodge. But they were supposed to try and obtain various targets by reference to bends in the Thames, bridges etc....land/water boundaries being the one thing that shows up very well from altitude.

swingaleg · 07/12/12 - 20:17

Apparently in Liverpool they homed in on the chip shops...........

Hey there!

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