Where did the bombs fall?

[Mastermariner]

London

http://bombsight.org/#17/51.42411/-0.16816

 

Can zoom etc.

Master

[unreasonable]

It is clear from this that the LW orders were to just bung them anywhere inside the M25.

[Mastermariner]

Die pigeons, DIE!

[6./ZG26_Emil]

There was a V1 that hit a house down the road from where I live (South Manchester) when a new neighbour moved in I took great pleasure in telling them of the history and how there was a big crack in the back of their house from the blast....they had it fixed :D

[DB605]

There was one from Helsinki 1944 when russians make few hundred bombings there but map doesen't work anymore. Would like to see similar from Berlin, Dresden etc but i guess it's impossible to do as there were virtually no place where the bombs did not hit.

[taffy2jeffmorgan]

There was a V1 that hit a house down the road from where I live (South Manchester) when a new neighbour moved in I took great pleasure in telling them of the history and how there was a big crack in the back of their house from the blast....they had it fixed :D

South Manchester, V1 ??

[DD_Arthur]

South Manchester, V1 ??

Only if it was launched from Cardiff

Edited April 10, 2015 by DD_Arthur

[AndyJWest]

wow they even bombed parks

 

Given that several London parks were put to military use during the war (e.g. Bushy Park, which housed the European headquarters for the USAAF https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Camp_Griffiss) bombing them might have made sense - though I suspect that in practice the Luftwaffe bombed them because thy were in the general area of the supposed target, and that the bombing was no more accurate than the Allies was. Which is to say, not at all accurate. The RAF called it 'area bombing', which was at least honest. 

[Feathered_IV]

One of my very good friends worked as a handyman while on a backpackers holiday in Britain when he was younger. He had one job making good on a very dodgy/very old repair that was done to a ceiling where the supporting roof timbers met a corner wall. On climbing up into the roof to see what the problem was, they found an unexploded bomb wedged into one of the knees of the trusses.

[unreasonable]

I believe the operations research people analysed the bomb pattern after a few hits on high value targets, and concluded that the aiming point was the docks, and the spread from there was completely random, so the hits were just flukes.

 

The docks make a good aiming point as they were a sensible target in themselves, and relatively easy to find as the river is easier to see than building landmarks especially if you are following it up from the east.

 

Add in English cloudy weather, searchlight dazzle, anti-aircraft fire and a bit of panic and you have the result.

 

Unfortunately they just missed my school.

[6./ZG26_Emil]

Only if it was launched from Cardiff

 

Or a He-111

 

Wipe the egg off your faces chaps

 

http://aircrashsites.co.uk/air-raids-bomb-sites/then-now-v1-flying-bomb-site-stockport/

[DD_Arthur]

 

 

Wipe the egg off your faces chaps

 

http://aircrashsites.co.uk/air-raids-bomb-sites/then-now-v1-flying-bomb-site-stockport/

 

Yep, covered in it!   I knew they air-launched V1's but I'd never heard of this incident.  Thanks for really interesting link Emil

[6./ZG26_Emil]

Here's a map of all the V1s that landed during that campaign. It was a total failure and most landed way off target. In the first link that house is a 5 minute walk from my house, I've often wondered what would happen if you put a metal detector against some of the really old trees near there, would you find fragments?

 

http://aircrashsites.co.uk/air-raids-bomb-sites/luftwaffe-v1-attack-on-manchester-christmas-eve-1944/

[DD_Arthur]

Unfortunately they just missed my school.

 

It seems they did manage to hit mine!

 

http://bombsight.org/bombs/24876/

[MiloMorai]

Bomb map of Hull

http://www.rhaywood.karoo.net/bombmap.htm

 

The RAF had operational AWACs in 1942,

 

The AWAC Wellingtons patrolled off the Dutch coast and vectored Mossie NFs to intercept and shoot down the He111/V-1s.

[DD_Arthur]

What a pointless waste of shrinking resources this raid was.  Manchester? In December '44?  I could understand an increasing attack on Antwerp or another large port or dock area to disrupt allied logistics - especially when the battle of the bulge was on - but north west England, eh?

 

Edit for MiloMorai's post;  again; all that effort against east coast ports?  Strategically pointless.  If they'd concentrated this sort of effort against the bomber airfields of eastern England in a night interdiction campaign they could have caused serious mayhem to  allied strategic bombing .

Edited April 10, 2015 by DD_Arthur

[6./ZG26_Emil]

Also a He-111 was shot down not far from here as well. Again it would be interesting to take a metal detector there (I don't have one and the golfers would probably freak out as well) to see if there was any fragments left. http://www.manchestereveningnews.co.uk/news/author-writes-book-hazel-grove-6745097

 

There's a surprising amount of WW2 history up here considering how far we are from the coast. There are bunkers, tank traps and spigot emplacements to be found if you look hard enough. Manchester was bombed quite a lot during the war and there is also a quite extensive air raid shelter complex in Stockport which is really interesting to see.