This on the local ITV news, a estimated 500lb Bomb washed up on Felixstowe beach at the weekend. Navy bomb disposal from Portsmouth are oon the scene. Anglia - News - In-depth news and features for the East of England
Teehee, yesterday one end of Biddulph in staffordshire, the town i was working in at the time, was closed off as some numpty had deposited a live round and grenade from WW2 at the recycling centre.
Makes you wonder where the 500 pounder came from. Was it a dud that was dropped or jettisoned or has it broken loose from a wreck? I would have thought the latter if in shallower water? Kitty, your numpty almost deserves wally of the week.
Wwii Shell Found At Waste Site (from Congleton Guardian) * How do the know? A 20mm, without proper identification of the base, could mean anything
The bomb was initially thought to have been of US origin and was reported as such on local TV. When I contacted the Beeb with info from wartime Police records on a USAAF B-24 dropping an HE bomb off Felixstowe in Dec 1944, I was told it had subsequently been identified as a German 500 kg missile. Felixstowe suffered two low-level attacks from FW 190s of SKG.10, on 15 May and 2 June 1943, and both raids resulted in bombs 'bouncing' at low-level and at least three bombs on land were UXB's. The bomb found on the beach was almost certainly dropped in one of these raids. BC
I grew up in an area of London where several surrounding streets were partially bombed (our playgrounds). I tried for ages to find out when the bombs were dropped and what casualties resulted but had very little success. When you all quote information on bombing raids where are you getting it from? Or more correctly, to what are you referring for the information?
Unfortunately, Nana, there is no simple answer. It is a case of slogging through lots of books, web pages, and old newspapers hoping that an area one is interested in is mentioned. The obviously larger raids are often well researched but not every air-raid. However, if you would like to PM the area(s) that you are interested in I'll see what can be found - no promises though
Good answer, Kyt. Most of the London boroughs obviously took a pasting right through the war, beginning with the big raid on the docks on 7 Sept 1940, on through the big night raids of April and May 1941, further night raids from January 1943, occasional daylight FW 190 raids, the 'Baby Blitz' in 1944, and finally the V-1s and V-2s which hit the city right up until 27 Mar 1945. One way of trying to find pointers to raid dates is to check the CWGC Civilian RoH for casualties in the borough concerned. As you say, some areas were far more thorough-going in their attention to detail when it came to reporting details of raids. In some of the most badly-hit areas, when it became apparent that heavy raiding and casualties on this scale would continue, a degree of generalisation and approximating of casualties became inevitable. Also, if any 'key point' (war work factories, etc) targets in the borough were affected by enemy action, there should be a record of it. East Suffolk is very lucky in that we have quite detailed Police reports on enemy action and air crashes in WW 2, and as we had nothing like the scale of enemy air activity the SE and London area had, most raids are well covered. BC
Would I be right in thinking that local papers would be very circumspect in reporting the extent of damage or number of casualties to avoid the information being of use to the enemy. In actual fact this line of enquiry closed fairly rapidly because the local paper, as I knew it, no longer exists and nobody seemed to know where any of the archived material might have been sent! Incidentally my husband's claim to fame is that he was blown off of his potty in the January 1943 raids! Marked for life I think!!!!!
It now seems that the Navy team have lost the Bomb. BBC NEWS | England | More delays to detonate bomb
Spot on. I still receive enquiries about raids and WW 2 aircraft crashes, and the enquirers seem very perplexed and occasionally disgrunted because they have been unable to find any ref whatsoever to individual incidents in the wartime local press ! Whereas pictures of German and Italian aircraft losses were published without delay to boost home morale, Allied air crashes were only occasionally mentioned if there was damage to property or casualties on the ground. Censorship of pictures showing raid damage verged on the ridiculous at times; I have a couple of pictures showing the Police Station in Lowestoft, damaged by bombs in a night raid in May 1941, and the censor deleted a coat of arms between two windows on the building for fear the enemy would recognise it ! BC
Locals think that they just dropped a charge over the side and exploded it, just to save face. Rumour has it, that the Bomb will be washed up again next week.
