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Give that man a medal. Top work Matt. That one in Notting Hill maybe had a lighter warhead. SE London definetly got the worst of it
Posted 42 months ago.
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Wow. Great work, Matt.
I don't yet know of easily accessible sources outside of the LCC area.
Middlesex County Council produced similar maps, which are at the London Metropolitan Archives, but they are not annotated, so I'm guessing at the significance of colouring. I was wondering whether the hand-drawn circle was a rocket strike:
[http://www.flickr.com/photos/yersinia/3060492631/]
There are also incident reports for both MCC and LCC areas at the LMA, but I haven't got anything as (relatively) easy to work with as these LCC maps
This site is great for information on rockets falling in South London:
www.flyingbombsandrockets.com/statsbypostcode.html
It does go further than the LCC area in the South - to far-flung Penge and Croydon, for example.
Posted 42 months ago.
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Cheers guys. I'll do a bit more poking around, add some more annotation, then post the map on Londonist in the new year. I'll point back to this group - hopefully pull a few more members in.
Posted 42 months ago.
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@sarf - certainly SE London was badly hit, but the distribution on the map is slightly misleading due to the boundary of the LCC.
They controlled a lot of suburban SE London, but only the central area elsewhere, and I would imagine that Essex / London E of the river Lee must have had a significant number of hits.
Posted 42 months ago.
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In Leytonstone (outside the LCC boundary) there was a V2 impact on Lemna Road which killed 8. There was also another hit at the junction of Harvey Road and Mornington road, killing four (The site is now flats. I live nearby so I'll try and get up there with my camera if we ever have any decent weather again) and another in Leyspring Road which killed two.
In Leyton there was a V2 hit at Albert Road which also damaged Murchison and Claude roads (which had already suffered a Zeppelin attack in WW1).
This site www.wansteadpark.org.uk/war.htm has some sketch maps of impact sites of 'Flying Bombs' and 'Long Range Rockets' (presumably V1s and V2s) as well as the impact points of HE bombs, oil bombs and parachute mines.
Originally posted 42 months ago.
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Tsingtao edited this topic 42 months ago.
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The London Borough of Redbridge (Ilford, Gants Hill, Wanstead, Woodford) has an incident map in its collection which has all High Explosive, Oil Bombs, Mines and V1/V2 hits.
That would make an interesting addition to your map.
Posted 42 months ago.
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Thanks for all your help, guys. I spent a few more hours trawling through web sites and books for further hits. The updated map has been posted on Londonist: londonist.com/2009/01/london_v2_rocket_sitesmapped.php
If any of you use Digg, I'd be cock-a-hoop if you could give this the thumbs up: digg.com/world_news/London_V2_Rocket_Sites_Mapped/who
Posted 41 months ago.
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Cheers Matt.
Tom's application is fab, too.
Posted 41 months ago.
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I've got a copy of "The War in Walthamstow", a booklet produced by the borough council just after the war that shows a dozen or so V2 strikes that aren't on your map! Not sure the best way to update you, meanwhile I'm adding them to my own googlemap
Posted 41 months ago.
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Tim - I couldn't find any data for Walthamstow, so that info would be wonderful to have. If you either point me to your google map, or send through location descriptions to i.am.mattbrown - at - gmail.com, I'd be enormously grateful and add them to the main map.
Posted 40 months ago.
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Managed to contact Matt, but I can't see how to embed a URL here!
I've copied the relevant text from the document.... some of it very moving IMO. I'm surprised how many there were in such a small area, and thats only the V2's I've details for the V1's and conventional too.
Originally posted 40 months ago.
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tim50stroud edited this topic 40 months ago.
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I recently saw a History Channel programme on the British war time double agent Eddie Chapman or Agent Zig Zag. One of his greatest achivements was that while in London after Operation Overlord he had been sent there by the Germans to report on the accuracy of the V1. He repeatedly told the Germans that the flying bombs were overshooting central London when in fact they were undershooting. Maybe as a result of his disinformation, the Germans never corrected their aim, with the end result that the bombs landed in south London, doing far less damage than they otherwise would have done.
He was a safe cracker before the war, a friend of the Krays and unbelievably brave. The Germans believed everything he said and rewarded him with the Iron Cross or so he said. A real hero
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eddie_Chapman
Originally posted 39 months ago.
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sarflondondunc (a group admin) edited this topic 39 months ago.
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Hi Matt
Great work on the V2 map. I have a book called Red Alert-South East London 1939-1945. It details air attacks in SE London including V1 and V2 sites. It may list further details of some of the sites you have shown but not filled in casualties etc.
After a quick skip through, I found the entry that you list as Rochester way but correctly show the location as Dairsie Road on the map. The book states the following:
“Dairsie Road (They spell it Dairsee), off Rochester Way where south east London’s first V2 rocket descended on the morning of 14 September 1944 killing or injuring over ninety people. Numbers 130-138 were wrecked, but being modern homes they were restored to their previous condition”. (These houses were built circa 1938-39; my parents live in the next street).
Posted 39 months ago.
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Cheers True Londoner. Yes, I've heard about that book, and another that reportedly lists all known strikes and fatalities. All my research has been internet based and I'm lacking about half the known V2 hits (mostly in East London). Thanks for the additional info about the Dairsie Rd hit.
Posted 39 months ago.
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hi matt this is great stuff, have you thought of mapping all the v1 flying bomb hits? that would be excellent.
Posted 32 months ago.
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Looking at your map I never knew that a V2 landed in London Fields. We lived a few minutes walk from there in Hackney. WE moved there in 1947.
Posted 32 months ago.
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Hi Matt,
I belong to a chat group of ex-WWII Evacuees. Most of us are ex Londoners and many are expats are spread all around the world. I forwarded your map to the group, and David (now 81 & living in Devon) sent this reply:
Hallo Gerry
Sorry - but your map is inaccurate. The first I looked for was a rocket that
landed on the junction between East India Dock Road and Cotton Street. The
nearest shown is that of Stewart Street where my family lived in a pre-fab
after our house was condemned after severe buffeting during The Blitz. I
know this to be a fact because I was on the terrible scene just a few
minutes after the damned thing had landed. One of our neighbours, dear old
Mrs Reeves, was killed by that rocket having visited the market at Chrisp
Street . She popped into the pub on the corner of Cotton Street and East
India Dock Road, the name of which I could look up but not now, for her
usual glass of stout. I cannot vouch for the accuracy of this but I was told
that she was found 3 streets away without a stitch of clothing on. I was
also there when they dug out the Matron of a small Nursing Home there - she
had been buried for 36 hours. Poplar was quite lucky with V2s, and V1s too
come to that.
Bye for now - bacon n' eggs are calling !
David
Posted 32 months ago.
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not exactly a map but a full list flying bombs that hit Battersea
click on link
www.flyingbombsandrockets.com/V1_summary_sw11.html
Posted 30 months ago.
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The Vestry House Museum, in Waltham Forest, has a large (approx 20 feet x 12 feet) map of the Borough of Leyton showing where all V1s, V2s and HE bombs fell in the area during the Second World War. I last saw it about 5 years ago when they asked me to photograph it for them - which I attempted to do in small sections. I still have the images I made for the museum, but I guess copyright restrictions mean I can't add any here. The map itself is based on the large-scale Ordnance Survey maps of the time and is detailed down to individual houses.
Incidentally, I'm currently researching the Zeppelin air raids on Leyton and Leytonstone in the First World War and I'm particularly keen to hear of any family stories passed down the generations about that time.
Alan
Posted 24 months ago.
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This is top stuff, well done both. So useful for reference. Thumbs up.
Posted 24 months ago.
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I have just found this site and as a Battersea born lad who played on the old bomb sites find it particularly interesting. On the subject of V1/V2, the Kent Messanger newspaper produced an excellent map of all the V1 hits in Kent, Surrey and London. The interesting fact is that by far the greater number were brought down by guns and fighters in the relatively safe areas of the channel and Kent. This map is reproduced in Bob Ogley's excellent book Rockets and Doodlebugs
Posted 22 months ago.
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I am very interested in this topic, my great grandmother once ran the eagle tavern, destroyed by a v2 in 1945, also, my grandfather was landlord of the nags head, cotton street, poplar, I have found out loads about the eagle attack, but the nags head was destroyed around 1943 according to my mum, does anyone have any info on this please?
Posted 17 months ago.
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The V2 strike shown as in Elm Grove, Orpington is shown in the wrong place. It actually fell 1/2 mile away in Gillmans Rd. This was the last V2 to fall in the UK & is well documented in "The Blitz, Then And Now." Vol 3. I was 12 then & visited the site shortly after impact.
There's a large scale detailed map in Orpington library showing all bomb, V1 & V2 sites in the Bromley Borough.
Originally posted 16 months ago.
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scan2end edited this topic 16 months ago.
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Hi Matt,
With regards to the Dairsie Road bombing mentioned above, my nan lived in one of those houses you discussed which was destroyed on 14 September 1944 with my nan and her two children in it at the time.
Her son, aged 5, Keith was killed in the bombing. My nan sadly passed away this week aged 98 - she never recovered from the loss of her son. The house was rebuilt some years later.
I would love any more information on this particular bombing.
Posted 14 months ago.
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