If someone has a copy of this, could they take a quick look for the week or so pre-dating July 13 1944 and let me know what was happening over London bomber-wise, please? My copy has vanished into the maelstrom of redecorating!
I have a postcard written on that date talking, I think, about the V-bomb blitz in Sydenham, but I’m curious as to what else London was being subjected to.
Many thanks,
Adrian
postcard001 by gray1720, on Flickr
By: skeeler - 21st January 2018 at 12:41
Adrain, In one of life’s tiny coincidences I was only looking at V7497 not 5 minutes ago and considering whether I could afford the 50% required to buy the data plate etc. and everything else built around it? Unfortunately a roof over my head is a bit more important so I’ll have to buy a lottery ticket first instead – http://hawkerrestorations.co.uk/sale/g-hrli-v7497-hurricane-mk-1/
Steve.
By: adrian_gray - 21st January 2018 at 12:29
You can still get it! Wow! Guess what I had on my wall… According to that there were, I think four (five?) in the parish. One was supposed to have crashed at the bottom of the school grounds… but you know what kids are like with speculation. No-one knew about this, in a field at the top of the road…
http://www.hurricane501.co.uk/restoration/hawker-hurricane-v7497-aircraft-restoration-battle-of-britain-1940-aviation-archeology/
(nut and bolt restoration? I’ve seen some photos, nothing bigger than a dinner plate came out of the hole!).
Sorry, I’m digressing badly.
Adrian
By: skeeler - 21st January 2018 at 12:19
Adrian – maybe? see here for a 1944 map published by the Kent Messenger – https://kentmessenger.newsprints.co.uk/search/bykw/b/f/0/1 and type ‘Doodlebug Map’ into the search field – or here for a larger photo of the same thing –
http://www.crouchrarebooks.com/maps/view/where-the-doodle-bugs-crashed-in-kent.-summer-1944
Steve.
By: adrian_gray - 21st January 2018 at 11:50
Thank you gentlemen, that’s really interesting. I wonder whether conventional air ops over London had stopped post-invasion? I do recall that the book covers Operation Gisela in March 1945.
I fear You are giving me ideas – now could I track down the actual sites of the V1s that crashed in the parish I went to school in in Kent? No… bad idea! Don’t start…
Adrian
By: skeeler - 21st January 2018 at 11:21
adrian_gray,
Although I can’t fully answer your question, you may be interested in the following possible background to the message in the postcard. The St. Bart’s Parsonage and Church referred to is likely to have been the one at Westwood Hill, Sydenham. Although not in Catford, it is only about 3 miles distant from the address of Miss Matthews in Arran Road. The writer, E.R. Bradley, presumably being a friend or relation ordinarily living nearby, who is temporarily in Essex, perhaps to escape the bombing/V1s? The following link gives a list of V1s that fell in the Lewisham area (including Catford and Sydenham). http://lewishamwarmemorials.wikidot.com/incident:v1-rockets and lists a V1 exploding at Westwood Hill on 2nd July 1944. Possibly the cause of the destruction of Bart’s Parsonage? The cause being a V1 in July 1944 is referred to on the following web page on the heritage & History of St. Bart’s (scroll down to paragraph 17) – http://www.stbartschurchsydenham.org/heritage-and-history.html
Steve.
By: Aviart - 21st January 2018 at 08:39
The dates of operations only go up to the end of May 1944. The last V-1 incident in the book is listed on “12-13/6/44” “at Crouch, 6miles east of Sevenoaks, Kent.”
It mentions a V-1 coming down at Bethnal Green on 12-13/6/44.
The only mention of 13/7/44 is details of the Ju88G-1 that landed at Woodbridge Aerodrome.
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January 20, 2018 at 9:49 am