how often did it happen

I must read that again. Excellent stuff

If i recall correctly it was Bob Stanford Tuck and its in his biography.

Correct, “Fly for your life”…Tuck’s biography.

If i recall correctly it was Bob Stanford Tuck and its in his biography.

That’ll be where I’ve read it then

Spotting bomb craters was always a hobby with my old man, he could detect one from miles away. When I was a kid we used to play in Bramcote Woods, Nottingham.
On the way up the bridle path there was a depression on the other side of the hedge, this was apparently the site of two cottages that had suffered from the effects of the so called mis-directed bombing on the city.
We have a crater in a field on the other side of our village, this however was caused by a Havoc with a full bomb load and crew crashing on take off from Wethersfield following an engine failure, sad spot.

Hi
This is were a bomb landed in Atherton Near Manchester, right in the middle
of the cross roads you can see the three new houses that were built.
regards Phil.

Yes. It’s in “Reach for the Sky”. I think that tells you all you need to know…

Adrian

If i recall correctly it was Bob Stanford Tuck and its in his biography.

there is still whats left of a crater left by the bomber/s here in Hereford… the story goes one of or the bomber was shot down on her way home over the Bristol Channel.. i would love to know what sort of bomber it was… 🙂

My old man used to tell me the story that in order to protect the Rolls Royce and railway plants in Derby, fires were lit in the Vale Of Belvoir in order to persuade the Germans that they were over Derby and drop their ordnance in the countryside.
Unfortunately, the powers that be, hadn’t worked out that the distance from there to Nottingham equalled the distance from Notty to Derby, the Germans worked this out and subsequently bombed Nottingham, thinking it was Derby.
Somewhere we have a map showing the bomb hits, most of them being in the south side of the city which would have equated to various premises in Derby, the Co-op bakery air raid shelter recieved a direct hit which resulted in the loss of many lives, other notable places were the old Boots factory, and I remember seeing the bomb splinter marks in the walls, High Level Station and Notts Counties football ground.
During the raid my old man was home on leave, he was unable to leave the city and his pass expired, good old Redcaps arrested him in Newark and he spent his only ever night in prison in Newark jail.
Fortunately his CO back in Mablethorpe was more understanding and no further charges were pressed.
I think that this was the only major raid on Notty, as I have been told, the result of mistaken identity, however I have always been unsure of this, as a major city and industrial centre, I can’t beleive it wasn’t targetted deliberately, personally, I think they were aiming for the railway stations, Boots and the Ordance Factory, which I think got away with it, they were building Naval guns at the time which continued into the 60’s, the sight of these things on railway trucks next to the plant was most interesting, now they make SA 80’s, bit of a come down perhaps.

OK Moggy, just for you.
Apparently one of the bombs dropped through a hangar roof and exploded, an erk was blown out through the hole and landed on the grass outside. Said erk was reported to have stood up, brushed himself off and walked away. Another bomb entered the armoury, bounced straight down the corridor and out the other end without exploding.

How true either story is I have no idea.

my question is how often did German bombs drop in citys, towns or villages by accident…..

Extremely often, especially in the early years using mainly dead reckoning before more reliable radio aids evolved properly. Even then …….
Bomber command was no better (over 100 miles out was not uncommon) – as proven by the evidence of bombing flash photography before the days of the Pathfinders, H2S etc.
Then of course the USAAF even bombed the wrong country on occasion.

Yes. It’s in “Reach for the Sky”. I think that tells you all you need to know…

Adrian

I can’t remember the book title but I have read the same story somewhere else.

A good few years ago when building a new housing estate in the town of Worksop there were some unexploded bombs found. I think they were dropped on the way back to Norway after a raid on Sheffield. Where they landed was all fields in the 40’s so does one think they intended to drop them harmlesly to shed some weight, or did they aim for the town and were just poor at aiming?

Another good reference for this subject are the two books written by S. Finn in the early/mid seventies “Lincolnshire Air War” Books 1 (1973) and 2. There are many accounts in these taken from local eyewitness statements and also those noted by the Royal Observer Posts throughout the county, who seem to have recorded in great detail what fell where and the subsequent damage, even down to the number of cows ‘killed in action’!

Again, some of the ‘targets’ seem to hold no military value: Gainsborough, Alford, Louth and Market Rasen all seemed to have somethin on them. The only reason which can be sensibly reached is they all have a main road through them. Either that or it was simply in error.

It seems that HE and incendiaries were being lobbed out of aircraft all over the place, either by hit and run raiders over the East Coast, opportunists, lost aircraft and those damaged by fighter or flak over the towns of the East Midlands. Very interesting read, both of these books, if you can find them! One was up on E-Bay recently for a fiver.

Please bother. 🙂

I’m really pushed at work at the moment but does anybody else recall the story of the Brit fighter pilot who caused the death of his brother-in-law by panicking a German bomber over Wales?

Moggy

Yes. It’s in “Reach for the Sky”. I think that tells you all you need to know…

Adrian

There is more to follow this but I’ll not bother with it here unless anyone has not read the account and wishes me to.

Please bother. 🙂

I’m really pushed at work at the moment but does anybody else recall the story of the Brit fighter pilot who caused the death of his brother-in-law by panicking a German bomber over Wales?

Moggy

The evidence is still there if you know what to look for -I.e. an out-of -character buliding filling a gap in an otherwise uniform row of houses.Paul F

Bill Gunston once recalled how, as a young cadet in the war (or maybe just after) he was detailed to show an American around town. The visitor remarked on the gap in a row of houses, and was told that a German bomb had fallen there. “Gee” he replied, “Sure was lucky it missed those houses either side” BTW, anyone know what Bill Gunston is doing now? Fond memories of the days when he seemed to bring out a new book every couple of weeks. I think my favourite was “Plane Speaking”

There is an interesting case mentioned in the book Action Stations:9 about the bombing of Kidlington airfield by a Ju 88. Circling in mist under a low cloud base the pilot lowered his u/c, received a green from the control caravan and on his next circuit, retracted the gear before depositing a string of 6 bombs across the airfield. There is more to follow this but I’ll not bother with it here unless anyone has not read the account and wishes me to.

Lewes, East Sussex

I have lived in Lewes, East Sussex for the last twenty years. Lewes was/still is a fairly quiet market/county town, stradling the River Ouse which flows on to Newhaven port about 6 miles south. It lays about eight miles east of Brighton, ~12 miles west of Eastbourne, with little engineering industry now or back in WW2, so it would not have been an obvious target of military importance, other than the railway junction (now long since removed in the contraction of the UK railway network). Although it is a pretty town, with a prominent castle, and a unique place in UK political history (read up on the Battle of Lewes if you wnat to know why), it is hardly on a par with places like Bath, so I doubt it featured in the Luftwaffe “Baedekker” series of targets.

However on one well documented occassion in WW2 a flight of fighter bombers (Bf 109’s I think, but I can’t swear to that without checking) passed over the town in daylight, on their way south, and dropped a couple of bombs and strafed a couple of streets in the town. The result was a couple of buildings and houses destroyed and about twenty people (IIRC) killed and injured.

Not sure whether it was a pre-planned attack, the evidence I have seen and read suggests not, more likely the town was seen as a target of opportunity by some planes on a free-rangeing mission, or who were on their way home having been unable to strike their intended target. Perhaps the bombs were intended for one of the small factories I guess existed on the edge of the town, or one of the river bridges, or the railway yards/junction and simply went wide or dropped short.

The evidence is still there if you know what to look for -I.e. an out-of -character buliding filling a gap in an otherwise uniform row of houses.

Paul F

My Dad spent his first few years in Bedford because my Grandparents had been evacuated there from Harwich, which being a naval port was thought to be likely to be a significant target for bombing. However, so the stories go at any rate, Harwich was hardly ever bombed because it was very difficult to hit from the air, being a narrow isthmus. Bedford, however, was on the route back from London and was apparently frequently hit by bombers that couldn’t find the target dropping their ordnance on the way home.

Don’t know how true this is but the bit about Harwich makes sense to me.

Dublin (which was in neutral Eire) was bombed by the Luftwaffe in 1941 causing around 40 fatalities.