Pendraken Miniatures Forum

Non-Wargaming Discussion => Chat & News => Topic started by: Leon on 14 August 2013, 05:17:48 PM

Title: WW2 Bomb Sight
Post by: Leon on 14 August 2013, 05:17:48 PM
"The Bomb Sight project is mapping the London WW2 bomb census between 7/10/1940 and 06/06/1941. Previously available only by viewing in the Reading Room at The National Archives, Bomb Sight is making the maps available to citizen researchers, academics and students. They will be able to explore where the bombs fell and to discover memories and photographs from the period.

The project has scanned original 1940s bomb census maps, geo-referenced the maps and digitally captured the geographical locations of all the falling bombs recorded on the original map:
"

http://www.bombsight.org/#10/51.5049/-0.0900 (http://www.bombsight.org/#10/51.5049/-0.0900)

Amazing to see just how many were dropped over London.  You can zoom in using the map controls, and each bomb has a small bit of info on where it was dropped.

It'd be interesting to see similar stats for other cities as well, both in the UK and Europe.
Title: Re: WW2 Bomb Sight
Post by: Fenton on 14 August 2013, 05:49:09 PM
Thats an excellent site ( no pun intended)
Title: Re: WW2 Bomb Sight
Post by: ronan on 14 August 2013, 07:18:30 PM
Quote from: Leon on 14 August 2013, 05:17:48 PM
http://www.bombsight.org/#10/51.5049/-0.0900 (http://www.bombsight.org/#10/51.5049/-0.0900)

Amazing to see just how many were dropped over London.  You can zoom in using the map controls, and each bomb has a small bit of info on where it was dropped.

Wow ! very impressive !

Quote from: Leon on 14 August 2013, 05:17:48 PM
It'd be interesting to see similar stats for other cities as well, both in the UK and Europe.

Yes, it would be very interesting too.
Thank you.
Title: Re: WW2 Bomb Sight
Post by: Luddite on 14 August 2013, 08:18:16 PM
There's this too.  Mesmerising...

Title: Re: WW2 Bomb Sight
Post by: Ithoriel on 14 August 2013, 10:41:50 PM
I remember my son coming home from primary school and asking if we could go and look at where the bombs had fallen on Edinburgh in World War 2. I wasn't aware there had been bombs dropped on Edinburgh at that point.

Turned out a bomber, who's intended target was either the Forth Bridge or the naval yard in Rosyth, had jettisoned bombs while pursued by a local Spitfire. The first bombs in the stick hit the gardens of the flats opposite and you can still see where the stonework at the front of a tenement in the next road had been patched after it was hit.

I'd lived there for about a decade and never knew about it. Just shows that even those with an interest don't always know their local history. So always good when this sort of info is made available to a wider audience.
Title: Re: WW2 Bomb Sight
Post by: Lord Kermit of Birkenhead on 15 August 2013, 07:07:12 AM
Used to drink in a pub built on the site of a pub built on the site of one destroyed in 41, by a land mine. Also blew out windows of the church next door.1 Casualty - the landlord, who'd been sheltering in the cellar - all clear sounded, he went up to look at the damage, and the time fuse went off.

IanS
Title: Re: WW2 Bomb Sight
Post by: ronan on 15 August 2013, 07:10:25 AM
Quote from: Luddite on 14 August 2013, 08:18:16 PM
There's this too.  Mesmerising...

It's a nightmare  :(
Title: Re: WW2 Bomb Sight
Post by: Hertsblue on 15 August 2013, 07:48:27 AM
I see there were a few dropped near us in Hertfordshire. Can't think what they were aiming at (if they were aiming at all) - perhaps the glasshouses glinting in the moonlight.
Title: Re: WW2 Bomb Sight
Post by: ronan on 15 August 2013, 08:04:35 AM
Nothing compares to the blitz, but Nantes (my city) also suffered from (allied) bombing
( for examples : http://www.google.fr/search?q=bombardement+nantes&tbm=isch&tbo=u&source=univ&sa=X&ei=_YkMUq6lMYK_0QXEsoH4Dw&sqi=2&ved=0CEoQsAQ&biw=1593&bih=999 (http://www.google.fr/search?q=bombardement+nantes&tbm=isch&tbo=u&source=univ&sa=X&ei=_YkMUq6lMYK_0QXEsoH4Dw&sqi=2&ved=0CEoQsAQ&biw=1593&bih=999) )
They were aiming at the railways station and the dockyards. But they missed several miles all around..

No, this is not Stalingrad  ;)   This fountain is well known here ( It symbolized the Loire river and it tributaries)
(http://a137.idata.over-blog.com/499x600/3/20/68/81/Nantes-16-et-23-septembre-1943/place-royale-3.jpg)
Title: Re: WW2 Bomb Sight
Post by: Duke Speedy of Leighton on 15 August 2013, 08:09:13 AM
Blimey, why did the French need 200+ nuke tests! Surely it goes bang and knackers the environment.
Title: Re: WW2 Bomb Sight
Post by: Steve J on 15 August 2013, 08:10:51 AM
'Bomber' by Len Deighton is an extremely good read and gives a great overview of why Allied (and I suppose Axis as well) bombing was so inaccurate given all that went on in a mission.
Title: Re: WW2 Bomb Sight
Post by: ronan on 15 August 2013, 08:24:45 AM
Quote from: mad lemmey on 15 August 2013, 08:09:13 AM
Blimey, why did the French need 200+ nuke tests! Surely it goes bang and knackers the environment.

:( I agree with you.. ( I will add, why every country needed that many tests ?  But i think we will turn to a philosophic and  politic thread  ;) )

Quote from: Steve J on 15 August 2013, 08:10:51 AM
'Bomber' by Len Deighton is an extremely good read and gives a great overview of why Allied (and I suppose Axis as well) bombing was so inaccurate given all that went on in a mission.

I've read elsewhere it was (also) because some air forces wanted to reduced their losses and flew high ?
I will search for it.. Thanks !
Title: Re: WW2 Bomb Sight
Post by: Hertsblue on 15 August 2013, 08:39:07 AM
The RAF bombers usually flew by night, each aircraft finding its own way to the target as part of the "bomber stream". One of the big dangers that arose was the risk of being hit by another aircraft's bombs from above. Several bombers were lost that way.

For an in-depth account of heavy bomber operations try Lancaster by Leo McKinstry.
Title: Re: WW2 Bomb Sight
Post by: Uncle_Cthulu on 25 August 2013, 05:29:19 PM
Living on the cylde coast down the road from the Port Glasgow ship yards, there was alot of bombing during the war.
My village train station had the scrub around the car park enterance cleaned up and an unexploded bomb was found. Funny to think how many times i had walked past it!
Title: Re: WW2 Bomb Sight
Post by: ronan on 25 August 2013, 08:51:13 PM
Yes.
It still happens several times each year, here.