72 years ago

[computedshorty]

The London Blitz now 72 years ago today, the constant bombing and the casualties and damage, not a lot is now available to see it as it was then.

It is very difficult to visualise just what it was like.

I can post a few pictures if there is any interest.

[Alan Medic]

I'm interested. Do you know the location of this one CS?

[Gidget]

I am interested. And, the Imperial War Museum is a wonderful place to visit.

[lilolil]

Do you know whereabouts that was taken?

[PeckhamRose]

There was a thread in here a while ago where there was a link given to a website where someone had painstakingly plotted every bomb that had fallen, on to a map so you could see which street and where. As one walks around many streets now, the 60s houses at the end of a terrace or so, that is where a bomb dropped.

Haven't time to search for it now, but it was very interesting. Might be worth looking for that.

[KidKruger]

Notice the stacked iron stretchers at bottom left of the photo which look identical to the ones welded together as fencing on the Dog Kennel Hill estate (and other estates I've seen around Bermondsey).

I'd be interested especially in any blitz-related photos of East Dulwich area.

[kford]

Here's Lordship Lane after the V1 attack on the Co-op:

[KidKruger]

Wow, that must be the big one that landed on a Saturday afternoon and killed like 40 people.

Thanks.

[computedshorty]

This is the report by Steve who colated all the V1 & v11 Bombs.

This was a very serious V1 incident, one of the worst in South London. The V1 hit the co-op store at the corner of Northross Road in Lordship Lane. The Co-op and 6 other shops were demolished and 20 houses damaged in Lordship land and 40 in Shawbury Road. A Salvation army hall was also damaged. It is stated in ARP reports held in the public records office that damage extended across a 700 yard radius, greater than the normal blast area. This is probably due to the fact that later V1's were packed with a heavier, more deadly warhead. It was also reported that Anderson shelters in the area stood up well to the blast. Bulldozers were called in to clear the debris and one tram track was cleared by 20.30 of the same day. The whole block where the Coop stood has been re-developed with post war shops. The opposite side of Lordship Lane also shows significant signs of re-building as do houses up Shawbury Road.

I used to go on Saturday morning as a child to the Salvation Army Hall in Shawbury Road to watch the film shows it cost one penny, and we all sat on long forms, I remember the film breaking down every time we went, we would all ?chi? ike? like mad till it was mended. I lived in Lordship Lane a bit up the road, and came on my wooden scooter made from bomb site nicked wood with ballbearing race wheels taken from old engines, we would all pile them up in front of the hall in a heap and sort them out later, each owner had a number of lemonade crown caps nailed to the front of their scooter so you soon found your one, the wheels made a clonk / clonk as they run over the Portland stone paving slabs. The V1 put an end to our Saturday morning outing.

By the end of the war we had 8 V1 & V2?s drop in our road.

[bluecanary]

I always find your threads and photos most informative and interesting. Please keep them coming!

[computedshorty]

22/8/1944 Lordship lane East Dulwich.

This V1 in Lordship lane fell on the West side just South of the junction with Townley Road. It demolished 20 houses in Lordship lane and damaged 130 others in Lordship Lane, Beauval Road and Heber Road. The impact site is very clear to see particularly on the West side of Lordship lane where the site is still partly populated with pre-fabs. The other side of the road has also been re-developed post-war. I person was killed.

This bomb fell just 17 days after the one down the road, this time only 14 houses and a church away from our home. The bomb fell in the night but we were not allowed to look until it got light, our doctors surgery where we could either see Dr Hunter or Dr Pitman,had been demollished.

I found a glass jar with human bits preserved in it that was lying in the road, mum would not let me keep it!. One of the houses was the one that the builder used as an office that I would in later date go to work for. We had our roof off again. I think that the church being so high had protected our house from more damage than would have got.

The picture shows one of the Prefabs that were built just after the bombing now it is just one of the thousands built.

These buildings came in sections and one of my first jobs was to help build them.

[Alan Medic]

If you were given advance warning of an air raid CS, where did you go locally to be protected from it, if anywhere?

[computedshorty]

Memories

Children of the War 1940

The Second World War had started. Was I going to get hurt or killed? I was eight years old.

What did it all mean? Some weeks after the declaration of war things started to happen.

A horse drawing a cart pilled high with corrugated steel sheets, stopped outside the house and a man knocked at our front door to ask ?How many people live here?, Mum said ?Ten?.

The man said with that many, we would have to have an Andersen shelter to be dug into the garden. He would leave enough parts. He and his mate brought in ten curved side panels and eight flat ones for the ends.

There were channels that were to be used for the foundations to stand the corrugated iron sheets upright, otherwise the sheets would sink into the clay with the weight, an iron bar to fix the front and back, and lots of nuts and bolts with diamond shaped washers bent to fit the shape of the corrugation.

Some days later two men came to dig the hole for the shelter to be put into.

They dug down three feet, and fixed the shelter together in the hole, stuffed old newspapers into the gaps that were left as the ends of the sheets did not fit into the corrugations, then piled all the earth from the hole over the top of the shelter.

When the men had gone we looked at the shelter, we could not see any of it from the outside only a big hump at the bottom of the garden. We got inside. We had to get in backwards and drop down feet first into the darkness inside.

It smelt earthy and some of the soil was falling in past the old newspapers that did not fill the gaps fully. Later two men came to put a cement floor inside, but left a little hole to bale out any water if it got in.

Water did get in , lots of it, down through the newspaper with brown clay streaking the end, and water came through the bolt holes in the roof. Some wooden bunk beds came, just a wooden frame with rigid wires nailed across to sleep on.

Mum received a letter to say we must all go to the Air Raid Precaution Post to get gas masks, Mum, Dad, My brothers and sisters all got the same, a black one with just one window in it, and a cardboard box to keep it in, with a string to hang it over your shoulder.

We were told to take it everywhere with us. I had a brown one with two windows like glasses, it had a kind of flat rubber nose sticking out with two holes in it. I found that if I was wearing it and wet the two holes and blew, it made a nice rude noise.

The baby twins were next.

The lady had a thing like a diver?s helmet that was made of red rubber and canvas. It was laid on its back and baby was put in head first, it came down to the baby?s hips, the arms were inside, but the legs were outside. Laces were pulled tight around the waist then tied to make it airtight. On the outside was a pump about three inches wide.

This must be pumped all the time baby was inside. Mum said she wanted two. The lady showed all of us how to use the pump and said that one of us must always be there to help Mum with the babies. The baby in the gas mask was screaming, the large window in the gas mask had misted up and we could not see baby, Mum started crying and got the baby out. The lady said that if we did have to use them, she would have to make baby stay inside, we must wear them for a few minutes a day until we got used to them.

When we got home Mum said she did not like them!

About a month later we heard a noise out the front. We went out to find men with big hammers smashing our cast iron railings. They had been five feet high with a big gate. All the posts had a point on them. The brickwork was broken, and was left like that and was never repaired. They took away the railings for the war effort.

The trams that ran past our home had curtain netting glued to the inside of the windows , so that if they were blasted the glass would not cut the passengers, but as time went by the smokers made the glass so dirty that you could not see out. A wet finger could just about clean a small hole between the strands of netting to peep through.

There were no street lights, and in the fog the only thing you could see were the three white bands that were painted on the trees and lamp posts.

The cars and other vehicles had shades put over their headlights, something like a tin can with a slit, just a tiny light showed. No light was allowed to show from the houses. Thick curtains had to be closely drawn. If a light did show, someone would shout ?Put that light out!?.

Dad had joined the A.R.P. service as an Air Raid Warden. He had a white tin hat, a dark blue uniform and another different gas mask, a whistle and a torch. Dad worked at Peak Frean?s biscuit factory doing maintenance to the buildings by day, then in the evenings he had to go to the A.R.P. Post to do duty.

Sometimes he was away all night. Part of his job was to go round the public shelters. These were brick built in the streets and underground ones in the park. He had to count how many people were in each, chalk it on the blackboard in the shelter, and enter it into his note book to record back at the A.R.P. post.

Incendiary bombs were dropped. He would have to dislodge them from roofs with long poles. Once they fell to the ground they could be put out with sand or with a stirrup pump, with one foot on the pump, keeping the suction part in a bucket of water, using one hand to pump and the other to direct the hose pipe.

The water would make the incendiary bomb throw out white hot bits of phosphorous! Dad told us of the damage that had happened that night and of the people who had been injured, and how he had to dig people out of their bombed homes. We liked to listen to the wireless , when Dad fixed it up.

We heard this man say, ?This is Germany calling. We are going to bomb London tonight?. His name was Lord Haw Haw. Dad said he was a traitor, as he was English. In fact his real name was William Joyce and he had lived just across the park from where we were living.

I don?t know what I thought I was going to do, but one day several of us boys went to Alison Grove near Dulwich Park Pond and looked at the house where he had lived. We heard a piano being played and we shouted abuse and ran away. A lady came to the door, it could have been Eileen Joyce, his sister, the well known pianist, but we didn?t wait to find out.

Dad always went to work on his little Coventry Eagle motor bike.

He had a small ration of petrol coupons as he had to get to his wardens duties. In the morning he would get his motor bike out of the shed at the side of the house, put a wooden ramp from the step to the pavement, run his bike down, then put the ramp back in the front garden. Then he would sit astride the bike and shake it from side to side.

He said this mixed the petrol and oil in the tank.. He then started the engine. He would adjust his overcoat, put on his goggles and pull on his gauntlets.

Twenty minutes to eight, off he went to Bermondsey to arrive in time to change into his white overalls ready for work at eight o'clock. I remark on his preciseness as one evening he did not return at his usual time of five twenty five.

It was very foggy and there had been an air raid.

At half past six there was a knock at the door,

Dad stood there, soaking wet, covered in clay, coat torn, no cap and cut a head.

We thought that he had been blown up, but he told us what had happened.

As he rode home he turned a corner in the fog.

A rope had been strung across the road as a bomb had been dropped making the road impassable.

The rope had caught him under the chin and he fell off.

The motor bike carried on into the bomb crater, so my elder brothers went back with him to pull it out of the hole, then, half carry it back home, they all worked on it, to repair it for the next day, after lots of straightening of the metal, and adjustments, it was thought to be usable on the following day.?

They all came indoors and washed the oil and muck off. Mum bathed Dads head, and repaired his torn trousers and coat, the clay had dried and could be brushed off, he had not been able to find his cap.

Dad started his tea but remembered he had to go to the A.R.P. post for that nights fire watch at the Dulwich Library, he was worried that he would be late.

[computedshorty]

Memories of Bombing V1 & V2

20/06/1944 East Dulwich The first V1 to fall in Dulwich 8 houses were demolished, 55 suffered severe damage and 71 slight damage. The area today around Friern Road and Etherow Street has been totally re-developed as a result of this V1 and the V2 which fell on the 1st November

01/11/1944 East Dulwich

This was a very serious V2 incident when 24 people were killed, the Rocket struck at the South East end Of Etherow Street by Friern Road. This Rocket followed a V1 in the area in August 1944 and there is wholesale destruction of housing shown on the bomb maps in this area. It is recorded that 23 houses were totally destroyed with at least another 80 very badly damaged. The area has been extensively re-developed with post war housing demonstrating the extent of damage at this point

The two bomb incidents were to remain in my memory as they happened a very short distance from my home, and I saw the devastation myself.

I had reached fourteen years of age and had to find employment, my father wrote to the owner of a building contractor that had it offices a few doors from our home, asking if he could find a job for his son now leaving school and wanted to go into the building trade. We had an invitation to go for an interview, my father explained that he was in the building trade but thought it would be better that I was not employed with him, as we knew the reputation of this builder and he wanted him to be apprenticed as a carpenter, where he could learn all about building from the foundations to the roofs.

I was accepted and reported to the foreman at Friern Road Bombsite, the site covered five roads that had been destroyed by a V1 & V11 Bombs. The men were in the process of salvaging parts from the worst houses to repair the least damaged, nearly all had the stair cases damaged as the tall brick chimney stacks had fallen on them and smashed them through. There was no new timber available so the salvaged joists that were the thickest timbers available were de-nailed and cut on an ancient petrol driven circular saw bench, to cut to the size of the timbers needed for the staircases, these had to be hand planned to smooth the surface, then the joints cut and assembled. Window frames were the worst to repair as they need so many different shaped parts, and the replacement glass was sub standard with wavy lines in them. We repaired the roofs but had to wait weeks until slates came, so the tarpaulin sheets had to remain in place.

When this site was done we moved to the next. At a later date we put up Prefabs on the ground. where the houses had been totally destroyed.

The picture shows the Prefabs from Lordship Lane corner down Friern Road to Etherow Street, a few houses were repaired one is just in the pictur to the right we used it as aur workshop.

Interesting the trees that were damaged are now showing new growth with new branches.

[Pickle]

I would love to see a book published with all your memories in it Computedshorty!

[Chick]

Thanks

[Lin Henden]

I would find this interested as I used to play on the bombsites!

[computedshorty]

The most important communal shelters were those in the stations of the London Underground. Although many had used them as such during World War I.

The government rejected their use in 1939 to not interfere with commuter and troop travel, and because of fears that occupants might refuse to leave. Although Underground officials were ordered to lock station entrances during raids, by the second week of heavy bombing the government acknowledged the popular demand and opened the stations.

Each day orderly lines of people waited for 4 pm when they were allowed to enter the stations. In mid-September 1939 about 150,000 a night slept in the Underground, although by the winter and spring months the numbers had declined to 100,000 or less. Noises of battle were muffled and sleep was easier in the deepest stations, but many were killed from direct hits on several stations.

Peak use of the Underground as shelter was 177,000 on 27 September 1940, and many others used the stations at some point. A November 1940 census of London found that about 4% of residents used the Tube and other large shelters; 9% in public surface shelters; and 27% in private home shelters, implying that the remaining 60% of the city likely stayed at home.

By the end of 1940, significant improvements had been made in the Underground and in many of other large shelters.

Authorities provided stoves and bathrooms, and canteen trains provided food.

Tickets were issued for bunks in large shelters to reduce the amount of time spent queuing. Deep tunnels were built within the Underground to hold 80,000 people but were not completed until the period of heaviest bombing had passed.

Locals would go to the Oval or the Elephant & Castle Stations

[Willard]

http://www.flyingbombsandrockets.com/V1_summary_dulwich.html

[jim_the_chin]

I've long wanted to see a map that pinpointed bomb sites, to see if you could trace the path of bombs falling from a single plane/attack. Our victorian terrace is pebble-dashed, as are others around, and sits opposite two 50's buildings, that clearly must have replaced bombed houses, and in the streets around there are other little pockets of 50's buildings interrupting the terraced rows.

[Loz]

Fascinating stuff Shorty. I always love reading your posts.

[mammoth86]

I agree with Pickle and bluecanary, you have a talent for writing, the descriptions are so vivid you can imagine being there at the time.

We learnt at school that young children were evacuated to the countryside where they would be safer - did this not happen here?

Pickle Wrote:

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> I would love to see a book published with all your

> memories in it Computedshorty!

[pincushionqueen]

This is so interesting computedshorty. Thank you for sharing your memories.

[computedshorty]

I have been looking on an old computer this is the map of the bombs on East Dulwich that I made saveral years ago.

[KidKruger]

can't open that photo Computed..