Shocking Statistic

[AndyB]

Like many statistics it is very difficult to believe. Especially as many villages and small towns never saw a single hit.

 

Individual cases don't make for great stats. But last week i wrote the eulogy for my dad who was evacuated to the smallest of hamlets near Thaxted in rural Essex. One of the anecdotes recounted how he and his brother witnessed a German bomber drop 10 bombs, the closest of which landed about 100 yards away, bringing down the plaster ceiling on their beds - much to their amusement (?!). I'm guessing if this happened in the wilds of Essex there may have been a greater frequency and concentration in SE, East London.

 

Later in the war when dad was working forr LT in east London a doodlebug not so far from where he worked. On hearing the engine cut out he grabbed a sheet of plywood to protect himself. His plywood "bomb shelter" fell to pieces long before the doodlebug landed.

 

As a child growing up in the 60s with grandparents living in east London "bomb sites" were a common sight. 20+ years on they were still awaiting redevelopment.

Andy

[Suzie]

It is hard to believe that there were any houses in London not affected in some way by bomb damage, it does not take much flying debris to knock off a few tiles and break a window, and with London having around 20% of the population it does not leave much for the rest of the rest of the UK to swallow up leaving 67% of the remainder untouched.

 

There still appear to be a lot of places where there are gaps remaining in streets from bomb damaged buildings that have not been replaced, I guess that would explain a lot of the gaps in Liverpool, but the only one I know of in London is a big chunk of Kings Cross station that is still missing where the west building is now two separate pieces where before it was just one building.

 

Streets which appear to be untouched are probably not, my great aunt's 1930 suburban London house was so badly damaged by a bomb that it was completely demolished and rebuilt in the late '40s, but you would not know that it was any different from either the outside or inside to the rest of the street, the reconstruction was completely faithful to the original.

[Arthur]

 

 

Like Kenton, I too find this 1 in 3 of all UK homes damaged in WWII (by bombs or our own anti aircraft fire) unbelievable. The population of London represents about 14% of the U.K. total, until the re-organisations of the 1970s, Lancashire was the most densely populated county. The further north and west you go the more difficult it was for the Luftwaffe to bomb, it was at the extremes of their range. Yes, Manchester and other North Western towns and cities were bombed, but nothing like the extent, or frequency, of London, Portsmouth etc. As a kid in the fifties, in west Manchester, there were swathes of terraced housing that had never seen a bomb. A house close to my grandmothers, an area of closely packed terraces, had been demolished by a rogue barrage balloon, that was it. It was the only 'bomb site' in the entire area.

[Edwin_m]

the only one I know of in London is a big chunk of Kings Cross station that is still missing where the west building is now two separate pieces where before it was just one building.

 

The recent rebuilding has finally fixed that one.

[Lambton58]

I hadn't heard this statistic before, but it wouldn't surprise me and I would hope that the Imperial War Museum would get their facts right! From personal anecdotal sources (ie my parents!) there was a lot of damage. My Mum spent most of the war in Lewisham where my Grandpa was an ARP warden and there was a lot of damage in that area. And yes the north was hit too; my Dad's from Chester-le-Street and has spoken of seeing the fires burning in Newcastle and on Tyneside

 

Damage doesn't always mean total destruction. I grew up in an 1880s terrace in Cheshunt, Herts overlooking the Lee Valley. Given the inaccuracy of most WW2 bomb aiming* the house was uncomfortably close to the Waltham Abbey Powder Mills and the Royal Enfield Small Arms Factory. Even in the late 1970s my bedroom still had notably poor quality glass in the window and a distinctly 'austerity' ceiling as a result of things going bang near by! Of course, some damage wasn't just down to enemy action

 

*exploits of 617 Squadron aside

 

Cheers

 

Ralph

Lambton58

[melmerby]

Roughly one third of all homes in the UK were damaged by enemy bombing during WW11. Seen at Duxford yesterday. It staggered me.

 

Ed

 

You could always trawl through this to check the claim:

 

http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/records/research-guides/maps-bomb-census-survey.htm

 

Keith

[autocoach]

My grandparents had a house in Penge destroyed in 1942. Fortunately, no one was home at the time. My grandfather, who lost one leg below the knee in WW1 had taken my grandmother who was blind to her blind club. My aunt was away at work. As to my two uncles and father, one was a flight engineer in the RAF, another was on mysterious military business in the middle east and my father was in China having just gotten my mother who was then his fiance out of Burma over the Burma Road when the Japanese invaded. The family got around in those days.

[TheSignalEngineer]

Birmingham had 72 raids, with 12400 homes destroyed, 2240 civilians killed, over 3000 serious injuries and many more minor injuries. My mother was bombed out, and on returning home from the shelter was sent to a reception centre. She said she didn't want to stop there so the whole family marched about 4 miles up the road to my Great Grandparents. When she went back to work the following morning the reception centre had taken a direct hit just after the family had left and all of those who stayed were killed or seriously injured.

[Fat Controller]

I'm collateral damage from a WW2 parachute-mine explosion. The thing exploded at Cwmbach, between Furnace and Trimsaran (west of Llanelli), where there was a dummy airfield in open countryside. The explosion caused a ceiling to fall down at my maternal grand-parents recently-built house, almost two miles away; my paternal great-uncle, whose firm had built the house, sent my father to check the amount of damage. Dad (who had been widowed a few years previously) met mum, and the rest is history....

The parachute mine was designed to burst above ground, causing blast damage over a much wider area than a conventional HE bomb; this one certainly had widespread consequences.

Dad, who was in a reserved occupation, and 'did his bit' as a fire-watcher, used to say that the amount of damage caused by unexploded anti-aircraft shells returning to earth was quite significant.

[Michael Delamar]

a few 1930s semi's in our street dont have front bay windows but flush fronts, i was told this is because of ww2 bomb damage

[Fat Controller]

It's interesting to walk around Folkestone and Dover, and see how often there are perhaps one or two new houses amongst older ones; not bomb damage in most cases, but shell damage from the German coastal batteries in the Calais area.

[antrobuscp]

I can well believe the quoted statistic. I was brought up in Bootle, about a quarter mile from the docks, and can recall the area from about 1952. There were lots of pre-fabs filling in gaps between houses, and many bomb sites. Some were where individual houses had been destroyed, but some covered whole streets. My parents ran a shop which my grandfather had bought pre-war, and had run through the war years. The property was originally part of a terrace, but the rest of the terrace was destroyed by a land mine which also took out 2 bays of the fire station, and the control room I believe. The cellar of the shop was flooded as a result, and my grandfather lost a collection of records acquired whilst he was at sea working for White Star Line.

 

I do not remember, but apparently I lived with my grandparents for a period while the front of the shop building was taken down and rebuilt because of damage sustained. The building was never designed to stand on its own, and it always had a tendency to shake in strong winds, not helped by vibrations from an advertising hoarding attached to the wall - stormy nights were lively and a bit frightening.

 

Throughout the '50s and into the '60s, rebuilding was relatively slow although Marsh Lane and Strand Road station(now New Strand) had been rebuilt by the time I can recall - I read later that the design had won awards. One platform was not rebuilt, though, as was also the case at Seaforth and Litherland.

I think that also applied to the buildings on one platform at Bank Hall station - but my memory is hazy on that.

 

Part of the New Strand shopping centre was built on bombed areas. To be honest having seen what I did personally and also photographs of the damage, and having read of the air raids, and the resultant fires and explosions(one where a whole dock was destroyed when an ammunition ship exploded), it is difficult to imagine a property not being damaged in some way. This would cover a wide area as the docks would be far from being the only targets. I can recall Liverpool city centre having the Lewis's and Hendersons stores rebuilt, and some bombed areas did not disappear until the Liverpool One development was completed a year or two ago. Throughout the city there was evidence of lost or damaged buildings of all types. As others have said, the sheer density of the housing damaged would compensate for the large areas of the country remaining totally unaffected.

 

Colin

[The Stationmaster]

Doing a bit of delving around the net produces some interesting figures - total WWII period 'Homes destroyed or damaged' in Portsmouth= 82,970 of which just over 13,000 were 'destroyed or severely damaged'. The 1939 population of Portsmouth was 260,000 although I don't know the average family size which could give a better idea of how many homes there were but I think it is probably reasonable to conclude that well over 50% of homes were damaged or destroyed.

 

In contrast Salford suffered 8,000 homes 'destroyed or damaged' in two successive nights of raids in December 1940 although I can't established if the 'damaged' figure includes all levels of damage. The 1939 population was c.150,000 which suggests a far lower percentage of homes damaged/destroyed than Portsmouth, probably less than 20% Salford was bombed again in early 1941 and it is not unreasonable to assume that resulted in further homes lost or damaged.

[Andrew1974]

Per the attached news report on the BBC website Hull (definately a northern city) was the second most bombed place (after London) during the war with a 95% damage rate, I'm assuming some of this will be simply broken windows etc.

 

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/humber/6324301.stm

 

There are still a number of car parks in the hull city centre that are only there because the previous building was bombed during the war!

[The Stationmaster]

A bit more delving around the 'net indicates that in 1939 there were 12 million homes in Britain - the population at that time was 46 million. By the spring of 1941 and the effective end of the main German bombing campaign a total of 1.4 million people had been rendered homeless by bombing (in addition to the civilians killed). Another source gives a total of 2 million homes destroyed by enemy action during the war - i.e. almost 17% of the 1939 total. Looking at various sites the trend seems to be that for each home destroyed several more were damaged so the original figure quote by Ed seems quite credible and I wonder if it in fact only includes only the seriously damaged homes?

 

Interesting subject for a spot of delving - for instance during one period bombs seem to have been dropped all over Cornwall hitting both farms and towns as well as obvious military targets and the raids on the larger towns & cities further east.

[Guest Max Stafford]

Thanks Mike,

 

I knew that the south west ports had been heavily bombed - particularly central Plymouth and Bristol. Belfast surprises me - not as a target (obviously shipbuilding) but that it was in the Lufwaffe's range - though (according to wikipedia) the He-111 had a range of 2,300km which is not too much shy of a Lancaster.

 

The northern targets like Belfast and Clydebank were generally attacked by bombers of Luftflotte V, based in Norway and Denmark, but even then they were pretty much at the limits of their range. This often meant dumping of bombloads in unusual places such as Gretna where 22 people were killed in April 1941 when a bomb struck the Masonic Hall during a Lodge meeting. Some say that a car had left its lights on but I suspect that this was more likely a stray dumped from a lost bomber since this was the period of the Clydebank Blitz.

 

Dave.

[PhilJ W]

Some bomb sites remained until the 80's, one of the most notable being Ludgate in the City of London. Even today you can see evidence of Blitz damage. Near the former fighter station at Hornchurch there are many 1930.s built houses and bungalows and the roofs bear witness to damage with several different coloured tiles, due mainly I have been told to shrapnel falling on them.

[clecklewyke]

Per the attached news report on the BBC website Hull (definately a northern city) was the second most bombed place (after London) during the war with a 95% damage rate, I'm assuming some of this will be simply broken windows etc.

 

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/humber/6324301.stm

 

There are still a number of car parks in the hull city centre that are only there because the previous building was bombed during the war!

 

I'm glad someone mentioned Hull.

 

Because of its strategic importance as a port the government always played down reports of damage to it. We Hullensians consequently have a perverted sort of inferiority complex about blitzes. Everyone remembers Coventry but what about Hull!

 

 

[Michael Delamar]

a friend was a Liverpool railway fireman during WW2 and even though Liverpool was hit hard, the scariest place he had to go which was often hit was Brent railway yards

[Arthur]

Another source gives a total of 2 million homes destroyed by enemy action during the war - i.e. almost 17% of the 1939 total. Looking at various sites the trend seems to be that for each home destroyed several more were damaged so the original figure quote by Ed seems quite credible and I wonder if it in fact only includes only the seriously damaged homes?[/i]

 

 

That’s a widely quoted figure and is usually accompanied by the claim that 60% of them were in London. So there was a huge concentration of effort on a tiny geographical area, London represents about about 10% of Englands urban area. The entire rest of the country, the towns and cities comprising the other urban 90%, accounted for just 40%, a relatively low concentration of damage, supporting my belief that vast swathes of the urban areas outside London got off, in comparison, very lightly.

 

As for the War Museums statistics, anybody who has listened to Radio 4s 'More or Less' programme will be very sceptical about statistics provided by anybody, no matter how well meaning or respected. Figures quoted by one source, often unsupported, get quoted and re-quoted until they become ‘fact’. Having supported my point with the 2 million damaged/60% in London statistic, which is widely quoted by many sources, how accurate was the original source?

 

[Ozexpatriate]

This has been a very interesting and informative discussion. While I knew that lots of places in Britain (besides London and Coventry) were bombed by the Luftwaffe, particularly during he Blitz, it is interesting to understand just how widespread the German bombing raids were. May we never see the like again.

 

It's surprising just how much information there is about the German bombing - including the precise locations of detonations. Perhaps one day a history major will trawl though all that data and produce a comprehensive picture of the density and distribution across Britain. That would be very interesting to see.

 

Perhaps the most serious act of agression during the war in my home city was a seriously out of control pub brawl between Australian and US servicemen known as the Battle of Brisbane. Earlier that year, invasion fears were very high. Darwin was bombed in early 1942 but by late 1942, Australians were starting to turn back the Japanese Imperial Army in the New Guinea highlands along the Kokoda track. Douglas MacArthur had his headquarters in Brisbane at the time.

 

Here in Oregon where I live now, people were subjected to one of the most bizarre forms of aerial bombardment of the war. The Imperial Japanese Army attached incendiary devices to hydrogen balloons and launched them from Japan into the jet stream to attack North America. These Fu-Go were intended to start forest fires in the heavily forested northwest and otherwise create fear and panic.

 

In southern Oregon in 1945, a picnicing family found one and it detonated, killing five of them.

[Southernman46]

My old victorian end of terrace house in Gillingham had cracking caused by the bomb that removed the row of houses adjacent.

 

During my early days on BR - I used to keep the SR's 33kV cable record books up to date - it was interesting to look back at the records and see how often the solid 33kV cables installed in the late 1930's were out of service due to "enemy action".

 

I also remember seeing in 1982, the bullet holes still in the original pallisade fence around the 1938 Tweed Hill substation (just east of Swanley) following a WW2 straffing attack.

[Fat Controller]

This has been a very interesting and informative discussion. While I knew that lots of places in Britain (besides London and Coventry) were bombed by the Luftwaffe, particularly during he Blitz, it is interesting to understand just how widespread the German bombing raids were. May we never see the like again.

 

It's surprising just how much information there is about the German bombing - including the precise locations of detonations. Perhaps one day a history major will trawl though all that data and produce a comprehensive picture of the density and distribution across Britain. That would be very interesting to see.

 

Perhaps the most serious act of agression during the war in my home city was a seriously out of control pub brawl between Australian and US servicemen known as the Battle of Brisbane. Earlier that year, invasion fears were very high. Darwin was bombed in early 1942 but by late 1942, Australians were starting to turn back the Japanese Imperial Army in the New Guinea highlands along the Kokoda track. Douglas MacArthur had his headquarters in Brisbane at the time.

 

Here in Oregon where I live now, people were subjected to one of the most bizarre forms of aerial bombardment of the war. The Imperial Japanese Army attached incendiary devices to hydrogen balloons and launched them from Japan into the jet stream to attack North America. These Fu-Go were intended to start forest fires in the heavily forested northwest and otherwise create fear and panic.

 

In southern Oregon in 1945, a picnicing family found one and it detonated, killing five of them.

Part of my dad's job as fire-watcher included logging, as possible, impact points of bombs. In some areas, this information has been presented graphically- the 'Cat and Custard Pot' at Paddlesworth (home pub for RAF Hawkinge) used to have a map of Kent showing areas hit, and by what means. Even with all the data collected, UXBs are still been found around the place; there was one in Dover Harbour recently.

[Kenton]

While moved on perhaps from my first post and now slightly tempered by a few more facts, I still cannot quite believe the original shocking statistic".

 

The problem with it and all similar statistics promoted for "shock" value is that there is nothing given to qualify them. My fist though was one third of all homes badly damaged. Clearly not the case. But when you start to think of "damage" as being anything possibly from a tile slipping off the roof or a chimney pot falling over (anything that might have happened in a strong wind) to the complete obliteration of a house leaving a hole or simply a pile of rubble. Then you consider that the statics (like all statistics) are based on a sample size (in this case potentially limited to major conurbations with extrapolation based on population or housing density or other factor. The statistics can have quite a different slant.

 

A similar set of headline style statistics are regularly put on "the news" media to support catastrophes throughout the world from man-made to natural many are similarly distorted to make a point and in some ways that is fine but in other ways it is mere propaganda or simply misleading.

 

It certainly makes you think and ponder just what it was like.

[pH]

As others have said, the problem with these figures seems to be that there's no indication of the extent of the damage. However, the percentage seems possible, based on figures for the damage done to Greenock and Clydebank.

 

Both these towns were bombed heavily over two nights; Clydebank on 13 and 14 March 1941 and Greenock on 6 and 7 May 1941, apart from minor raids at other times. ('Minor' is not meant to imply 'trivial' for people involved - I just mean the scale of the raids was smaller.) Here are quotes from Wikipedia, referring to the main raids - I've seen similar figures in printed accounts.

 

Clydebank - "Out of approximately 12,000 houses, only seven remained undamaged — with 4,000 completely destroyed and 4,500 severely damaged." i.e 33% destroyed and 100% damaged.

 

Greenock - "From a total of 18,000 homes nearly 10,000 suffered damage and 1,000 were destroyed outright."