The Night Mail

[Florence Locomotive Works]

35 minutes ago, Happy Hippo said:

Sorry to disappoint Douglas, but it's probably a family tale rather than fact. Complete demolition of houses was usually by the various air mines as mentioned earlier.  However, and more importantly, the maximum range of a V2 was 200 miles and the distance from London to Liverpool is 220 miles, so unless the dastardly hun had a secret launch site to the NW of London....

 

The known V2 targets (from Wikipedia):

 

 

About 3,172 V-2 rockets were fired at the following targets:

 

Belgium, 1,664:

Antwerp (1,610), Liège (27), Hasselt (13), Tournai (9), Mons (3), Diest (2)

 

United Kingdom, 1,402:

London (1,358), Norwich (43),[16]: 289  Ipswich (1)

 

France, 76:

Lille (25), Paris (22), Tourcoing (19), Arras (6), Cambrai (4)

 

Netherlands, 19:

Maastricht (19)

 

Germany, 11:

Remagen (11)

 

The British rarely read or hear about V-2 strikes outside of London, but they lie in second place when compared to Antwerp.

 

Interestingly, the Nazis were also prepared to use them as tactical weapons against targets at Remagen in their own country.

 

I thought it seemed a bit of stretch for one of them too, thank you for clarifying it. I presume the house was destroyed by conventional bombing/fire then during the Liverpool blitz. 

Edited May 17, 2022 by Florence Locomotive Works
Atrocious typing

[Tony_S]

1 minute ago, Florence Locomotive Works said:

I presume the house was destroyed by conventional biking…

Someone will be along soon complaining that cyclists always get the blame…

[Florence Locomotive Works]

1 minute ago, Tony_S said:

Someone will be along soon complaining that cyclists always get the blame…

It’s fixed now, finally upgraded to an IPhone 13 so the screen size is different along with the keyboard so my typing quality is taking a battering. Excellent phone though. 

[jamie92208]

21 minutes ago, Florence Locomotive Works said:

I thought it seemed a bit of stretch for one of them too, thank you for clarifying it. I presume the house was destroyed by conventional bombing/fire then during the Liverpool blitz. 

Somewhere there is probably a detailed survey of bombs that fell 9n Liverpool and obviously you should be able to find the address.  Most conventional bombing of the UK was over by 1941 after which the allies pretty well had air superiority.  I have seen such maps for London. It might be worth some research.

 

Jamie

 

[J. S. Bach]

I saw this link about a New Zealand teen and his Lego train and thought to post it here:

 

https://www.brickfanatics.com/teenagers-epic-lego-train-on-track-to-break-world-record/

 

 

Edited May 17, 2022 by J. S. Bach
To correct a broken link.

[lanchester]

1 hour ago, Florence Locomotive Works said:

I thought it seemed a bit of stretch for one of them too, thank you for clarifying it. I presume the house was destroyed by conventional bombing/fire then during the Liverpool blitz. 

I wondered whether perhaps the confusion was with the V1 (doodlebug). There was a raid on Manchester, Christmas Eve 1944, with forty odd V1s air launched from He 111s over the North Sea, and one actually came down in Chester, although as far as I can tell, none hit Liverpool.

[PhilJ W]

3 hours ago, J. S. Bach said:

That reminds me very much of a Quonset hut:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quonset_hut

 

They were a lot smaller than a Quonset hut. only a maximum of six feet headroom. Between them in size was the Nissen hut. There are a couple of Quonset huts still in use in Malta forming part of the air museum, one of them holds a complete C-47 (Dakota).

3 hours ago, Happy Hippo said:

Whilst on the subject of large explosions, it was 79 years ago today, that Britain woke to the news that 617 Sqn RAF, had successfully bombed the Mohne and Eder dams in Germany using Barnes Wallis's 'bouncing bomb', which was another form of aerial mine.

Actually they were a modified depth charge. They were Top Secret for many years, why I don't know as one of the bombs overshot the target (it bounced over the dam) and didn't explode so the Germans were well aware of it and their intelligence report fell into Soviet hands after the war.

[Tony_S]

9 minutes ago, PhilJ W said:

their intelligence report fell into Soviet hands after the war.

Such an attack that the bouncing bombs were used for would be considered a war crime now. 

[polybear]

20 minutes ago, PhilJ W said:

Actually they were a modified depth charge. They were Top Secret for many years, why I don't know as one of the bombs overshot the target (it bounced over the dam) and didn't explode so the Germans were well aware of it and their intelligence report fell into Soviet hands after the war.

 

IIRC the locals thought the unexploded bouncing bomb was an aircraft drop tank.....

There's very old (WW2) video showing a development of the bomb by the Germans - they made a rocket propelled jobbie for much longer range.

[Winslow Boy]

2 hours ago, jamie92208 said:

Somewhere there is probably a detailed survey of bombs that fell 9n Liverpool and obviously you should be able to find the address.  Most conventional bombing of the UK was over by 1941 after which the allies pretty well had air superiority.  I have seen such maps for London. It might be worth some research.

 

Jamie

 

 

Definitely one done for the greater Manchester area as the local rag, other descriptions of toilet paper are available, published a link to it and it was quite 'rabbit holish' to confirm what we had been told was bomb damage.

 

So Douglas I would perhaps check on the something like Liverpool Echo or similar website and see if anything comes up.

[Happy Hippo]

31 minutes ago, Tony_S said:

Such an attack that the bouncing bombs were used for would be considered a war crime now. 

Yes it most certainly would.  The dams were legitimate targets, but the  destruction of such created absolute havoc further down the valleys, including the deaths of many civilians as well as soviets in a forced labour camp which would now be seen as totally unacceptable.

 

In all honesty, it was more of a morale boosting operation,(at the massive cost in the lives of aircrew), rather than a strategic triumph.  It didn't destroy the capability of the Ruhr as a manufacturing base, it merely disrupted it for a sort period of time 

 

The bombing of Dresden would now also be seen as totally unacceptable, at the time it was a way to a means in those rather dark and far off days.  The bombing of Dresden was also a sop to the Russians to show that the rest of the allies were 'supporting' the Russian advances towards Berlin, as Dresden was a communications hub for German forces travelling to the east. (But not the west so the Americans and British bombed it to show the Russians they were all part of the same team!).

 

The subsequent development of precision munitions has lead to situations where targets are sometimes subject to legal scrutiny  and approval prior to being hit.  During the Afghan campaign, Apache helicopter gunship crews were in direct contact with legal beagles in London and Washington as to whether a target was considered legitimate or whether the risk of collateral damage was too great.   Tactical decisions were being made by civilians with no concept of military operations from thousands of miles away.

 

Step into present day and one can look at the war crimes allegedly being committed daily in the Ukraine by Russian forces, to realise that their 'rape and destroy' mentality has not changed since Zukhov launched the Soviet 3 Shock Army from Poland into Germany in 1944/45.

Edited May 17, 2022 by Happy Hippo

[jamie92208]

4 hours ago, Happy Hippo said:

Whilst on the subject of large explosions, it was 79 years ago today, that Britain woke to the news that 617 Sqn RAF, had successfully bombed the Mohne and Eder dams in Germany using Barnes Wallis's 'bouncing bomb', which was another form of aerial mine.

I have alse realised that I walked into the Juvenile Court in Leeds and saw a very attractive young policewoman  sitting in the dock. A mate ssid 'Hello Jamie" and Beth said, "It's not the Jamie is it"  for some reason some neorons collided and 2 plus two equalled 6 and I realised that this young lady was the flatmate of a rather atracrtive nurse in A and E who, 6 months earlier had told me that her flatmate was joining the police. The rest as they say is history.

 

Jamie

Edited May 17, 2022 by jamie92208

[Happy Hippo]

2 minutes ago, jamie92208 said:

I have alse realised that I walked into the Juvenile Court in Leeds and saw a very attractive young policewoman  sitting in the dock. A mate ssid 'Hello Jamie" and Beth said, "It's not the Jamie is it"  for some reason some neorons collided and 2 plus two equalled 6 and I realised that this young lady was the flatmate of a rather atracrtive nurse in A and E who, 6 months earlier had told me that her flatmate was joining the police. The rest as they say is history.

 

Jamie

I hesitate to say that was not a large explosion but a big bang....🤣

 

[br2975]

49 minutes ago, jamie92208 said:

I have alse realised that I walked into the Juvenile Court in Leeds and saw a very attractive young policewoman  sitting in the dock. A mate ssid 'Hello Jamie" and Beth said, "It's not the Jamie is it"  for some reason some neorons collided and 2 plus two equalled 6 and I realised that this young lady was the flatmate of a rather atracrtive nurse in A and E who, 6 months earlier had told me that her flatmate was joining the police. The rest as they say is history.

 

Jamie

 

 "I met my husband / wife, in court" - hmmmm

[Happy Hippo]

1 minute ago, br2975 said:

 

 "I met my husband / wife, in court" - hmmmm

As long as they weren't lawyers!!

[br2975]

1 minute ago, Happy Hippo said:

As long as they weren't lawyers!!

Or 'soliciting' solicitors

 

[polybear]

1 hour ago, Happy Hippo said:

The subsequent development of precision munitions has lead to situations where targets are sometimes subject to legal scrutiny  and approval prior to being hit.  During the Afghan campaign, Apache helicopter gunship crews were in direct contact with legal beagles in London and Washington as to whether a target was considered legitimate or whether the risk of collateral damage was too great.   Tactical decisions were being made by civilians with no concept of military operations from thousands of miles away.

 

 

Sadly the Taliban weren't playing by quite the same rules.....

[PhilJ W]

1 hour ago, Happy Hippo said:

Step into present day and one can look at the war crimes allegedly being committed daily in the Ukraine by Russian forces, to realise that their 'rape and destroy' mentality has not changed since Zukhov launched the Soviet 3 Shock Army from Poland into Germany in 1944/45.

I read somewhere that Zukhov's army were not involved very much in the rape and destroy but it was the lower quality units that followed who were largely responsible. It seems their soldiers can be pretty stupid at times.

https://www.mirror.co.uk/news/world-news/russian-tank-destroyed-bungling-drivers-26982718?utm_source=taboola&utm_medium=display&utm_campaign=exchange

 

Edited May 17, 2022 by PhilJ W

[simontaylor484]

Earlier mention of the Ludendorff Bridge reminded me of this

 

[AndyID]

5 hours ago, PhilJ W said:

Actually they were a modified depth charge.

 

Yes, the idea was to create a pressure-wave in the water close to the dam's foundations. Water has a lot of mass compared to air and once you get it moving it's very difficult to stop it. It's the same effect as a tsunami.

 

 

 

Edited May 18, 2022 by AndyID
Proof reader out to lunch

[AndyID]

I have not written a line of code in about ten years but even that was pretty basic. I'm launching into something a bit more adventurous now which means I could be gone for some time.

 

Fortunately it is related to model railways and if it actually works you might hear more 🙂

 

(The code/software really isn't very complicated. The complicated bit is understanding all the ins and outs of this little puppy

 

https://www.digikey.com/htmldatasheets/production/54689/0/0/1/attiny24-44-84-datasheet.html?utm_adgroup=xGeneral&utm_source=google&utm_medium=cpc&utm_campaign=Dynamic Search_EN_Product&utm_term=&utm_content=xGeneral&gclid=EAIaIQobChMI_dzguOPn9wIVDz6tBh2r-A-pEAAYASAAEgK6BfD_BwE

[J. S. Bach]

I got lost just reading the title!

[polybear]

4 hours ago, J. S. Bach said:

I got lost just reading the title!

 

It won't work.  Any datasheet totally devoid of pretty coloured pictures is doomed at the outset....

[jamie92208]

10 hours ago, br2975 said:

 

 "I met my husband / wife, in court" - hmmmm

And she was sitting in the dock.

 

Jamie

[Winslow Boy]

34 minutes ago, jamie92208 said:

And she was sitting in the dock.

 

Jamie

 

Well they say opposites attract.