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Despite the Germans dropping more than 500 tonnes of bombs on Nottingham last month (May, 1941) only 200 people lost their lives, it has been revealed.

If the Luftwaffe had dropped 500 tonnes of bombs on Nottingham it would have made far more of a mess. I think what they meant to say is 500 bombs.

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Just been watching an episode of Foyle's war on the box, and it brought back memories of my much younger days in Nottingham. I have quite distinct memories of sitting on my uncle's shoulders watching

Welcome back Alison . Did you sell that hat?? I'm over in Nott'm at my mums at the moment I'll see what she has to say on the subject, (Don't hold your breath........."It's me age you know ")

Or one of these !!

If you read what is says on the bottom of the map, it states:- 479 HE bombs, 11 raids, 178 killed, the page is torn on the number of injured.

The bomb load of German bombers was not great, 4000lb approx or 8x250 kg bombs, probably about par for the course for the bombers likely to have been used against Nottingham, He111, Do17, Ju88. Lets not forget the incendiaries that were carried as well, though not in addition to the HE bomb load. I'm assuming that the German bombers carried mixed HE and incendiary loads.

Lets see, 2240 lbs = 1 ton, if each aircraft carried roughly 2 tons of bombs and we're looking at 8 bombs per plane then thats about 60 tons of bombs, is that right, or the equivalent of only about 9 Lancasters, which could carry nearly 4x the bomb load.

Harris certainly reaped the whirlwind when you consider what must have been dropped on Cologne during the 1000 bomber raid.

My mother was a fire watcher in the Lace Market during the war, I still have her wierd tin helmet and stirrup pump, restored to working order. She was supposed to put incendiary bombs into a bucket of sand and spray water on them if they went off, yeah, right.

The incendiaries weren't very big, I found a load of them in a shed when I was doing a survey in Hertfordshire, all the nasty stuff was leaking out of them, I let the site workers deal with it, I bet they took them home.

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Bomb.jpg

OK, I hope I don't bore anyone but: this is a photo of the remains of a 500Kg German WW2 bomb which failed to go off on the day it was dropped at RAF Woodhall Spa sometime after 1943.

The front of the bomb was removed by the disposal squad in 2006 after it was dug up from our quarry (formally RAF Woodhall Spa home of 617 sqdn Dambusters) the sizes are:

Overall Length 5'10-1/2 inches

Length of body: 3'6-1/8inches

Diam. of body: 15-1/2 inches

Thickness of wall: 1-5/8 inches

material of wall: steel

construction of body: cast steel in one piece

Length of tail: 2' 2''

width of tail: 15''

If you need any more details let me know and I'll see what I can fish out,

Info from the disposal plans by the US Navy

Rog

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I found the map showing all the bombs dropped on Nottingham during WW2, it's quite interesting, but tragic when you study it:-

scan0059.jpg

I didn't realise how close they got to the Council House, after Vic station I reckon.

They must have got confused and thought that Notts would be the football power post war.

Any chance of a bigger copy of this?

You can send me an email

Mick

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Mick , Follow the photobucket link to Petes site and then view all sizes.

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Mick

Let me know your e-mail address and I'll send it to you. In all this pile of stuff, I've just found a complete Evening Post special edition of Nottingham at War, I haven't had chance to study it yet, there must be some good info in there.

Rog, I think I've mentioned previously that I don't live far away from Carver Barracks, previously Debden Airfield. It's the home now of the Army bomb disposal squad and they have some fascinating bombs on display at the entrance, some of which are German, and complete. I have to go that way next week or possibly even tomorrow, I'll have a chat with the fearsome guards on the gate and get some info and possibly pictures, perhaps they'll be friendly if I shave the beard off, don't wear my usual white robes and hide the Koran and prayer mat under the seat.

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  • 4 months later...

oops! was going to say was that shelter under the factory the one on Dakeyne St? was told it ran under park there and they never made any recovery attempt, just filled it in, the two "new" council houses next door to library further up carlton rd replace a direct hit one, maybe a vicarage?

Ashley: Some of those shelters were the basement of Metallifacture. One of the employees at Metallifacture was a warden at the time and had just finished putting the people in the shelter and a bomb bounced off the road and into the shelter.

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Just read back through all the postings on this subject to make sure I was not repeating myself (again!) and realised I hadn't given answer to my question on page 6

"According to German Broadcasts (Lord Haw Haw etc)to UK what was the most heavily bombed place in UK, with raids every night and the place devasted?"

That said no one had a guess etc! but as topic raised again thought worth another mention?

Used to work with an old guy who remembered the main Nottingham raid, he was 14 at the time and says a factory somewhere near bottom end of Alfred Street right behind his house was hit by an "oil bomb"? and went up in flames very quickly, never heard of one of those?

Once saw a photo of the still there shops on Sneinton Dale (opp former cinema) with all their windows (shop and upstairs) blown out, As at Trent Lane and Meadow Lane there was a railway bridge close by and I wonder if the railways were the main reason for that area getting it? not that blowing up The Nottingham Suburban would have crippled the country's rail system! or was it just a case of bomb the city?

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An oil bomb was a large incendiary device filled with oil or petrol with an explosive core to spread the burning material about. I gather it was first tried out in large numbers on Coventry, which makes me suspect that it was that City that Lord Haw Haw was referring to.

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I remember as a kid playing in ruins at the back of Basford Hall just beyond Cinderhill Park...There were huge holes in the ground and the local kids talked about them being bomb craters.As this was just a few years after the end of the war, was this kids talk or what their parents had told them from a real occurence??

Maybe a failed attack on the nearby colliery and sidings?

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re those "holes" at cinderhill, I thought the same thing re the open land that used to be at back of glaisdale drive, big hollows and dips in the land, was told however it was "land drop" from nearby wollaton pit? never heard of that term and not sure if the reason? but given closeness of babbo pit to that park wondered if same thing (if in fact that is true)

Had never heard of any attack on Hucknall? would love to hear more?

As regards Most bombed city, well I did say according to german propaganda etc? but according to them it was Random!!!!! they had been listening to the BBC, "bombs were dropped at random" it was a standard radio news broadcast given out most days , as was "minor damage was caused" and "some civilian casualties were reported" they no doubt omitted the latter 2 but according to them Random was in flames, in ruins, with many dead there! (my information from a top selling book on The Battle of Britain)

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The "land drop" holes you refer to could also be the location of old "Bell" pits. They typically can be found in lines running parallel to the outcrop of a coal seam. They were the "original" form of underground mining - the miners would dig a shallow shaft down to the coal, then remove as much coal as possible from around the shaft before it started to cave-in. Then they would abandon it, move along the outcrop line a short distance, and dig another one!

They are often very visible - I know that some of the fields around Coleorton, Leics (near Ashby-de-la-Zouch) have very obvious lines of them!

I could see where they could be mistaken for bomb craters as they often have a raised "lip" around them where they put the overburden as they dug the shaft!

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Had,in later years, become aware of bell pits but you get these ideas stick in your head? I had visions of roads that had collapsed after abandonment and these hollows were the result but you may well be right, they were off the beaten track and well overgrown with brambles etc so not easy to determine for sure.

With regard to "these ideas", as kids we were convinced an old 45 gallon oil drum with top off sunk in wooded wasteland at back of factory on Nottingham Rd was a "witch's well"! very spooky, lol and getting back to the WW2 theme the scrap roller bearings found in the yard of the then fire brigade maint depot, formally AFS station next door were of course live machine gun magazines!

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  • 1 year later...

I found the map showing all the bombs dropped on Nottingham during WW2, it's quite interesting, but tragic when you study it:-

scan0059.jpg

I didn't realise how close they got to the Council House, after Vic station I reckon.

They must have got confused and thought that Notts would be the football power post war.

Thanks for this map.

A lot of my relatives were all killed in the Dakeyne Street Air Raid Shelter on that night. This map is useful to put with the Family tree.

My Uncle, Thomas George Raven age 30, his children Beryl Hannah age 4, Barbara May age 23 months and Thomas age 5 were all killed.

Also he was looking after my other cousins, Ursula Brenda Johnson age 4 and Roy Alan Johnson aged 9 months who were also killed.

My mother also remembers going with her sister to tell the grandparents and found they had also been killed in another part of Nottingham.

Gone,but not forgotten.

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  • 4 months later...

Hi there - great map. Very interested in arboretum area. Map shows bomb dropped around newstead grove/ north sherwood street. Anyone know if this affected Colville street? There are Victorian houses missing on a section of the street and one of my theories is that a bomb could be responsible? Any help greatly appreciated.

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  • 6 months later...

This topic is featured at:

Nottingham Theatre Royal | Goodnight Mister Tom

www.goodnightmistertom.co.uk/memories/.../theatre-royal-nottingha...May 1941, Hitler's focus turned to Rolls Royce in Derby (on account of its ... Personal remembrances at http://nottstalgia.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=4391

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  • 1 year later...

This subject resurfaced a few days ago and I've been ferreting around to find these photos of various locations in Nottingham after they'd been hit.

The old University College, Nottingham (Shakespeare Street)

bomb1.jpg

Trivett Square, Lace Market

bomb4.jpg

Pullman's store (which has its own thread) on Parliament Street

bomb3.jpg

Described as "Hutton Street, Trent Lane"

bomb2.jpg

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  • 10 months later...

There you learn something everyday I didn't realise Nottingham was bombed during WW2,I really never knew.I was born on the 9th of September 1941 at the Womens Hospital Peel street.I do remember mum saying the when the Germans flew over us in Newlyn Drive Asply she was sat in the hall way shaking from top to toe.We did if I remember correctly have a small air raid shelter positioned under the bay window in the front room why she wasn't in there I do not know.Maybe this top to toe shaking had some bearing on me suffering with mental illness (anxiety and depression)who knows.

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  • 2 months later...

The bombings must have been of a random nature otherwise the ROF or Chilwell Depo would have been targeted. I worked at the ROF Kings Meadows Rd and no bombs dropped on the 34 acre site. One just missed the perimeter wall and an air raid shelter. In winter, some of us lads would climb over the perimeter wall at lunchtime to ice skate on the pond formed by the crater.

I used to play in some ruins near the junction of Alfreton Rd and Bentink Rd, They looked burnt out so may have been fire bombed. Nothing on the map though. In 1943/5 we were still doing air raid drill and making for the shelters at school.

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My Dad worked at the ROF, PeverilPeril. He was there until 1942, went into the RAF and then back to the ROF after the war until retiring in 1986. He wasn't at the factory on the night Nottingham was bombed as he was ill in bed (in Lenton) with pleurisy. He can't remember a thing about that night and amazingly never heard the bombings!

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My granddads house on the corner of Colwick Road and Lyndhurst road, Sneinton took a direct hit from an incendiary the night of the big air raid. Lucky it didn't go off straight away. My great uncle who was on leave from the army got it into a bucket of sand and just got to the top of the stairs when it went off throwing him clean down the stairs

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PeverilPeril, i was told that during the war, ROF employees had to wear a badge which said "East Riding works & Services". The reason being that it would disorientate the enemy should an employee be captured.

Seems a bit far fetched, but i found a sackful of these enamel badges, each with an individual employee number in the South Shop, so they must have been there for some reason.

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PeverilPeril, i was told that during the war, ROF employees had to wear a badge which said "East Riding works & Services". The reason being that it would disorientate the enemy should an employee be captured.

Seems a bit far fetched, but i found a sackful of these enamel badges, each with an individual employee number in the South Shop, so they must have been there for some reason.

I never heard that one but there were several wartime stories that were quite believable. Such as when a gun failed in the war due to bodged welding on the shielding that resulted in a gunners death. The welder was identified by the crown inspection stamp and 'disappeared'. They say he was hung.

btw Tricky - I started there at 15 in 1953, Served my time + 1 years then made redundant. Excellent apprenticeship that was identical to RR.

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PeverilPeril, i was told that during the war, ROF employees had to wear a badge which said "East Riding works & Services". The reason being that it would disorientate the enemy should an employee be captured.

During the war road signs and signposts were taken down all over the country, so that if the Nazis did land, they wouldn't know where they were going, and hopefully get lost.

And I believe name boards on railway stations were covered over, to confuse spies (!).

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