Hope this is the right place for this, as I am trying to find a record of all bombing raids relevant to Rainham, Essex between 1940/45. As part of my local war memorial research, I have almost 60 men, women and children that were killed over the period and would like to include details of the raids that were taking place in which they were killed. Any information or help with where to look would be most appreciative. Kind regards Sean
Yes, there are bombing maps with plots of each bomb and V-weapon plus bomb dropping reports in the HO series. Just looking now for Rainham...
This could be an interesting one to look at: HO 186/2360, AIR RAIDS, Major and minor bomb incidents: reports. 1939-1945
Had a shufti in Norman Longmate's 'Hitler's Rockets' - couple of brief mentions but sadly not the detail with which it covers many V1/2 hits. Maybe at least a pointer to which casualties are likely down to rockets: 5 Nov. '44 - "Two minor incidents, in Rainham, Essex & at North Romford" & "Rainham was the site of another of Essex's 'outstanding incidents', shortly before midnight on Monday, 15 January 1945, when 14 people were killed & 4 seriously injured" Also mentions a near-miss V2 which blew Rainham Church's windows in while a wedding was going on. The service continued...
From The Blitz Then and Now Vol3 Rainham V2 attacks (Big Ben incidents) Nov44 Nov 5th 12.45pm Nov 17th 21.45pm Nov 26th 11.01am Dec44 Dec 3rd 06.15am Jan45 15/16 Jan 14 killed 4 badly injured 23.12pm Jan 21st 18.53pm Feb45 Feb 20th 13.23pm Mar45 Mar 5th 22.32pm Mar 6th 03.07am Mar 14th 21.22pm 152 05-11-44 § 12:42 Rainham Rainham, Essex. Fell on waterlogged land. L 977 025 50' diameter 205 17-11-44 § 21:38 Rainham Rainham, Essex. Fell in field L 964 017 41' x 7' 259 26-11-44 § 11:02 Rainham Rainham, Essex. Fell on waste ground. L 966 021 38' x 8' 2 30 302 03-12-44 § 06:13 Rainham Rainham, Essex. Fell in field. L 984 018 38' x 7' 25 540 K 15-01-45 § 23:13 Rainham Rainham L 973 004 Direct Hit 14 4 581 N 21-01-45 § 18:52 Rainham Rainham L 943 005 53' x 11' 831 N 20-02-45 § 13:23 Rainham Rainham (Airburst) L 9601 Airburst 930 ? 05-03-45 22:29 § 22:32 Rainham Rainham L 968 006 50' diameter 932 K 06-03-45 03:03 § 03:07 Rainham Rainham L 968 009 Direct Hit 1013 K 14-03-45 21:20 § 21:22 Rainham Rainham L 955 018 Direct Hit 8 killed V2 Rocket Attacks - Welcome » WWII V2 Rocket Attacks regards Clive
Also mentions a near-miss V2 which blew Rainham Church's windows in while a wedding was going on. The service continued... We are like that in Essex, nothing fazes us. Thankyou all for the responses. Thanks Clive for the list of 'dud uns' which thankfully kept the memorial list a lot shorter than it already is! There is obviously a lot more info out there than I imagined. TNA maps next...kind regards Sean
hello Sean I have gone through After the Battle Blitz vol 1 and 2 Vol 1 Thursday November 30th 1939 A barrage balloon grounded at 10 mins past midnight at Rainham Railway Station.Interupted traffic on both lines and caused some damage to signals and telegraph wires. Wednesday May 22nd 1940 A British plane was brought down by AA fire at Rainham.No serious damage to property has been reported but 2 persons were slightly injured by broken window glass. Aircraft Hampden (L4067) was from no 83 Squadron and had been on a bombing mission to attack munitions trains in Germany.Hit by flak over Germany the pilot E.Coton ordered the crew to bale out.Humphrey Jones and Walter Smith were captured but Cyril Shewry was killed.Coton stuck with his plane and managed to reach the English coast only to be fired at by Gun Sites H5 and N20 having been illuminated by Searchlight DA41.Coton escaped by parachute,landing uninjured and the aircraft crashed in Berwick Road Rainham. The Starfish site was ignited 1940May 10/11 At Rainham at 12.13am but up to 3.40am no bombs whatsoever had been attracted to it. Saturday 31st August 1940 Me Bf 109E-1 (4806) Shot down by B.J.G.Carbury 603 Squadron during combat over Hornchurch.Lost a wing crashed inverted and burned out at Bridge Road Rainham 12.45pm.Oberlt L Hafer bailed out but fell dead with unopened parachute and discovered in Ingreborne Crekk 2 days later. Vol 2 Sunday September 15th 1940 Bf 109E-7(2061) shot down and crashed in flames in Hartlip Churchyard near Rainham 3pm.Uffz H.Streibing baled out and captured unhurt. Wednesday March 19/20 1941 9 fatalities were reported from Rainham. regards Clive
I think this one (see below) actually refers to a V2 impact that destroyed Nos 5 & 7, Manser Road and caused significant damage to other properties in the vicinity. I lived in No 7 from 1976 until 1992. My neighbours in 5 & 9 both told me that a V2 destroyed 5 & 7. My neighbour in No 5 was married to the daughter of the original inhabitants of 5 - her parents were killed in the incident. Incident Number 1013 @ 21:22 on Wednesday 14 March 1945
GALE JANE JENNIE 14 March 1945 Age 58 HORNCHURCH, URBAN DISTRICT GALE WILLIAM JOHN 14 March 1945 Age 58 HORNCHURCH, URBAN DISTRICT COLE AGNES MAUD MCGREADY 14 March 1945 Age 61 HORNCHURCH, URBAN DISTRICT COLE CHARLES JOHN GEORGE 14 March 1945 Age 67 HORNCHURCH, URBAN DISTRICT MOCKERADGE FRANCES 14 March 1945 Age 66 HORNCHURCH, URBAN DISTRICT MOCKERADGE WILLIAM GEORGE 14 March 1945 Age 60 HORNCHURCH, URBAN DISTRICT TURNER DAINTRY MICHAEL 14 March 1945 Age 11 HORNCHURCH, URBAN DISTRICT TURNER GLADYS 14 March 1945 Age 44 HORNCHURCH, URBAN DISTRICT The Gales lived at No 11; the Coles at No 9; the Mockeradges at No 5 and the Turners at No 7. Don't know how I'd feel, living in the rebuilt home where my parents died, but perhaps there was a comfort in that....
I think this one (see below) actually refers to a V2 impact that destroyed Nos 5 & 7, Manser Road and caused significant damage to other properties in the vicinity. I lived in No 7 from 1976 until 1992. My neighbours in 5 & 9 both told me that a V2 destroyed 5 & 7. My neighbour in No 5 was married to the daughter of the original inhabitants of 5 - her parents were killed in the incident. Incident Number 1013 @ 21:22 on Wednesday 14 March 1945 =============== Daintry was a surname that my old neighbours from No 9 mentioned to me. It seems probable that a Daintree inherited No 7 at some point as my neighbour indicated that the 1950s Daintree was a bit of a hoarder. 5 & 7 were rebuilt in around 1948. The gardens of 5 & 7 extend about 10 feet from the rear of the properties. I once dug a moped frame up near the end of the garden. PS: Where did the name information come from, please?
There is a Big document in Kew plotting all the V1 strikes on a map, and sorted by date. It, in the usual Kew style, is utterly misfiled. In World War Two the V1 was described as "Pilotless Air Craft", which got abbreviated down to PAC. The Kew minion cataloguing it saw PAC on the title and entered it as "P.A.C (Parachute and Cable)", so I got very excited when researching PAC and I saw the following record and attendant dates. Parachute and Cable, in use in 1944!! Whoohoo! Jackpot! Cumulative plot: P.A.C. (Parachute and Cable) activity | The National Archives Imagine my disappointment... Couple of pictures of the contents. I did not record the entire thing due to time. The last one is neat though. Its clear paper with the plots for a 24 hour period. Each day is a different sheet of paper. Thus you can adjust the sample by selecting the appropriate dates. Want a week of plots? Just select the start and end dates with all in-between sheets. How about locations hit on every Saturday for the month of August? Just pull out the sheets, line them up and you have that info.
A thought occurs. The Germans were relying on reports from networks of agents on the fall of the bombs to make adjustments to the settings on subsequent launches and 'tune' the footprint. However the network of agents did not exist and were fictional entities run by British counter intelligence as part of the Doublecross system so that offset false coordinates were provided to cause the settings adjustments to create either under or overshoots. However when a bomb hit a significant target that would be reported, for example, by neutral observers the "agents" would have to return a correct report so as to remain credible. To make the false reports consistent with each other a map of them would have to be maintained. I wonder if this exists anywhere.
Have you reported the error in the item description using the link on the TNA page which says" Have you found an error with this catalogue description? Let us know"?