South East London during the Blitz

Discussion in 'United Kingdom' started by Drew5233, Nov 8, 2008.

  1. Drew5233

    Drew5233 #FuturePilot 1940 Obsessive

    Hi,

    Elmer road is across the road from where I lived. What School did you go to in Catford.

    Welcome to the forum by the way :)
     
  2. starlight7

    starlight7 Junior Member

    Thanks for welcome, Drew

    I went to Prendergast in Rushey Green. Primary school was Baring Road in Lee. Dad went to Catford Boys, they lived in Brockley Rise. Grandad was a clockmaker and used to look after the clock in the clocktower at Lewisham. Dad joined the RAF in WW2 and he was a navigator.
     
  3. starlight7

    starlight7 Junior Member

    Welcome to the forum, starlight. There are 12 casualties listed for that day, looks like several adjacent houses were hit, so probably a V bomb.

    I think there are maps of the bomb locations somewhere?

    001 BRAZIER AE - - 16/06/1944 CIVILIAN WAR DEAD
    002 COLEMAN B - - 16/06/1944 CIVILIAN WAR DEAD
    003 COLEMAN A - - 16/06/1944 CIVILIAN WAR DEAD
    004 HORNSBY E - - 16/06/1944 CIVILIAN WAR DEAD
    005 HORNSBY GT - - 16/06/1944 CIVILIAN WAR DEAD
    006 HUNT EM - - 16/06/1944 CIVILIAN WAR DEAD
    007 MATTHEWS LJ - - 16/06/1944 CIVILIAN WAR DEAD
    008 MILES ES - - 16/06/1944 CIVILIAN WAR DEAD
    009 MOORE AE - - 16/06/1944 CIVILIAN WAR DEAD
    010 MORGAN L - - 16/06/1944 CIVILIAN WAR DEAD
    011 WILSHER CW - - 16/06/1944 CIVILIAN WAR DEAD
    012 WORBOYS E - - 16/06/1944 CIVILIAN WAR DEAD
    Thanks so much for this info- my rellies were the Colemans.
     
  4. Cresent

    Cresent Junior Member

    I be most grateful if anyone could give me details of the bombing of King William Walk and Greenwich Market.
    I'm wondering if it occurred at the same time as the bomb markings on General Wolfe's statue by the Observatory in Greenwich park which I used to look at as a youngsters
    Many thanks
     
  5. cash_13

    cash_13 Senior Member

    Andy, two things I can contribute to this great topic...

    My wife's grandfather was the publican at the Swiss Tavern in the late 60's early 70's in Lasuanne Road Peckham just of the New Cross one way system....I have a pic somewhere.....Unfortunately he was robbed and gave that up and became a security guard in Lewisham and New Cross....so no doubt one of you urchins was taken home with a clip around the ear for playing in bombed out buildings and factories etc..

    The other is my son in laws grandfather was one of the few that survived the blast in Woolworths.....he had gone down with his best friend and his mates mother as she had been told that there was saucepans available for the first time in a long while because of the metal restraints and there was a really large gathering of woman in a line waiting to go in.....We taking about this last summer so I forgotten most of what he said but he was one of the lucky ones and his friend and his mother were not!
     
  6. Buteman

    Buteman 336/102 LAA Regiment (7 Lincolns), RA

    Just bumped this thread, as a local reporter is looking at the matter of the V1 that landed on Lewisham High Street. She is trying to find out more.

    Andy, I've PM'd you with contact details.

    Cheers - Rob
     
  7. Drew5233

    Drew5233 #FuturePilot 1940 Obsessive

    Cheers Rob
     
  8. barbaralawrence

    barbaralawrence Senior Member

    Hi Drew and friends,

    I'm researching the stories of my British family during WWII (the photo of my mother in her VAD uniform, and my uncle Kent Green just before he left for France with the BEF).

    I just found that my mother served at Netherne Hospital in Coulsdon (near Kenley RAF Base), and the Nurses Home there was hit by a bomb that did not explode. Her hearing was badly damaged by a bomb that hit the Nurses Home when she was serving in Surgery, and I'm trying to identify when that occurred. Does anyone know if the impact of a bomb that did NOT explode could have made enough sound to deafen her permanently in one ear?

    Thanks for your help.

    Barbara
     
  9. starlight7

    starlight7 Junior Member

    Just checking the site again. I have been looking at the London electoral rolls for during the war - they are now on ancestry.co. Found the 2 sisters in my family who were killed in 1944. For 1939 they were listed at 12 Elmer Road. Also I think one of the pics through this site of bombed out houses looks like I remember the Elmer Rd houses- so just maybe that was their house, you never know.

    Happy New Year to everyone!
     
  10. mickack

    mickack Mickack

    My Father Richard Ackrill was fire watching on the roof of Sainsbury's in Catford when the Lewisham High street V1 struck and he and his colleague jumped into the Sainsbury's van and drove to the scene to help ,on their arrival a woman stumbled towards them whose eyes had been sucked out by the blast !, They helped to carry bodies which were placed on a bus which had been caught in the explosion and then started resuring the Lewisham branch of Sainsbury's. I think the sights he saw prepared him for joining the army a few months later, strangely enough my Mum was rendered homeless by the Leahurst Road/Pascoe Road Doodlebug nearby at around the same time !
     
  11. ARPCDHG

    ARPCDHG Member

    Gents:

    You may be interested in the booklet 'Rations and Rubble' produced by Deptford Forum Publishing. It was produced in 1994 and is quite hard to find but very worthwhile. It tells the story of the V2 that hit the Woolworths store in New Cross in January 1945, the worst V2 incident of the war. My review and further info is here:

    Rations and Rubble: Remembering Woolworths: Amazon.co.uk: Jess Steele: Books
     
  12. Boletus Edulis

    Boletus Edulis Junior Member

    Hi all,

    Joined the site because of this thread, as there is a family connection to the subject of the OP. So for my first post I will just explain the details, and then hopefully you will be able to fill the gaps, provide context or refute.

    My dad received what we assume was a ricochet wound in the knee. Dad was born in 1935, so he is not 100 per cent sure of the date, but we suspect the facts suggest it was the same raid as the bombing of the school.

    So what he remembers is walking home for lunch from Waller Road School, Peckham, to Dennetts Road (just off Queens Road). He was just about to step into their front garden, and suddenly hearing a plane going over and some
    noises which he believes were machine gun fire. He said he remembers that the plane was painted black all underneath, which surprised him. And then he woke up in hospital. Does not think he was targeted because the plane appeared suddenly over the Rising Sun pub on Dennetts Road and so would not have really seen him, but a 'old boy on a bicycle' in the next street was killed, and the locals felt he was targeted.

    So I would be interested in knowing if is fits with what is known. One interesting thing I note is that dad said the ARP said it was a flying pencil (Dornier Do 17) but the story seems to imply it was a FW19, which I assume is quite a lot different in profile and size.

    One amusing footnote. About four years ago, dad had to have his knee replaced and the surgeon did the x-rays and asked why there was metal in dad's knee. He replied "It is German Government property." To which his German surgeon fell about laughing over.

    Dad remembers the Woolworth's bombing, and I would like to ask for comment on another bomb in the area, namelywhat we think was a V2 landing in Greenwhich near the train station. My grandad was the Overseerer (effectively the boss) of the Post Office there, and we believe was the only one who got out alive from that building. Apparently Grandad said the V2 landed effectively on an embankment so a lot of the heat and explosive sort of bounced back, and most people were buried and burnt. He remembers literally throwing lumps of concrete that were later weighed at two hundredweight and marvelling at what the human body can do when it wants to help save lives.

    Sorry for such a long post, but I would appreciate any further details on what this second family story might be of.
     
  13. ARPCDHG

    ARPCDHG Member

    Though I can find no direct reference to straffing in Peckham, the most likely date is 20th January 1943, when Sandhurst Road school was bombed. There were incidents all over SE London of machine-gunning by FW190s.

    If you know which street the 'old boy on a bicycle' was killed, I have a list of all the casualties on that day, so it would pretty much nail the date.

    Regards
     
  14. Lofty1

    Lofty1 Senior Member

    Its a small world. I went to Waller Rd school, our house was in Queens Rd, right opposite Erlanger Rd, during the war my dad used to take my eldest sister into the back yard and show her the planes, some German she says, flying so low you could see the pilots,
    I was born in 1944, and well remember while still very young the family waiting for the war damage men to arrive and repair our house, our back yard wall divided us from the Hatcham Liberal Club, which took a big bomb on the dance hall set behind the main building, turned out I had a privileged start in life, me and the kid next door had our own fenced off private bombsite, luxury. :lol:
    Dont know if it will help any one researching this but Waller Rd and Dennetts Rd are/were in New Cross SE14, the boundary for Peckham SE15 being where Laussanne Rd and Pomeroy St form a cross road with Queens Rd. (not trying to be clever just happen to know that)
    As a kid I also spent a lot of time floating on rafts in a large brick built water storage tank sited where New Cross post office is now, built I think for the AFS/NFS, it was still there when the last tram in London,was retired into the tram depot almost opposite.
    Enough rambling sorry.
    regards lofty
     
  15. Boletus Edulis

    Boletus Edulis Junior Member

    Hi ARP,

    Dad said he was told a man was killed in Lausanne Road. Does this square with your details?

    Many thanks for your help.
     
  16. Boletus Edulis

    Boletus Edulis Junior Member

    Hi Lofty,

    Indeed it is. Dad said there was also a load of bricks in a water storage in Lausanne Road where he used to play. He also said that in Lausanne Road there was a bombed house there with a pond in it and that they used to get tadpoles and frogs from it.
     
  17. ARPCDHG

    ARPCDHG Member

    Hi ARP,

    Dad said he was told a man was killed in Lausanne Road. Does this square with your details?

    Many thanks for your help.

    Hi - just checked - unfortunately not.

    What may have happened is that the man may have been badly injured and made a recovery - hence his name is not on the register - but local rumour/Chinese whispers at the time go round that he died. Without a name it is difficult to confirm.

    Most of the casualties that day were at Sandhurst Road School; Oscar Street; Oareborough Road; the Chichester pub in Evelyn Street and Oakshade Road.

    HOWEVER - it is worth noting that there were 44 reported cases of aircraft straffing in that raid, so the likelihood is that your father was injured on that day.

    Austin
     
  18. Boletus Edulis

    Boletus Edulis Junior Member

    Many thanks I appeciate this. What he said to me tonight was he had been told the old boy had been killed (more over he noted that to him as a seven year old the term old boy could mean almost any age) as you say local rumours are not always accurate. Hence why I added the bit about the flying pencil which appears to be contrary to the actual facts.
     
  19. Lofty1

    Lofty1 Senior Member

    Sir Barnes Wallis once lived in New Cross Road, almost opposite the then tram depot. (sorry a bit of topic but very WW2)
     

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  20. Wills

    Wills Very Senior Member

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