Forums Forums Wirral History : Chasing the Past Wirral History Bombed Birkenhead

I would think that Merseyside would be too far for a Doodlebug (V1) to fly from the launch sites on the wrong side of the English Channel. Never read or heard of any much further north than the northerly outskirts of London.

Max range of a Doodlebug anyone ???

They used air launched ones, as we moved up Europe, they moved north as well. Project "Driver", which was the re-siting of the AA guns for V1's moved north as well, finishing up in the Newcastle area.

Sorry, it was Project "Diver".

From mid-September 1944 to mid-January 1944, the ground launched V1's gave way exclusively to air-launched V1's, around 1200 were launched, 638 of them were observed, 331.5 were shot down by AA and 71.5 by fighters.

HAA sites were prepared from the SE up towards Newcastle, on Christmas Eve 40 V1's were aimed at Manchester across the Lincolnshire coast. The very last air launched V1 of the war came down at Hornsey (Yorkshire coast) on the 14th Jan 1945

That's an excellent kill rate by the AA against V1s.

Next month is the 70th anniversary of the May blitz, tha start of it all. There will be rememberance services held around the country.
Liverpool is holding services for all the fire crews killed i heared.
I havent a lot of info on this, just what i heared, so if anyone would like to jump in and tell more....!
Back then they were called Fire Police, hence the term "Fire Bobby".

I never realised they air-launched V1's. Puts a different aspect on things. Thanks w10694.

I hadn't realised there were air launched ones either. For a while, one of my stepsons had a house in Northern France, inland from Dieppe. There were several launch ramps preserved there. I've also visited a V2 launch site between Calais & Boulogne & in the same area the V3 site (which was never operational).

I believe it was helped by very good quality proximity fuses being available.

The air launched ones were often launched at night, to avoid the carrier aircraft being easily identified.

Most people have heard of the V1 & V2, but fewer have heard of the V3, which was in fact a gun. The site at Mimoyecques is awesome.
http://www.historylearningsite.co.uk/v3.htm

From BBC Shropshire:

BBC Shropshire

They did not appear to be very accurate. They were however a good fit on the carrier aircraft ( picture from www.museumofflight.org):

For anyone who is interested, I will be appearing at Fort Perch Rock museum on Easter Monday from 10am till 4pm with my Luftwaffe bomber pilot collection, including original pilots' clothing and equipment from my very rare collection. I will also bring some of the 1:48 scale models I have, including the one of the Ju88 that crashlanded next to Bromborough Dock in August 1940. You can find out more about the model and the last time I appeared at Fort Perch Rock on http://homepage.ntlworld.com/axisas...%20-%20Bromborough%20Ju88%20incident.htm

Also, my WWII re-enactment group will be appearing in Williamson Square on Sat 30th April, Sun 1st May and Mon 2nd May as part of the event to remember the 70th anniversary of the Liverpool blitz. Read more about this at http://www.wirralnews.co.uk/wirral-...-the-blitz-in-liverpool-100252-28418634/

See you there, always had an interest in the Luftwaffe as a militeria collector.

Hi Guys, I am a new member , just found the site. I was born in March 1938 and when my father was called up and sent to France before war broke out we moved from Bebington to Willey Street, Rockferry,my nan lived on Ebenezer street.I can remember some of what happened as we moved down south to Surrey after the war and I recall stuff that happened before we moved.
We( my brother was two years older than I )we had a dried milk tin full of shrapnel'.
We had a shelter in the street but no one seemed to use it.
I recall the Victory parties in the street over Germany and Japan and there being a painting at the end of the street with VOJ on it.
If anyone has any info of that time I would be very interested .
My dad, by the way was at Dunkirk ,was rescued ,then sent to Burma and had to walk into india when Rangoon fell, caught cholera ,survived , was sent to Egypt , then back to Burma from where he was demobbed !!
regards, Dave Hewson

bombed birkenhead 2 has to be william bernards oxton rd

Bernard's certainly, but not Oxton Rd. Haymarket I think.