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15 October 2014
WW2 - People's War

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My Flying Bomb

by delboy

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Archive List > V-1s and V-2s

Contributed by听
delboy
People in story:听
Derek Reynolds
Location of story:听
Tooting, South London
Background to story:听
Army
Article ID:听
A1096779
Contributed on:听
02 July 2003

This is a WWII story, not of bravery or battle, but of an unbelievable happening during the height of the V1 flying bomb or 'Doodle Bug' attacks on London.
One bright sunny day in July 1944 I was about to leave the fire station where I had been on shift when looking up saw, to my unbelievable horror, the nose of a dreaded V1 was very slowly coming into view just above the fire hall. This V1 was no more than 100 feet up and, what was most unusual about this bomb, it was gliding without engine power.
I, of course, expected the bomb to land on the road almost where I stood. I had fallen to the pavement trying to make myself as small as possible and I think I was trying to dig a hole in in the concrete, but the bomb made its slow and rocky way, skimming the roofs of houses opposite, finally running out of air and landing with a crash on a small house about 100 yards away.
One good thing about this was that as the bomb was so low and had glided some three miles after it's engine had cut out, it did not have the force that usually accompanied these bombs meaning that the area of devastation was greatly reduced and so it destroyed only one house and even left the house opposite the crash with it's windows intact.

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These messages were added to this story by site members between June 2003 and January 2006. It is no longer possible to leave messages here. Find out more about the site contributors.

Message 1 - Your story edited and categorised

Posted on: 14 October 2003 by Helen

Dear Delrey

Thank you for contributing to the site. Your story has now been edited and categorised and you can link to it from the following pages:
C1197
C1161
C1140

Congratulations. I hope you continue to enjoy using the site.

Best wishes

Helen, WW2 People's War Team

Message 1 - Flying bomb

Posted on: 31 January 2004 by paul gill - WW2 Site Helper

Delrey, I've read your V1 story and contributions and ..I'm glad I was born after the war! To me, it's technically facinating stuff but not at all if you're a victim.

My understanding is that individual V1's were potentially more destructive than V2's as the latter buried themselves deep underground thus expending their explosive energy relatively harmlessly. The powered dive of modern missiles is useful for penetrating an armoured target when the explosion would be dissipated inside the ship or tank.

The 1979 大象传媒 book "The Secret War" confirms 13th June 1944 as the first V1 which hit Grove rd Bethnal Green, and it does say the emergency services searched for the crew!

Just a thought, you've probably seen as many V1 and V2 sites as any. Given the relatively small damage, do you think there's any possibility that the V1 main charge didn't explode properly? The weight of the missile would probably have sufficed to destroy the house.

Best wishes

paul

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