Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

An interactive map showing every German bomb dropped on London during WW2 Blitz

bombsight.org

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

31–40 of 69 posts

Re: An interactive map showing every German bomb dropped on London during WW2 Blitz

#31

Post by m-i-l »

sytelus wrote: post #11

It looks like they didn't spared places like Big Ben, Buckingham Palace, London bridges and so on. How did these things survived then? I can't tell at all if these were re-build after WWII.

From "Why Wasn't Big Ben Bombed During World War II?" [0]: "Luck. Sheer luck. At the time of the Blitz, the Germans, like every air power, did not have the ability to specifically target key buildings through high-altitude bombing raids..."

[0] http://www.slate.com/blogs/quora/2015/05/25/world_war_ii_why...

Re: An interactive map showing every German bomb dropped on London during WW2 Blitz

#32

Post by pjc50 »

kristopolous wrote: post #2

I'm curious about how the civilian population went about this. I'd like to say that if I saw even a remote possibility of something like this happening, I'd hastily vamoose to the hinterlands without a second thought and remain there indefinitely. What percentage of people left the cities in anticipation of such events? The narratives I've seen on the Japanese bombings was that people strategically moved to the small…

Some people did, if they had the money. Children were evacuated and dispersed. However, as always, people have to live within commuting distance of their work. And pretty much everyone was either conscripted, recruited into the manufacturing or logistic side of the war effort, or in one of the "exempt" professions keeping the country operating. My grandfather was one of those as a railway signalman.

I can't remember whether ration cards were location-restricted as well, or whether there were bureaucratic obstacles to freedom of movement.

Re: An interactive map showing every German bomb dropped on London during WW2 Blitz

#33

Post by [deleted] »

m-i-l wrote: post #29

Also worth noting that unexploded bombs from the Second World War still turn up in London every now and again, e.g. 21 May in Wembley [0], 14 May in Bromley [1], 23 March in Bermondsey [2], 20 February in New Malden [3]. [0] http://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2015/may/22/bomb-found-20... [1] http://www.standard.co.uk/news/london/pensioner-finds-unexpl... [2] http://www.standard.co.uk/news/london/police-called-in-afte…

[deleted]

Re: An interactive map showing every German bomb dropped on London during WW2 Blitz

#34

Post by Gustomaximus »

m-i-l wrote: post #29

Also worth noting that unexploded bombs from the Second World War still turn up in London every now and again, e.g. 21 May in Wembley [0], 14 May in Bromley [1], 23 March in Bermondsey [2], 20 February in New Malden [3]. [0] http://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2015/may/22/bomb-found-20... [1] http://www.standard.co.uk/news/london/pensioner-finds-unexpl... [2] http://www.standard.co.uk/news/london/police-called-in-afte…

Also interesting is the ship wreck at the mouth of the Thames containing 1,400 tons of explosives. They estimate if it blew it would be felt in London and create a tidal wave 1-5 meters high.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SS_Richard_Montgomery

Re: An interactive map showing every German bomb dropped on London during WW2 Blitz

#35

Post by john61 »

kristopolous wrote: post #2

I'm curious about how the civilian population went about this. I'd like to say that if I saw even a remote possibility of something like this happening, I'd hastily vamoose to the hinterlands without a second thought and remain there indefinitely. What percentage of people left the cities in anticipation of such events? The narratives I've seen on the Japanese bombings was that people strategically moved to the small…

My Grandma moved with their sons (my father & uncle) from the city to the countryside to her uncle during WWII. It was probably a bad decision, because there was a lot of heavy industry, therefore of lot of bombs and heavy ground fighting.

Re: An interactive map showing every German bomb dropped on London during WW2 Blitz

#36

Post by marcosscriven »

I live next to Clapham Common [0], where there are still mounds anti-aircraft guns were mounted on [1].

It's very common to see modern buildings amongst beautiful period homes, in the gaps left by bombs [2].

[0] http://bombsight.org/#15/51.4548/-0.1443

[1] http://www.loveclapham.com/what-are-the-clapham-common-tarma...

[2] https://www.google.co.uk/maps/@51.455268,-0.142137,3a,75y,18...

Re: An interactive map showing every German bomb dropped on London during WW2 Blitz

#37

Post by fit2rule »

m-i-l wrote: post #29

Also worth noting that unexploded bombs from the Second World War still turn up in London every now and again, e.g. 21 May in Wembley [0], 14 May in Bromley [1], 23 March in Bermondsey [2], 20 February in New Malden [3]. [0] http://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2015/may/22/bomb-found-20... [1] http://www.standard.co.uk/news/london/pensioner-finds-unexpl... [2] http://www.standard.co.uk/news/london/police-called-in-afte…

Lest we forget the true nature of war, it should be noted that British and American bombs are discovered all over the place in Germany too, every year. And still cause casualties, alas.

Re: An interactive map showing every German bomb dropped on London during WW2 Blitz

#39

Post by empiricus »

failrate wrote: post #9

Is it a Poisson Distribution?

I can't see any possible reason for the distribution to be Poisson.

It should be completely random, but the representation on the map is too regular..

Looks like the apparent regularity is an artifact of the way the data is filtered for display on the map for some scales; if I zoom out/in the fully random distribution becomes more visible.

Re: An interactive map showing every German bomb dropped on London during WW2 Blitz

#40

Post by resonation »

failrate wrote: post #9

Is it a Poisson Distribution?

  Pick bananas. He trudges through black compost in 
  to the hothouse. He feels he's about to shit. The 
  missile, sixty miles high, must be coming up on 
  the peak of its trajectory by now... 

  beginning its fall...

  now...
Post reply on HN