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

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21–30 of 69 posts

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

#21
post #9

Is it a Poisson Distribution?

I'm not mathematician, but yes there have been studies to show that bombs sometimes fell in clusters, and those clusters were symptomatic of a perfectly random distribution, and that the nazi didn't have the skills/time to target some places more than others. In fact, if a function returned a homogeneous grid of spots, then it would be optimized for homogeneity, not randomness.

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

#22
Strangely enough I was just showing the visiting inlaws this site last night, after their trip to the Imperial War Museum yesterday.

I now live in a part of London which is a conservation area, which has lots of nice old houses and streets. But every two streets or so there is a not-as-attractive 50s/60s/70s house. I used to joke that these were 2nd World War bomb sites, but after seeing the map of bombs for the first time a few years back I realised that might not be far off the truth.

It certainly puts modern day complaints, such as the cost of housing and long working hours, into perspective.

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

#23
post #17

Reminded me of the opening passage of Gravity's Rainbow . Tyrone Slothrop gets around... "A screaming comes across the sky. It has happened before, but there is nothing to compare it to now. It is too late. The Evacuation still proceeds, but it's all theatre. There are no lights inside the cars. No light anywhere. Above him lift girders old as an iron queen, and glass somewhere far above that would let the light of d…

Gravity's Rainbow is a cool book, but it's actually about the V2 rockets (roughly 1,300 of which hit London), that started being used in 1944.

Meanwhile the "blitz" and The Battle of Britain were an entirely different part of the war, taking place about four years earlier, and this map seems to cover that period of time, from late 1940 to mid-1941.

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

#24
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.

Luck Aerial bombardment was very inaccurate in those days. In Berlin, the RAF failed to hit what was then the largest office building in the world: the ministry of aviation. However, they did destroy one of the oldest synagogues in Europe. http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Detlev-Rohwedder-Haus

Definitely. According to http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Strategic_bombing_during_World_...:

In reality, the day bombing was "precision bombing" only in the sense that most bombs fell somewhere near a specific designated target such as a railway yard. Conventionally, the air forces designated as "the target area" a circle having a radius of 1,000 feet around the aiming point of attack. While accuracy improved during the war, Survey studies show that, overall, only about 20% of the bombs aimed at precision targets fell within this target area.[159] In the fall of 1944, only seven percent of all bombs dropped by the Eighth Air Force hit within 1,000 feet of their aim point.

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

#25
post #10
post #8

How many bombs were dropped in the United States during World War 2?

A few hundred. By balloons launched from Japanese subs off coast of Northwest US. No accurate record available because the discoveries were strictly kept as secrets.

Dutch Harbor?

Are you assuming Pearl Harbor is pre-war?

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

#26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Luck Aerial bombardment was very inaccurate in those days. In Berlin, the RAF failed to hit what was then the largest office building in the world: the ministry of aviation. However, they did destroy one of the oldest synagogues in Europe. http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Detlev-Rohwedder-Haus

For a separate discussion about the argument that the allies should have bombed the lines to the death camps: I've been bewildered for a decade how anyone proposes that they could have done any damage to a 1.4 meter wide target made of two steel beams lying on the earth. At least, any damage that could not have been repaired in half a week.

Barnes Wallis' Tallboy[1] was a 5 ton bomb designed to be dropped from a high altitude and penetrate deep underground. Upon detonation at the correct depth it could create a large crater, up to 100ft deep and 80ft across, which was identified as being useful for attacking railway targets and airstrips, as repair of these craters was time consuming. Combined with the specialised bomb sights used by the squadron who dropped the Tallboys, successfully bombing a small target such as a viaduct or railway line was doable.

However this bomb wasn't used before June '44, when most of the death camps were closed or closing, and the short supply of Tallboys meant that they were exclusively used for targets of high military importance.

1. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tallboy_%28bomb%29

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

#27
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.

Partly because Hitler ordered that specific cultural sites shouldn't be targeted. Partly because a lot of buildings in London actually were destroyed then rebuilt close enough to what they were that most people can't tell the difference. For example the whole south side of Fleet Street was reduced to rubble near Temple Bar but you wouldn't know it now.

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

#28
post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A few hundred. By balloons launched from Japanese subs off coast of Northwest US. No accurate record available because the discoveries were strictly kept as secrets.

Japanese balloon bombs were just in the news this week. A Utah sheriff had a bit of fun with one in 1945. http://www.ksl.com/?nid=148&sid=34756436

Also a discussion on HN about Japanese balloon bombs a few months back: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8922927

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

#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-after...

[3] http://www.standard.co.uk/news/london/police-investigate-une...

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

#30
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.

The tragedy of the aerial bombardment of WWII is that bombing was not precise enough to hit specific buildings or landmarks. The targets was on the level of a whole city. This is part of the reason the number of civilian casualties in WWII were so huge compared to previous wars. All parties in the war did this, but the allied were simply more effective due to air superiority, especially towards the end of the war. This is why cities in Germany where totally destroyed while London was not.
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