#WW2 BOMB MESSAGES SERIES#
And, the other, the commitment to planning for Overlord, as the invasion of occupied Europe in June 1944 was eventually known.Īs 1943 progressed the terrible pounding that the RAF was inflicting on Germany’s cities had reached intolerable levels and although it had been planned to retaliate against Britain by bombarding the south of England with V1 flying bombs, as a result of technical development problems, this course of action had to be postponed.Ĭonsequently, in November 1943, it was announced that a new series of retaliatory attacks on Britain were to be undertaken by conventional bombers. One was the combined bomber offensive against Germany’s military, industrial and economic system, and the morale of the people. The leaders settled two policies whose execution came to characterise the latter war years in Britain. In mid-January 1943 Churchill, Roosevelt and their Combined Chiefs of Staff assembled at a hotel in Casablanca for one of a series of conferences whose conclusions governed the Allies’ grand strategy in the Second World War. Houses were destroyed and damaged, people rendered destitute and homeless.’
One boy aged 14, Max Barrett, was killed. ‘This morning at 2am (D.S.T.) the village was heavily bombed by several German planes (High Explosive & Incendiaries). The Verwood Council School (Senior Mixed) log book entry for 24 April 1944 records: But when they started fires, they destroyed more buildings than high explosive bombs. If they were found quickly, they could be extinguished. Thousands of one-kilogram incendiary explosive nose ‘firebombs’ (IBEN) were dropped. The explosives created piles of timber and flammable materials for the incendiaries to ignite, and delayed action bombs hindered the emergency services. Targets were harder to find in darkness so Britain used the blackout as one of its defences against air raids.īombing was most destructive when a combination of high explosives (HE) and incendiaries (IB) were used. To avoid unsustainable losses, bomber aircraft were forced to operate at night. But once bombing began, improvements in air defences, particularly in fighter aircraft and radar, meant that many were shot down. The only civilian killed in Verwood during WW2 The Fear of Aerial Bombingĭuring the 1930’s and the first months of the war, it was feared that ‘the bomber would always get through’ and that high explosives would kill thousands and break the morale of the survivors. Operations Record Book RAF Hurn 24 April 1944ĭecoy Airfield Bomb Damage Report 24 April 1944 RAF Decoy Airfield Q160b, Lower Common, Three Legged Cross Royal Observer Corps (ROC) Post, Stephen’s Castle, Verwood
US Army Quartermaster Gas Depot Q-328, West Moors Post War Memories of the Verwood Air Raid The ‘Baby Blitz’ January 1944 to May 1944
#WW2 BOMB MESSAGES FULL#
Air Raid at Verwood Monday, 24 April 1944 ContentsĬlick to jump straight to a specific chapter, or scroll to read the full story.
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