November 1944

  27 Responses to “November 1944”

1. 

   Tony Browne says:

   Monday, 25th June 2012 at 7:45 pm

   As regards my memories, bearing in mind that I was very small at the time:

   My two sisters and I were playing in the road (Malvern Road) with our neighbour’s (the Leitham’s) children, on the afternoon of the 21st November 1944. Dad was away in the RAF and Mum was in Orpington doing the shopping. Suddenly, everything went black (I don’t know if we were knocked out) and then all around us was chaos. The V2 had landed plum in the middle of the road, leaving an enormous crater, the bungalows near to it were completely destroyed on either side. Our house, like many others, was badly damaged and we were re-housed in Avalon Road until after the war when our house was repaired. It seemed almost immediately the road was full of emergency services and I remember a van appeared, a hatch opened up in the side and we were all given tea. Then someone took us further up the road to a house owned by Mr and Mrs Evans where we stayed until Mum eventually found us. God knows how she must have felt when she came into the road and saw the devastation; she thought she had lost her three children in an instant. Mum immediately noticed that one of my sister’s had blood on her back and she was rushed to hospital where shrapnel was removed, some, close to her spine remained with her for the rest of her life. The crater was only a hundred yards from where we were playing and we all considered it a miracle that we were not killed. It appears, according to the records that nobody died in the attack, which if true, is amazing.

   Malvern Road had it’s fair share of bad luck during the war, earlier on a bomb landed on a house near the top of the road killing the occupants and a V1 landed at the back of us knocking down ours and many of our neighbours sheds and breaking windows.

   Reply
   • 

     Chris Gregory says:

     Sunday, 31st July 2016 at 6:38 pm

     Hi Tony, my father Ernest John Gregory lived at number 4 Malvern Road, Orpington during the war, his house was completly destroyed by the blast. Incredibly the family survived despite being buried alive! I’d dearly love to hear from you if you still access this site or receive notifications. My name is Chris Gregory, my email is chrisjo40@yahoo.co.uk please drop me an email if you get a spare minute. All the best, Chris

     Reply
2. 

   Toby says:

   Friday, 2nd November 2012 at 10:46 am

   What do the map refrences refer to? They dont seem to be OS references or lat and long? I am doing a project and i need to pinpoint the exact locations of the V2 attacks. Any help would be great. Thanks

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   • 

     Admin says:

     Friday, 2nd November 2012 at 3:10 pm

     What do the map refrences refer to?

     – Explanation can be found here: https://www.wrsonline.co.uk/big-ben-rocket-strikes/map-references/

     I am doing a project and i need to pinpoint the exact locations of the V2 attacks.

     – All November 1944 V2 rocket strikes already plotted on a map can be found here: https://www.wrsonline.co.uk/big-ben-rocket-strikes/november-1944/november-1944-v2-strikes-map/

     Reply
3. 

   Bill O’Reilly says:

   Sunday, 25th November 2012 at 4:44 pm

   I have recently spotted an entry in the burial register for St Just in Roseland, Cornwall:
   Sylvia Maud DASH, aged 39, buried 18th Nov 1844. A note in the register states “killed by enemy action at 81 Portland Avenue Gravesend”
   I suspect she was a victim of this V2 attack. is there a list of casualties or a press report anywhere?

   Reply
   • 

     Admin says:

     Sunday, 25th November 2012 at 5:54 pm

     From Commonwealth War Graves Commission website all I have been able to find as having died in the incident are as follows:
     Surname Forename Age Additional Information
     DASH SYLVIA MAUD 39 OF 81 PORTLAND AVENUE. DAUGHTER OF THE LATE ORPHEW JAME DASH AND MAUD DASH, OF ST. MAWES, CORNWALL. DIED AT 81 PORTLAND AVENUE.
     FINNEY ELLEN GERTRUDE 50 OF 83 PORTLAND AVENUE. DAUGHTER OF WALTER AND ELLEN BROOKS, OF LETTUCE BARN, IPSWICH, SUFFOLK; WIFE OF JOSEPH HENRY FINNEY. DIED AT 83 PORTLAND AVENUE.
     KEER PATRICIA 15 OF 81 PORTLAND AVENUE. DAUGHTER OF WILLIAM JOHN KEER. DIED AT 81 PORTLAND AVENUE.
     SPRIGMORE DAISY ELIZABETH 59 WIDOW OF FREDERICK SPRIGMORE. DIED AT 80 PORTLAND AVENUE.

     Reply
     • 

       Admin says:

       Sunday, 25th November 2012 at 6:22 pm

       Found a fifth:
       Surname Forename Age Additional Information
       FERGUSON ETHEL MARY 54 OF 84 PORTLAND AVENUE. WIDOW OF JOHN FERGUSON. INJURED 13 NOVEMBER 1944, AT PORTLAND AVENUE; DIED AT GRAVESEND AND NORTH KENT HOSPITAL.

       Bob Ogley in his books “Kent at War” & “Doodlebugs and Rockets” states that five were killed and 16 seriously injured also that the explosion damaged the Co-Op Store.

       Lewis Blake in his book “Bolts From The Blue” states “At 4.40pm four lives were lost and 84 people injured in Portland Avenue, Gravesend.”

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       • 

         Bill O’Reilly says:

         Sunday, 25th November 2012 at 7:21 pm

         Thanks Martin – very interesting. Amazing what can be learned as a result of spotting an entry in a burial register! Sylvia died a long way form her home in Cornwall but was taken home for burial.
         Bill (Online Parish Clerk for St Just in Roseland – http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~enggerop/st_just/)

         Reply
       • 

         M J Hibberd (granddaughter of R.E Allen) says:

         Thursday, 14th March 2019 at 2:29 pm

         My nan and mum’s windows were blown out in Hollybush Road by the same bomb
         I have my grandmother’s clock and it was involved in the blast and never worked after that. The time on the clock shows 4.00 O’clock. The glass retains its crack also!

         Reply
4. 

   Antony Seville says:

   Thursday, 2nd January 2014 at 4:51 pm

   Regarding incident No.186, November 14th 1944

   My father and Grandmother were living at 110 Kinveachy Gardens at the time of the V2 strike listed as incident No.186 and I remember him recounting to me that he was preparing a fire in the fireplace of the living room in the morning when a huge explosion sent dust, rubble and soot down the chimney. When the dust had cleared he could see that the houses opposite No.110 had been severely damaged. My Grandfather added in his memoirs that the rocket had impacted “in Marion Park behind the houses opposite No.110, a lot of damage had occurred around the area”. He was sent home from duty in Belgium for 4 days and arranged for my Grandmother and Father to be evacuated to North West England.

   Does anyone else have any accounts of this particular impact? Obviously this incident has great significance for our family because if the V2 had landed just a short distance closer to No.110 then a whole line of our faimly would never have been born.

   Regards,
   Antony Seville

   Father: Ronald Seville
   Grandfather: Ernest Seville
   Grandmother: Elsie Seville

   Reply
   • 

     Admin says:

     Thursday, 2nd January 2014 at 6:24 pm

     To quote from Lewis Blakes “Bolt from the Blue”

     A trio of rockets fell on south east London during the morning of 14 November. Petts Wood was shaken awake by the first of these at 6.25am. In Bushey Avenue and Towncourt Lane two died and 25 suffered injury. The next destination at 8.4Oam was Sherrard Road, Eltham, by Well Hall station, killing eight people at Nos.50-60, and injuring 92. Casualties included ‘clippies’ at the bus terminus (now re-located). Alsatians proved their worth by indicating the positions of several trapped survivors. Scarcely half an hour later, a rocket broke-up over Charlton, with the warhead exploding on council houses in Kinveachy Gardens. Three died at Nos.79-83, and 35 were injured. In a million-to-one unlucky chance a segment of the missile fell through the roof of 24 Aldeburgh Street, over a mile away, killing a 60-year-old man as he lay in bed.

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   • 

     oozlum says:

     Tuesday, 29th August 2023 at 11:23 pm

     My family lived just around the corner in Flamstead, I was yet to be born. There seem to be different numbers of dead, seemingly 1 or 3. My mother only told me of one death, a lady who was hanging her washing out at the time, they never found any remains. Unfortunately, I do not have her name.

     Reply
5. 

   Antony Seville says:

   Saturday, 4th January 2014 at 10:32 pm

   Thank you very much, both my father and grandfather have now passed away and so all I have is the accounts they left us with.

   Reply
6. 

   Robert (Bob) COTGROVE says:

   Wednesday, 1st July 2015 at 2:16 am

   I am now 76 years of age and living in Hobart, Tasmania, Australia. I was born in Gravesend on 13 November 1938 and was living with my parents and older brother John at 36 Malvina Avenue when in the afternoon of 13 November 1944 a V2 rocket landed in Portland Avenue, near Echo Square.
   At the precise moment the rocket landed we (a few neighbourhood friends and cousins) were celebrating my 6th birthday with a meagre meal of goodies that my mother had somehow accumulated. The explosion caused some plaster to fall from the ceiling and our French windows to burst open. A baby cousin in a high chair was knocked to the floor but, like the rest of us,was uninjured. My mum who was in the adjoining kitchen was showered by glass from a shattered window but was also uninjured. We all rushed into the garden and saw a huge pall of black smoke rise from where the rocket landed. My mum, a salt-of-the-earth working class mother, said to me “There you are, robert, Hitler has sent you a birthday present”! The event is firmly fixed in my memory because it was my birthday. I still retain many other memories of my days growing up as a young boy in war-time Gravesend. My family moved to Tasmania in July 1949.

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   • 

     doreen henderson says:

     Friday, 26th October 2018 at 12:59 pm

     I was an 11 year old running to catch the bus at bottom of Whitehill Road If I had missed that bus I would have been standing at the bus stop on next Road.which I believe had the Direct hit .

     Reply
7. 

   Leslie Darbyshire says:

   Monday, 25th September 2017 at 12:14 pm

   On 25th November 1944, exactly a fortnight after my 9th birthday, my father took me up to London to go to Gamages store in High Holborn. We caught the train from Wimbledon Chase, our nearest station, to Holborn Viaduct station which I remember was in a very sorry state. We walked the short distance to Gamages past more bomb damaged buildings and went up to one of the upper floors where there was a tool department that my father wanted to see. We had only just arrived when there was an explosion, not as I recall particulsrly loud but more a deep thud, and the whole building shook. Looking out of the window we could see a really dense column of black smoke rising up and forming what we would later call a mushroom cloud.
   We knew it was a V2, but until reading the details on your site, I never knew exactly where the rocket had landed – I didn’t know in which direction the view from the window was – but now I know it fell on Warwick Court near the junction of High Holborn and Grays Inn Road, not very far away from Gamages. To think that I had only come back from evacuation to relatives in Scarborough a few weeks before but returned to London as my parents thought it was fairly safe by then. With V1s and V2s, how wrong could they be – but we all survived!

   Reply
8. 

   Keith Batcheldor says:

   Wednesday, 27th September 2017 at 9:20 pm

   When I was about 13 years old a V2 Rocket fell on homes in Milton Place Gravesend Kent, killing the Syd Lumley of whom was well known in Gravesend Kent outside of the ‘Fort Gardens.

   On Sunday 24th Sept ’17 I went to a 40’s day held at the ‘Fort Gardens’ near where the rocket fell and there was a stall regarding the ‘ V1 Doodle bug’ but they did not know anything about the V2 can any give me more detail relating to that incident as I cannot find any mention of it online.

   Any information would be very much appreciated

   Reply
   • 

     Admin says:

     Wednesday, 27th September 2017 at 10:20 pm

     I think this would be incident number 281 which took place at 23:45 on Wednesday 29 November 1944. It is recorded as being near the RN Sea School which I believe would have been HMS Gordon which later became the Merchant Navy Sea School. It also seems that even though a Royal Navy Establisment taking in Royal Navy recruits it actually trained personnel for the Merchant Navy.
     The records we have indicate that 8 were killed and 62 Injured. These are the details of the 8 that were killed.

     ARTHUR STROUD 54 OF 24 MILTON PLACE. DIED AT 24 MILTON PLACE.
     THOMAS KENNA 36 OF 24 MILTON PLACE. SON OF THOMAS AND ANNE DOYLE KENNA, OF 30 RIALTO COTTAGES, SOUTH CIRCULAR ROAD, DUBLIN, IRISH REPUBLIC; HUSBAND OF RITA ALISON KENNA. DIED AT 24 MILTON PLACE.
     ERNEST OLIVER QUINNELL 14 OF 9 GORDON PLACE. SON OF HENRY JOHN AND EDITH EMILY QUINNELL. DIED AT 9 GORDON PLACE.
     SIDNEY LUMLEY 42 SON OF MR. AND MRS. C. LUMLEY, OF 2 WHITEHALL PLACE. DIED AT HARMER STREET.
     TERENCE DAVID LOCK AGED 18 MONTHS. SON OF MARGARET ROSE LOCK. DIED AT 24 MILTON PLACE.
     GAYNAM THOMAS JOHN LOCK 14 SON OF L/CPL. GAYNAM ERNEST LOCK, CORPS OF MILITARY POLICE. DIED AT 24 MILTON PLACE.
     EDITH EMILY QUINNELL 20 OF 9 GORDON PLACE. DAUGHTER OF HENRY JOHN AND EDITH EMILY QUINNELL. DIED AT 9 GORDON PLACE.
     WINIFRED MARY SUGGITT 33 FIREWATCHER. DAUGHTER OF MR. AND MRS. JOHN HAREWOOD, OF 91A SKIPTON ROAD, HARROGATE, YORKSHIRE; WIFE OF GEORGE HERBERT SUGGITT, OF 6 MARINA DRIVE, NORTHFLEET. DIED AT FORT HOUSE, MILTON PLACE.

     Reply
9. 

   Michael Ives says:

   Wednesday, 16th January 2019 at 11:56 am

   Reference incident 281

   Further to your information about the Gravesend V2 rocket attack at Milton Place on 29th November 1944, I would like to add the following information;
   At that time, my 14 year old mother Violet (nee Rose) was living in 2 Whitehall Place, Gravesend, situated opposite the Naval premises. With her mother and father, she lived in the top floor rooms, sharing their bedroom. Sid Lumley lived in the middle first floor rooms and Mrs Parker lived on the ground floor.
   She knew Sid quite well, that he was a band leader who played the piano, in particular at St Faiths Hall, situated at the top of Coal Road (now Ordinance Road) She fondly remembers how, when he had his friends around to tea, he would buy Lyons apple pies and always saved one for her.
   On the night of the explosion, my mum was in the bedroom fast asleep. She was suffering a heavy cold and had been given some warm milk laced with whisky. She remembers being shaken awake by her mum (who later said she thought Violet had been killed, as she couldn’t wake her) to find parts of the ceiling collapsed into the room.
   She quickly got dressed and with her parents, left the building and they were directed to the Holy Trinity church, at the top of Coal Road. This was also mum’s school. She remembers that en route, they passed groups of men searching wrecked houses with spots lights and were told to be quiet.
   On arrival at the school, she saw one of her teachers, Miss Scullard, who said “Oh Violet, I’ve never seen you looking so black!” Mum said that for months afterwards, she constantly had a smell of the debris and dust.
   Apart from Sid Lumley, who was apparently killed whilst walking home from a night out, the only other person she knew killed was Ernie Quinell, a school friend who lived nearby. He was disabled and had irons on his legs.
   They returned to 2 Whitehall Place to collect their belongings. The house was inhabitable and they were subsequently re-housed on the Kings Farm estate in Gravesend.

   Reply
10. 

    Roger Hayward says:

    Monday, 3rd February 2020 at 7:35 pm

    Re: Incident Number 227
    Just before the war my parents bought a brand new 3 bed semi in Trevose Road E17.
    I’ve recently found the details. Deposit of £40 on a sale price of £750. My mother spent the war
    working as a clippie on the buses even walking on raid nights to Edmonton garage for her shift. At
    noon on the 21st November 1944 8 months pregnant with me a V2 landed between Longacre and Trevose
    Road (location is incorrect on site) slightly into the forest. It demolished 6 houses in Trevose
    Road and partially destroyed another 12. She was alone upstairs in the front bedroom as it struck,
    but by a miracle the door blew off hit her and wedged itself at an angle against the iron bed frame,
    with her underneath, a second later the entire first floor side of the house including the chimney
    collapsed in the bedroom, but that heavy door saved her. In fact after they dug her out they found
    she had no injuries at all, very lucky my Mum.

    Reply
11. 

    Simon Neil says:

    Monday, 13th April 2020 at 3:15 pm

    Reference Incident Number 284

    I lived in Reynolds Place SE3 in the 1980s and our neighbours who were children in 1944 told us about the V2 strike that wiped out houses in the next street. I had wondered why there were new flats there and the Victorian terrace houses that filled the streets in that estate were missing. They remembered it coming down in the middle of the night with a huge bang and shaking everything off the walls. They said only 1 person of the listed dead was in Reynolds Place, even though it landed in the next street, which shows how highly localised a V2 strike was. The person who died survived the strike, but were trapped in an upstairs bedroom by debris, and the gas line to their fireplace broke and they died from breathing the escaping gas before they could be rescued.

    Reply
12. 

    Graham Hall says:

    Friday, 24th July 2020 at 6:37 pm

    Re no 164. It may have been a tenement block but it was also the site of the Norwegian Naval college in London.

    Reply
13. 

    Coral Gosling says:

    Tuesday, 28th July 2020 at 5:14 pm

    RE: Incident Number 212

    While tracing my family tree, my mum told me of the V2 rocket that hit the corner of our road. I didn’t know the date but managed to look it up on your map. Our house was built in 1903 & had 5 generations living in it on the night of the attack, my great nan was sleeping downstairs after having a stroke, my nan was with her, the rocket hit the corner of Fourth Ave & Dagenham Rd. As ours was the first house it took some of the blast & knocked down part of the staircase, wall & damaged the fireplace ( still in the house today) if my great nan had been in her bedroom, she wouldn’t have survived, but luckily they were downstairs &survived.

    Reply
14. 

    Peter Chappell says:

    Friday, 18th September 2020 at 12:30 pm

    I lived in Luton, Bedfordshire during the war and I remember the V2 landing on 6th November 1944. It was five days before my 4th birthday and it is my most vivid memory of the war. I was in our dining room in the morning and there was suddenly a huge bang. I ran to my mother who had heard the bang and thought that it was in the direction of the house of her stepmother, so we immediately went off to walk to her house. Very quickly we discovered a lot of damage in streets at the Commer Cars truck factory which was about half a mile from our home. We walked round the damage and got to my mother’s stepmother’s terraced house which was empty. She had gone shopping and returned soon after we arrived. When we went inside we saw a large crack down the wall inside, bur the house did not appear to be seriously damaged. It turned out that 19 people had been killed and 196 injured, and about 1500 houses had been damaged, and the new Commer dining room had been destroyed. The rocket landed at about 9:50 am and the dining room was empty. If it had landed only 10 minutes later the dining room would have had lots of people inside having tea and may more would have been killed. When we got home we saw that the windows in the house opposite us had been blown out, but we had no damage.

    Reply
15. 

    Brian Harris says:

    Tuesday, 22nd September 2020 at 4:50 pm

    Incident 198
    My parents Leonard and Winifred Harris and my sister Patricia then aged 8 Were living at 113 Mildmay Road Islington which is near the school on which the V2 landed. My sister went to the school. I was not born until June 1945. My mother told me about the rocket attack. That night was very cold and my father was on leave from Chatham. Because it was so cold all three decided to sleep in one bed. They were woken by the explosion which shattered the windows which faced the school. My sisters bedroom, which fortunately she did not sleep in that night was covered with broken glass and her bed was covered with many sharp shards of glass. Had she been in it she would have been cut very badly, but as she slept that night at the other side of the house, where the windows did not break, she and my parents were fine.

    Reply
16. 

    Paul Marsh says:

    Tuesday, 24th November 2020 at 10:11 pm

    My father lived in hardcastle street as a boy ..he and his family were bombed out …… He remembers him and his brother being ordered to stack sewing machines from a corset factory by a ARP warden when on their way to school
    Hope this helps

    Regards Paul Marsh

    Reply
17. 

    Paul Marsh says:

    Tuesday, 24th November 2020 at 10:19 pm

    Should add …. Hardcastle street se15 …Peckham London ..

    Reply

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