V1 Flying Bomb fragment and crater, Howden Moor, Derbyshire
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V1 Flying Bomb fragment and crater and Parachute Mine fragments.
Of the V1 Doodlebugs directed at Manchester on Christmas Eve 1944, one fell on Howden Moor about 5 miles west of Stocksbridge. It was Christmas Day before anyone got to the site. Apparently those first at the scene found white deposits around a crater that still had fumes rising from it.
Above; A fragment of the V1 bomb found at the edge of the crater.
Below. For a long time this nearby and similar looking spot was thought to be the V1 site, and someone has recently left a sign there saying that’s what it is. In fact this is a different bomb site, it is where a parachute mine came down and these grey fragments are from the bomb’s fins.
See this thread on Peak Wreck Hunters for more on how people can tell one rusting scrap of metal from another after 65 years.
peakwreckhunters.blogspot.com/2009/04/fi-103-v-1-cruise-m…
Photo on Terry Foote’s stream taken in Antwerp of a V1 about to impact. You have to admire the (American) photographer’s commitment to getting a great shot!
See here for an overview of this attack;
https://aircrashsites.co.uk/air-raids-bomb-sites/luftwaffe-v1-attack-on-manchester-christmas-eve-1944/
I love looking at these shots mate!!!!
Must have been some impact.
That last shot is scary!
That last shot was taken by the father of the bloke who upoaded it onto Flickr! It’s worth clicking on the photo and reading the thread beneath.
Brilliant Ian!
Interesting composition with that lovely shaped fragment!
~ Graham ~
Well recorded..
Great thing this flickr… did as you suggested Ian and had a look at the V1 photo site on flickr and ended going through a load of the chaps photo’s and then went onto the wreck hunters to read about the distinguishing of the mine crater and the V1 crater. Next thing I know I have lost an hour and a half just like that! Maybe I was abducted by aliens.
Anyway, as usual, another good photo and read!
great Ian ,great reading as usual ian another piece of history
Couldn’t tell from the thumb what it was. Good set again Ian. Love the extra detail
as i walked back through the cemetry yesterday after my Mothers funeral i spotted some war graves of Canadian and Australian airmen so i will go back and take some pics Ian and hopefully be able to find out something about them,best wishes for a lovely Easter
Unbelievable that fragments are still there after all this time!
Cool to relate the debris to the site. Good work.
That info always interesting too. Have a super Easter.
Seen in my contacts photostream……
Tone
Hotpix http://www.hotpix.org.uk
Walk a year in my shoes, see whats up my street or see my world in selective Colour.
great work again ian….
Such a violent thing seems to have created a lovely little place to linger on the moors.
Great shot, looks very bleak and lonely, my sort of place! Was thinking how terrifying it must have been to hear one of them flying overhead, but then I suppose it’s worse to hear one stop. You seem to have very nicely manicured hands!
Cool.
I remember well seeing these V1s passing over Stocksbridge on that Christmas eve, it was dark at the time so I could hear the doogle bug sound and see the flame from the pulse jet I think there were about seven of them. We lived halfway up the valley over Foxes steel works on a road called Albany Villas off Wholehouse Lane, If anybody wishes to contact me my e-mail is pwardheybridge@yahpp.co.uk
Thanks Phil, fascinating memories. In the book ‘Seeing it through – Halifax and Calderdale during World War II’ there are similar accounts, lots of people across Yorkshire will have seen and heard these things passing overhead.
Dr Phil, do you know anything of a rumoured doodlebug impact in the High Green area? Neither I nor a friend from High Green heard anything about it from our parents (my Dad was in the Home Guard at Birdwell), so we think it may just be a story 🙂
Does anyone know anything about an air show where 2 WW2 planes collided mid air. A lad from Lancashire was killed. I think he may have been in the Pathfinders.
What year Jean? A recent air show?