A view from the other side of the channel: When I was five-six, (1950) my family finished up a three-year stint in Northern Greece and headed back to the States. A three-week tour through Europe, then a boat back home. One of my vivid memories from that trip was seeing block after block of damaged buildings in Germany and asking my father what had happened to them. "They were bombed during the war and haven't been able to rebuild yet." Many years later, my major advisor from graduate school published a personal memoir of sorts ["into the Fire by Siegfried Streufert]. His father was one of the anti-Nazi senators who went back home to Northern Germany in the mid 1930's (?) and was then part of the resistance. Siegfried tells of what it was like as a child living under the threat of bombers, and then later the frustration that the Allied troops didn't understand that many Germans saw them as liberators, not as conquerors. Bob, the graphic you shared really brings back those stories and is a reminder that this wasn't a sometimes thing, but that everyone was at risk in every neighborhood for months and months and months. A horrible way to live and a testament to universal stupidity.
stan On Dec 8, 2012, at 6:06 PM, John Coyle wrote: > Zooming out makes one wonder how any part of London survived! Interesting > site Bob, thanks. > As a kid growing up in Essex, Sussex and then Portsmouth, bomb sites and the > effects of war were a > part of my life. In Essex, a bomber dumped it's load only a mile from where > my grandparents lived, > after being damaged. In Sussex, I remember gawping at the wreckage of a > German bomber which had > been shot down by the anti-aircraft battery stationed in the field behind my > house. In Portsmouth, > my (other) grandmother was bombed out in 1942, and then rented a house in > which she lived for the > next 30 years (it's now owned by her daughter), and the bomb site around the > corner from my parent's > place was our playground. > > > John Coyle > Brisbane, Australia > > > > > > -----Original Message----- > From: PDML [mailto:pdml-boun...@pdml.net] On Behalf Of Bob W > Sent: Saturday, 8 December 2012 6:38 PM > To: 'Pentax-Discuss Mail List' > Subject: OT: Bomb sight > > This is an interesting website which shows you where all the bombs landed in > London during the > blitz. The link is set up with the coordinates round my house, on Azof Street: > <http://bombsight.org/?#16/51.4890/0.0063> > > When I first moved here the site at the junction with Christchurch Way was > still derelict, 50 years > after the war. It's been built on now. Some of the older people still living > on this street were > here throughout the war, while the bombs were dropping round them. From time > to time while people > are doing building work an unexploded bomb still turns up. The most recent > near to me was on the > riverside path about 10 years ago. > > When you zoom out of the map it's quite shocking to see how many bombs fell > in such a short time. We > gave as much as we got, of course. > > B > > > -- > PDML Pentax-Discuss Mail List > PDML@pdml.net > http://pdml.net/mailman/listinfo/pdml_pdml.net > to UNSUBSCRIBE from the PDML, please visit the link directly above and follow > the directions. > > > -- > PDML Pentax-Discuss Mail List > PDML@pdml.net > http://pdml.net/mailman/listinfo/pdml_pdml.net > to UNSUBSCRIBE from the PDML, please visit the link directly above and follow > the directions. -- PDML Pentax-Discuss Mail List PDML@pdml.net http://pdml.net/mailman/listinfo/pdml_pdml.net to UNSUBSCRIBE from the PDML, please visit the link directly above and follow the directions.
