The Bomb Site Project

[Pugs]

One of my jobs involves developing data visualizations of large/complex data sets so I'm always interested in examples. This one involves plotting all the bombs dropped on London during the Blitz

You can use the pull down and select "first night of the Blitz" or weekly totals or all the impacts during the war. It is simply stunning how many bombs were dropped on the city and as you visit today that ANY of it survived the blitz.

http://www.bombsight.org/#15/51.5050/-0.0900

 

[Brett327]

Good God! Cool project.

 

[NavAir42]

Holy sweet Jesus! That was a lot of bombs. The place I stayed in 2003 had 4 bombs drop within a block of it over the course of the blitz. Does that count unexploded ordnance?

 

[OscarMyers]

Do you have any stats on how often they still find unexploded ordnance? I would imagine their construction industry would have to use some sort of ground penetrating radar prior to a new dig.

 

[Pugs]

Do you have any stats on how often they still find unexploded ordnance? I would imagine their construction industry would have to use some sort of ground penetrating radar prior to a new dig.

No clue how they do that but you sure hear about UXB often in the ETO.

 

[OscarMyers]

Wow, a quick google search turned up quite a few companies that specialize in UXO removal in the UK. Apparently they also have an official registry for the locations and risk level for a construction site. I didn't realize how big of a deal that still is in Britain. Very cool project Pugs, thanks for the enlightenment.

 

[CommodoreMid]

Amazing project! It really brings the image of the stoic Londoner to life. Can you imagine Americans today and their attitudes living in a city faced with such adversity?

 

[nittany03]

Amazing project! It really brings the image of the stoic Londoner to life. Can you imagine Americans today and their attitudes living in a city faced with such adversity?

Someone would try to make a reality show about it.

 

[jmcquate]

That’s a lot of bombs considering the light loads that He-111s and Do-17s could carry.

 

[nittany03]

That’s a lot of bombs considering the light loads that He-111s and Do-17s could carry.

There were a lot of He-111s and Do-17s. And Ju-88s and 87s and everything else.

 

[scoober78]

One of my jobs involves developing data visualizations of large/complex data sets so I'm always interested in examples. This one involves plotting all the bombs dropped on London during the Blitz

You can use the pull down and select "first night of the Blitz" or weekly totals or all the impacts during the war. It is simply stunning how many bombs were dropped on the city and as you visit today that ANY of it survived the blitz.

http://www.bombsight.org/#15/51.5050/-0.0900

Great stuff...thanks for posting.

The war end totals look like the same CEP as my impacts at Searay!

 

[FlyinSpy]

Neat stuff! Although the hit distribution looks fairly random down at the street level (especially in central London), there is some interesting clustering going on - like the SE corner of Hyde park, or just NW of the Tower of London. Makes you wonder if there were certain landmarks on particular run-in headings that were aimpoints - or maybe just real randomness in action.

Also reminds me of the old joke about Werner von Braun - his bio was titled "I Aimed for the Stars...", but the deadpan crowd would add the subtitle "..but Often Missed and Hit London Instead."

 

[sevenhelmet]

Interesting project! My mother was actually born in London, DURING the Blitz. My grandparents had a flower shop there that was bombed and later rebuilt.

Also reminds me of the old joke about Werner von Braun - his bio was titled "I Aimed for the Stars...", but the deadpan crowd would add the subtitle "..but Often Missed and Hit London Instead."

Funny you should mention that, I'm reading a book about the space race, and just finished a chapter on Werner Von Braun and his plot to get "captured" by U.S. Forces at the end of the war so he could keep doing his work. According to Von Braun, they chose the U.S. because "the Russians scared us to death, we hated the French, and Britain couldn't afford us."

Say what you will, but those rocket scientists got us to the moon and played a HUGE part in us winning the Cold War.