WWII bombing

[gloryer]

just had a snippet of info about a great great aunt, appraently she was killed by a bomb in WWII. She has a certificate on commonwealthwargraves which gives the info that she was killed at home Milton Road Swanscombe, a lot of my tree members are from that area so wondered if any more had been killed then so had a look at deaths on freebmd thinking that there may be some more names but there are only 5 names on that page. I put out a request on the Kent interests to see if anybody knows any more about it. I wondered if theres any papers on line that would have a report.

[Janet in Yorkshire]

What year Gloryer and do you want to put up a name?
I've found that not everything got into the papers during both WW1 & WW2. I think it was part of the "Keep Mum" national security policy, but perhaps also to do with keeping up morale.

Jay

[JudithM]

Ancestry has books listing UKWWII Civilian Deaths 1939-1945 online.

https://search.ancestry.co.uk/search/db.aspx?dbid=5177

The entry for my home borough enabled me to see when civilian deaths occured and by checking dates find the 6 who died when a bomb fell on my small village. Hopefully your area is also covered.
Here's the pages for my area to show what detail is shown.

https://www.ancestry.co.uk/interactive/5177/41234_1831109387_0489-00027?pid=39123&backurl=https://search.ancestry.co.uk/cgi-bin/sse.dll?_phsrc%3DQQa1605%26_phstart%3DsuccessSource%26usePUBJs%3Dtrue%26gss%3Dangs-g%26new%3D1%26rank%3D1%26gsfn%3Dida%2520may%26gsfn_x%3D0%26gsln%3Dbailey%26gsln_x%3D0%26msypn__ftp%3DMaldon,%2520Essex,%2520England%26msypn%3D83642%26ossyear%3D1943%26cp%3D0%26catbucket%3Dr%26MSAV%3D1%26uidh%3Drg1%26pcat%3DROOT_CATEGORY%26h%3D39123%26recoff%3D7%25208%25209%252030%26dbid%3D5177%26indiv%3D1%26ml_rpos%3D1&treeid=&personid=&hintid=&usePUB=true&_phsrc=QQa1605&_phstart=successSource&usePUBJs=true

[gloryer]

it Ada Croucher nee Johnson died 27th Feb 1945
I just looked through the parish records and found in the margin she was killed by a rocket bomb and her neighbour was 'blown to pieces' by a rocket bomb.
Quite depressing reading but its facts of history

[gloryer]

Thanks for the link but unfortunately I cant view as I dont have a subscription at the moment still waiting my dna results before taking out a sub.

[Chrissie Smiff]

The link just says ‘Croucher, Ada, age 68 of 56 Milton Street. Widow of George Croucher. 27th February 1945 at 56, Milton Street.’.

[Chrissie Smiff]

This is the link to her Grave on 'Find a Grave - https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/106015753#
In case you can't see it, this is what it says -

Ada was a Civilian War Casualty, killed by Enemy Action at her home, 56 Milton Street. She was one of 8 people killed when a V2 rocket hit. Only one house survived. 48 people were injured.

She was the daughter of John and Eliza Johnson of Sutton-At-Hone, Kent.

She was the wife of George Croucher, son of Henry and Harriet Croucher of Erith, Kent.

They were married in 1896 in Dartford, Kent.
Children: Ada, Edward, George, Edith, and Henry Croucher.

FOOTNOTE - that's strange - On the Ancestry link page (post #6) it says widow of George, but on the page for George it gives his death as 1946 (widower of Ada) - https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/...eorge-croucher

[gloryer]

This is the link to her Grave on 'Find a Grave - https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/106015753#



FOOTNOTE - that's strange - On the Ancestry link page (post #6) it says widow of George, but on the page for George it gives his death as 1946 (widower of Ada) - https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/...eorge-croucher

Thank you, the parish registers have him buried 12 june 1944, just been scrolling through and it seems there were quite a few deaths from bombing in that area, never knew that.

[Janet in Yorkshire]

Pleased you've been getting lots of help, gloryer. I had a look in the newspapers 1945 for both Ada and George Croucher, but nothing came up. Sorry.

Jay

[gloryer]

I have been lucky with my Kent ancestors as there is a website funded by the lottery I believe which has loads of digital images, I even found my own baptism record on there, lots of names on the nearby pages that I recognised from school...lol

[Chrissie Smiff]

Oh that's brilliant Gloryer I wish I could find my baptism.

[gloryer]

I would like to find my dads as he used a different surname to whats on his birth certificate, often wonder what his baptism would say, just been asking my cousin to drop it into conversation with his dad as he is the last surviving sibling. He tends to shun any mention of family history as they didnt get on with their father or step mother, never seen a picture of my paternal grandparents

[Chrissie Smiff]

These are the others listed -

Milton Street – all on the same date – 27th Feb 1945

At No 42, Barton, Marion, 88, Widow of Edward James Barton. Also - Barton, Edith, daughter of above

At Milton St (no number given) Gardiner, Edgar Ernest, age 53. Husband of Mary Rose Gardiner of 35 Peppercrot Street, Gravesend, 27th Feb 45

As above – Goodwin, James Clarence Bramwell, age 38, Son of James William Richard and Beryl Violet Winifred, of 27 Nelson Road, Perry Street, Gravesend.

At No 44 – Green, Annie Dale, age 71, Daughter of the late James Green.

At No 46 – Pallant, Violet Elsie, age 41, of 57 Milton Street. Daughter of James and Alice Cable, of 26 Broomfield Road, Wife of Kenneth Herbert Pallant.

Milton Street (No number given) Wood, Alexandra May, age 42. Daughter of Elizabeth Wood of 12, Orchard Road, Galley Hill, and of the late James Wood.

There seem to be a lot of deaths on Church Road on 10th November 1940 too.

[gloryer]

thank you for all of that, I never thought of it as a place that was bombed although my dad was evacuated

[Sylvia C]

I grew up in Oldham, Lancashire, and several bombs fell on that town during the war, meant for either Manchester or Liverpool. Most did no or very little harm .... one was found 4 or 5 years ago buried deep at the edge of a school playground!

But a V1 bomb fell less than half-a-mile from where we lived on Christmas Eve 1944. I was just under 5 years old at the time, and can remember being scared and screaming away as my mum and her parents (who lived across the street) gathered brother and I on the cellar stairs of our house. Dad was an ARP Warden.

It fell right on a row of houses, 27 people were killed and many more were injured. Every house in our street lost their windows and the street was literally covered in broken glass. Our house was the exception, as Dad had sent some time in London at the beginning of the war and had been told by his landlady to unlatch all the windows so they move in the frame.

My other very clear memory is of looking out of the front window right across the broken glass to the back gate to my grandparents' house and seeing their little fox terrier come out of that gate (blown open by the blast) and pick his way across to us. It is also very clear the cries that everyone amde when they saw that he didn't have even one tiny cut.

I don't know whether my other faint memory of actually going to the site is true or of a photo in a book that came out after the war.

There was as usual very little in the newspapers about it, as the pwoers-thay-be didn't want the enemy to know what damage they might have caused. ............ but there is a site where someone is trying to record air crashes and bomb damages in the north, and I have learnt a lot from that site.

Try .......
aircrashsites.co.uk

or got straight to this section of the site .........

http://aircrashsites.co.uk/air-raids-bomb-sites/

[gloryer]

wow sylvia those are some memories!! We used to live near an airfield and there were air raid bunkers there, played in a few of them, very dark scarey places.