General Chat

Because they needed all the fuel on the return journey home all sides (pilots) tended to unload any bombs still onboard........anywhere !....also some dropped bombs failed to explode,hence they are still being found now.

That's true Kay, as I mentioned earlier - it was a last minute drop into the sea (but just missed it) that killed my g grandfather in WWII.

This was a WWI bomb - most of those dropped on the Forest were from WWII.

Airships made about 51 bombing raids on England during the war. (WW1) These killed 557 and injured another 1,358 people. More than 5,000 bombs were dropped on towns across Britain, causing £1.5 million in damage. 84 airships took part, of which 30 were either shot down or lost in accidents.

(google) :-D

Kay .......... that was the reason for the V1 flying bomb that did so much damage near my childhood home on Christmas Eve 1944.

Also, apparently V1 bombs guidance systems were somewhat unreliable so the pilots often had no idea where exactly one was going to land after it was released "off target".

Almost 50 of them were launched from off the Yorkshire coast. About 30 made it to the target area, most of the others landed on the moors around Oldham

At least one made it to neither the moors nor the target.

There was a "no bombing zone" around part of Oldham ............. we had a POW camp in an old cotton mill that had both German and Italian POWs. Despite this, a number of bombs landed in the town during the wat.

The lighthouse at Scarborough was seriously damaged in WW1 when the town came under fire from German cruisers ..........

it was a story that Dad told me every time we went there, and that was often during the late 40s and 50s!

This is a neat site ...............

http://aircrashsites.co.uk

Interesting site, Sylvia, though mostly about the North.

I've looked for Zeppelin Raids on Hampshire in WWI, after your comment, Kay.
Only one recorded - on Portsmouth Dockyard - and it missed!

In WWII, the British Army 'tried out' bombs in the New Forest, before they used them - they even had a 'target building' for this purpose, but it's about 5 miles as the crow flies from where the WWI bomb was found.

Interesting site here:

http://www.thenewforestguide.co.uk/history/new-forest-at-war/new-forest-ww1/

My friend's father was a shepherd with his father, on the Sandringham Estate during WW 1.

He recalled being in the field with the sheep when a Zeppelin went over, hoping to bomb the Royal Family.

What I found particularly spooky was that the Zeppelin was so quiet they could hear the men inside talking.

"I've looked for Zeppelin Raids on Hampshire in WWI, after your comment, Kay.
Only one recorded - on Portsmouth Dockyard - and it missed!"

LOL bloody big miss if it was Maggie :-D

Very close to here is Dibden church which was the first church on mainland England bombed during WW2, almost certainly after a bombing raid on nearby Southampton docks. I again think it's a deliberate horde possibly from WW2 in so much as dads army at first only had old munitions available to them.

Sharron, that is spooky!

Airships weren't, apparently, very accurate!
Most of the raids say they were heading for 'X', (some major port or army base) and, instead hit 'Y' - a tiny hamlet.
In Portsmouth - they hit the water. :-D

Well, so much for information on WW2 bombing raids on Hampshire/New Forest - none of the sites I looked at mentioned Dibden Church :-(

Friend and I were having an 'off piste' walk in the Forest last year, and came upon a sloping field with remains of buildings (bricks at ground level - not walls), and what could have been a gutter going down the field to a stream at the bottom.
Our initial thought was WWI stables.
But, it also had, around two edges of the field, what appeared to be sunken paths (or practice trenches)
We went to Lyndhurst, to the New Forest Centre, where a local expert worked, to ask what he knew.
Unfortunately, due to cuts, he was only there once a week - and not that day - and everyone else was as clueless as us :-(

Wonder what it was, roughly where was it Maggie?

Fawley Inclosure, between Dibden Purlieu and Hardley.
In this report, they say between Dibden Purlieu and Beaulieu, but, in reality, the inclosure is probably between Applemore, Hardley and Beaulieu, with Dibden in the middle.
I'm afraid the report is from the Daily Echo , and not the (to some) more 'reliable' Hampshire Chronicle - mainly because, despite it's alleged reliability, the Chronicle hasn't reported it!! :-D

http://www.dailyecho.co.uk/news/16294652.PHOTOS__Officers_remove_unexploded_bomb_in_the_New_Forest/

Sorry Maggie I meant the ruins you found not the bombs.

Looking at the pictures Maggie it's much closer to Fawley than anywhere else, nearer to old forest rather than new plantations. My bet is towards Blackfield.

Oh, the ruins - I have no idea. I tend to watch the ground when I'm walking off piste - snakes, bogs - but mainly bogs. :-(
The 'driver' will know. :-D
He parks the car, and knows which car park it's in.

There are some good shots of the refinery aren't there :-D
Makes me think it was near Hardley.
If you look at a satellite view, there are trees, across the road from Holbury Manor park. Take a picture form there, you'd get the refinery etc.

Think you're right Maggie :-)

..and today ;-)

http://www.dailyecho.co.uk/news/16308667.Police_cordon_off_Hampshire_beach_after__unexploded_bomb__discovered_in_the_Solent/

A boat came across a piece of historic ordnance in the water off Meon Shore, Warsash..

We're all doomed !! :-D :-D

Fulmination Fridays!! :-D :-D :-D

Could it be the amount of rain that has fallen in the past couple of years, flooding where it hasn’t flooded before, minor earthquakes etc. Weird though

Could be, Ann.
Rain/higher tides wash them out, then dry weather exposes them - in this case, at low tide.