Why did 10./JG 2 bomb a school in Catford?

[tcolvin]

That's interesting, Chris, but I'm not sure I'm following you.

I have just consulted your book, 'Luftwaffe Fighter-Bombers Over Britain” that deals with the raid.

The raid is categorised as a “Terrorangriff, bombing anything that they saw”, and that the German pilots “dropped their bombs and strafed buildings before heading south”.

Your book also quotes Eric Brady, but without any mention of his suggestion, made in the Daily Mail, that; “Twenty-eight German Fokker planes ......... targeted six different schools - possibly because they believed this is where aircraft designs were being drawn up.”

Is Eric Brady correct when he says they targeted six schools? There is no mention of that in your book.

And can you throw any light on Eric Brady's suggestion that the GAF might have believed the schools housed aircraft design bureaux?

This suggests a rational motive rather than the popular view, held by Molly Linn, that “the evil of the pilot who set out to kill children” was just another example of German frightfulness.

The Germans might have been fed the design bureau idea through the Double Cross System which was always looking for plausible 'facts' to pad out their 'reports'.

It seems to me that if the Germans risked everything to attack London in a Terrorangriff, then they would have gone for 10 Downing Street, Buckingham Palace and the House of Commons rather than school children.

Tony