low level attack sth London 20 jan1943

[biddendenlocal]

3 german planes did a low level attack on Sth London on 20th Jan 1943.They bombed schools&machine gunned .I was told at the time,that a number of children died.Does anyone know if any of the planes were shot down? I believe they were 109,s.
Alf Bushnell

[Peter Cornwell]

The Blitz Then & Now Vol.3 pp204 - 213 gives the whole story from soup to nuts.

[Chris Goss]

...whilst my book 'Luftwaffe Fighter-Bombers over Britain' gives what I hope is the definative................... Certainly more than 3, they were FW 190s and only one was shot down, the pilot taken POW. The Luftwaffe's diversionary sweeps were another matter.......

[biddendenlocal]

Thanks for your answers fellas.I was remenising about the attack,for I was going home for lunch about 12.30 when I saw a low flying plane,and heard machine gun fire.I dived over a low garden wall,in case,but they were concentrating on a school about 1\2 a mile away.I was 12 at the time.
By the way,all the reference books quoted,are not available in our local or state libraries.To buy them all would put a bit of a strain on a 77yo pensioner!! My mate borrowed Battle of Britain Then&Now from his local library in England. Alf Bushnell

[Griffon]

Hello Alf!

GREAT to see that a guy of your age reads this forum as well.
those surely must have been interesting times for a 14 year old boy

concerning the book by Chris, I have it, and it is great read!
definitely worth getting, should you hold only the slightest interest in the times and the attacks...

cheers from Vienna/Austria
phil

[Nick Beale]

Originally Posted by dora9forever

why a school .what target is this a ammo dump. how did they know it was a school going 389 mph level. and at tree line flights with barrage balloons too.and RAF.....
was there any up.how about ack ack..get the story collobrated please.
i aint saying this is not true.
facts can be wrong at times.
Gary

(a) where did this (imaginary?) ammunition dump come from?

(b) You surely can't be suggesting that the school wasn't attacked? The evidence is overwhelming that it was and that real people really died.

(c) No one is saying that this particular school was the designated target of the mission.

(d) In all of these attacks children were in harm's way. Memories from my own family: my wife's cousin attended that South London school in the 1950s and speaks of the memorial there to the children who were killed; in the raid on Exeter my mother was in a group of children forced to take cover from strafing Focke-Wulfs; the sister of my parents' next door neighbour was killed in an attack on a Devon seaside town. If you want to know about the intentions of the tip-and-run campaign, read Chris Goss's book: civilian targets were not off-limits.

[Chris Goss]

Both my book and the book that Peter Cornwell mentions should be available from your library or can still be purchased. Again, as Nick says read my book and you will understand why such attacks were carried out

[Franek Grabowski]

This does not explain German attacks on civilian targets in Poland 1939 or in Britain 1940. This does not seem to be organised, but was frequent.

[Nick Beale]

Originally Posted by dora9forever

i doubt the german would killl civis- kids etc.on a tip and run raids delibrated, i know they did happen.but some storys can be over the top.

Wherever did you get the idea they were so squeamish? This is the Third Reich we're talking about.

[PeterVerney]

When I was a child at the time of the start of the war (Sept 1939) the saying was "The only good German is a dead one"