V1 strikes on South London during 1944

Hello - I'm researching a V1 strike on South London that landed on my father's street when he was a small boy (which missed him and his family, thankfully!). We know that the location was Sunfield St., Greenwich, SE7, that the year was 1944, and that 28 people were reputed to have died, but that's about all that we know. If anyone could direct me to a master listing of all known V1 strikes, or perhaps has information about this particular event, then I would be most grateful. I live in Adelaide so any posts from the UK or US will probably not be responded to until the following day (for you). Thanking you in advance.

 

FlyingBombsandRockets,V1 & V2 Timeline have a look thro this site, hope it is of some help...

 

From 'Hitler's Rockets' by Norman Longmate:

So that's at least a date to start with. Sadly this isn't one of the incidents that gets in depth coverage in the book.

Good luck,
~A

 

Here you go ...

One casualty - Sunfields Place 30th November 1944.

CWGC :: Casualty Details

The rest should all be listed here

CWGC :: Cemetery Reports

Regards

Richie

 

Many thanks - appreciated!

 

That's great - superb stuff! Sincere thanks to all for your assistance in this project. Its great to know that there are such helpful people in the world.

 

Brilliant - this gives us heaps to go on. We're very gratful for everyone's help.

 

You don't have to reply individually to every post mate, but it's always nice when someone's so polite .

Using Geoff's remarkable CWGC search engine:
Geoff's 1939-47 Search Engine
You can further narrow the list, by searching for that date, and selecting 'Civilian' from the Regiment/Corps menu.

Only turns up 22 for that specific date (assuming Longmate's number from the contemporary casualty list is right - should be), but the missing person may have died later, or be a Military man on leave. Some of those listed may be from other incidents, as we don't know for sure how many were killed immediately. Probably worth searching over a few more days than just that one to check for any possible patterns. But 22 does seem conveniently close to the number in that incident.

I can't paste in the list with links to the CWGC records (sure Geoff told me how to once... but I've a mind like a sieve), but if you repeat the search yourself it should get the same results.
Edit - See Post #10 for correction to this list.


001 ASQUITH G - - 30/11/1944 CIVILIAN WAR DEAD
002 BAILEY IA - - 30/11/1944 CIVILIAN WAR DEAD
003 BALKWILL M - - 30/11/1944 CIVILIAN WAR DEAD
004 BARKER EM - - 30/11/1944 CIVILIAN WAR DEAD
005 BARKER MK - - 30/11/1944 CIVILIAN WAR DEAD
006 BARKER FW - - 30/11/1944 CIVILIAN WAR DEAD
007 BUDD A - - 30/11/1944 CIVILIAN WAR DEAD
008 BUTCHER FWJ - - 30/11/1944 CIVILIAN WAR DEAD
009 CRITCHLEY B - - 30/11/1944 CIVILIAN WAR DEAD
010 GARNHAM LE - - 30/11/1944 CIVILIAN WAR DEAD
011 HILL JE - - 30/11/1944 CIVILIAN WAR DEAD
012 IRVINE MA - - 30/11/1944 CIVILIAN WAR DEAD
013 IRVINE TG - - 30/11/1944 CIVILIAN WAR DEAD
014 JOY EE - - 30/11/1944 CIVILIAN WAR DEAD
015 KIRBY EA - - 30/11/1944 CIVILIAN WAR DEAD
016 LEE J - - 30/11/1944 CIVILIAN WAR DEAD
017 LEE HR - - 30/11/1944 CIVILIAN WAR DEAD
018 LEVENS WR - - 30/11/1944 CIVILIAN WAR DEAD
019 NUNN JWA - - 30/11/1944 CIVILIAN WAR DEAD
020 PILBROW E - - 30/11/1944 CIVILIAN WAR DEAD
021 TURNER AJ - - 30/11/1944 CIVILIAN WAR DEAD
022 TURNER EJ - - 30/11/1944 CIVILIAN WAR DEAD



~A

 

Hmmm, 20 Civilian deaths on the next day, could be one of them.
Quite possible that there's a military man in there who's listed under his unit - 198 total for UK on 30/11/44, so that's a lot to unpick.
Could even be an uncommemorated that's fallen off the CWGC lists at some point, or perhaps even a foreign national.

 

OK, had a proper look at those results - and some of the 30/11/1944 are from other incidents, in Hospitals etc.
Re-did the search using just 'sunfields' in the 'including' box:

Now down to 19 that definitely fit the criteria.

001 ASQUITH G - - 30/11/1944 CIVILIAN WAR DEAD - Aged 13
002 BAILEY IA - - 30/11/1944 CIVILIAN WAR DEAD
003 BARKER EM - - 30/11/1944 CIVILIAN WAR DEAD
004 BARKER MK - - 30/11/1944 CIVILIAN WAR DEAD - Aged 13
005 BARKER FW - - 30/11/1944 CIVILIAN WAR DEAD
006 BUDD A - - 30/11/1944 CIVILIAN WAR DEAD
007 BUTCHER FWJ - - 30/11/1944 CIVILIAN WAR DEAD
008 CRITCHLEY B - - 30/11/1944 CIVILIAN WAR DEAD - Aged 14
009 HILL JE - - 30/11/1944 CIVILIAN WAR DEAD
010 IRVINE MA - - 30/11/1944 CIVILIAN WAR DEAD
011 IRVINE TG - - 30/11/1944 CIVILIAN WAR DEAD
012 JOY EE - - 30/11/1944 CIVILIAN WAR DEAD - Aged 16
013 KIRBY EA - - 30/11/1944 CIVILIAN WAR DEAD
014 LEE J - - 30/11/1944 CIVILIAN WAR DEAD
015 LEE HR - - 30/11/1944 CIVILIAN WAR DEAD
016 NUNN JWA - - 30/11/1944 CIVILIAN WAR DEAD
017 PILBROW E - - 30/11/1944 CIVILIAN WAR DEAD
- 018 RIX AM - - 18/06/1944 CIVILIAN WAR DEAD * (Not a casualty of that attack - a street resident killed earlier in the year.)
019 TURNER AJ - - 30/11/1944 CIVILIAN WAR DEAD
020 TURNER EJ - - 30/11/1944 CIVILIAN WAR DEAD

Horrible really. Four Kids and at least two serving soldier's wives... all people your Dad might have known. .
(Edit: - On reading the CWGC results, I decided to add the direct links manually.)

Looks like the Injured were taken to St Alfege's Hospital. A further line of enquiry.

 

Just found your message and I have to tell you that I was born in Sunfields Place and lived there until 30th November 1944 when our house was demolished along with the whole of Sunfields Place including Sunfields Methodist Church and also part of Bowater Place which runs parallel with Sunfields Place. I was one of the casualties sent to St Alphege Hospital along with my brother, my mother being sent to Miller Hospital. I would be very interested to know your father's name as, of course, I knew most of the people who lived in our street although I was a child at the time. Some of the deaths include school friends of mine. I have no doubt I would have known your father.
I suppose it is unfortunate that we lost touch with so many of the people living in Sunfields Place as we were all rehoused and some moved away from the area. I notice also that you live in Adelaide - I lived there for 20 years.

 

Hello 'Pommy',
Thankyou so much for your response - its not an exaggeration to say that it made our day. My name is Graham Seabrook, but my father's name is Kenneth Lugsden. (I changed my surname about 7 years ago for reasons that I don't need to go into here). Dad was born in Oct 34, so he would have just turned 10 when the V1 strike hit Sunfield Place. Although Dad and his family were unhurt, its family lore that a wardrobe fell either on him or over him when the V1 hit, and Dad didn't even wake. His parents had to wake him in order to leave the damaged house. Our understanding was that the V1 hit the other side of the street from the Lugsden's house, which is the only reason that I am here today, but I'd be very interested to know the real story.

We believed that 28 people died when the V1 hit, although the records below show that 19 were killed - which doesn't reduce the horror of the event at all.

We moved to Adelaide, South Australia, in Feb 1975, and have lived here ever since (albeit in various houses). I am an Air Force officer now, (RAAF of course, not RAF), and am based at RAAF Base Edinburgh. Since joining up I have become more interested in Mum & Dad's experiences in the war, and my partner Freya has managed to discover that a number of my distant relatives fought in both World Wars. So I am doubly interested in establishing contact with someone who knew my Dad as a boy.

Like I said, your response made our day, and we are very keen to establish contact and further our knowledge of this difficult chapter in my family's story.

Thanking you, and warmest regards,
Graham.

 

Graham, I would love to be able to give you more information - I lived almost opposite your father and remember him well. Is there a way we can contact - by email maybe? I now live in Queensland but my children are still in Adelaide. I have a few photos you would be interested in so contact me. Pat

 

G'day Pat,You can email me at gseabrook@adam.com.au. By chance I'll be in QLD next week with the RAAF, so hopefully we will be able to meet up then. Very much looking forward to hearing from you,Graham.