Norman Longmate - Hitler's Rockets

The most valuable account of the distinctive effects of the rocket is in a draft entitled ‘Lessons from Recent Raids – Long-Range Rockets’, undated but being circulated for comments around 6 December 1944, in file HO 186/2299. It was subsequently issued in a less detailed and explicit form as ‘Lessons from Rocket Attacks’, Home Security Circular No. 3/1945, which can be found in file HO 196/1848. Public confidence in the services is mentioned on p. 13 of the draft, the effects on shelters are described on p. 3 and injury from burns on p. 4. The dangers of untrained helpers and the need for two incident officers are on pp. 6-7. Field telephones are mentioned on p. 7, and searchlights on p. 9. Difficulties in tracing casualties and missing people are set out on pp. 9 – 10. On dogs, see p. 11 of the ‘Lessons’ draft, Wyld, p. 22, Hampstead at War , p. 28, Berwick Sayers, p. 111, the report on Hazelhurst Road dated 20 November in HO 186/2418, and on Usk Road, to the Battersea ARP controller, on 5 February 1945 in the Wandsworth Borough Archives. See also Blake, p. 89, for doubts about the dogs’ value. The Gravesend Reporter , 12 November 1965, described the Milton Place incident. The use of cranes is discussed on pp. 8—9 of HO 186/2299, and the contribution of the NFS on pp. 10—11. The forthright rescue service officer at Folkestone Gardens was W. Padmore, whose report is preserved in HO 186/2381, n.d. but c. 7 March 1945. The diary and final report of the incident officer at Usk Road are filed as Incident Report no. 1060 in the Wandsworth Borough Archives. The argument over IIPs can be followed in marginal notes on the ‘Lessons’ draft. The American writer is Childs, p. 135.

The promise of ‘horrible and sudden death’ is in a German Telegraph Service article in English, for 11 November 1944, in file HO 199/374. On casualty figures, see Collier, Defence, p. 528, and O’Brien, p. 677. The eleven missing at New Cross are mentioned in an article in The Standard (formerly the Evening Standard) of 3 May 1984. The Hackney paper is in HO 186/2418, with comments by J. W. Oatley, 26 March 1945, and Col. Whitworth Jones, 29 March.

On damage statistics, see Summary of Damage and War Damage to Buildings . On experience in Ilford, see Pearson, p. 56, and the Ilford Guardian article of 3 May 1945. On Lord Woolton’s press conference, Kohan, p. 223; on the Ministry of Works’ efforts, Kohan, pp. 224—9 and 234.

The MOI handout was War Damage to Hospitals. Dr Jones’s Air Scientific Intelligence Report of 1 March 1945 was privately supplied to me. For the group casualty figures, see Appendix A in Air 20/ 3439. On the City, see the List of Incidents… affecting Corporation Property ; on Stoke Newington, document SN/A in the Hackney Borough Archives; on Bethnal Green, Vale, p. 8; on the Midland Bank, Wadsworth, p. 94. (The driver sent me his account privately.) Details of the Smithfield incident are given in the ‘Notes of a Visit by Admiral Evans’ for each of his four visits on 8—9 March, and an account of the handling of casualties in the reports by G. Wallace entitled ‘Incident at Charterhouse Street’ on 8 and 12 March, all in file HO 186/2388. On Hughes Mansions, the comparable source is the notes of successive visits by E. G. Bax, 27—8 March, in HO 186/ 2420. On the last incident, I used the Kentish Times for 3 November 1983, the Orpington Times for 30 January and 30 July 1981 and Blake, p. 90.

The epigraph comes from a file of Ministry of Home Security Operations Bulletins in the Norfolk Record Office, reference C/APR/1/ 18. Sansom records relief in Westminster on p. 199; Irving, pp. 300-301, and David Johnson, p. 183, cover the evacuation of Peenemünde; Dornberger, pp. 250—51, describes Kammler’s ‘finest hour’ and the disbandment of the training unit. V-2 output figures appear in Irving, p. 306 (footnote). Walters, p. 81, describes von Braun’s escape and accident, pp. 86-8 the wait at Oberjoch and p. 91 his first American breakfast. Dornberger, p. 254, reports the scientists’ fears and describes their living conditions. The ‘They have ceased’ exchanges are in Hansard, Commons Debates, vol. 410. On the scientists’ surrender, see Irving, p. 301, and Walters pp. 86-8, while p. 91 describes von Braun’s breakfast. On their later adventures, see Walters, pp. 94 and 133, and von Braun, pp. 122—3. Kammler’s presumed death is mentioned by Kennedy, p. 44. On Cherwell’s death, see Birkenhead, p. 335; on his views on the V-2, Pile, p. 366, Irving, p. 297, folio 600 in PREM 3/111 and his note of 6 April 1945 in the same file. Jones’s article is reprinted in ‘The Future of the Rocket’ and quoted in Jones, pp. 459—61. The combustion chamber used by rabbits is mentioned in the Ipswich Evening Star for 17 February 1984; the open spaces in The Hague in After the Battle , p. 32; the ban on the publication of incident details in Wyld, p. 5; Hill’s view of the rocket is in para. 238 of his Air Operations report. Von Braun, p. 108, mentions the casualty figures and damage; Dornberger, p. 255, his regret at the rocket’s imperfect state of development ; Irving, p. 514, questions its cost-effectiveness, as does Speer, pp. 492—3. The final quotation from Jones is in ‘Future’, p. 13. On the Antwerp incident, see Helfers, Employment , pp. 38—47, Helfers, ‘Chaotic Command’, p. 23, and Angell, p. 63, quotes Hitler’s remark to Dornberger.

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