BombsAndV1s

Bombs and Doodlebugs

Bombs and Mines dropped in Felsted and Little Dunmow

Incident Information held at Essex Record Office
Location	Time	Date	Notes
Ford End/Littley Green/Hartford End	21.55	Monday 16/09/1940	Five High Explosive Bombs. One UXB. Casualty: One Cow
Glandfields Farm, Chelmsford Road, Felsted.	22.20	Saturday 21/09/1940	Bombs reported exploding at the back of Glandfields Farm, Chelmsford Road 400 yards from the road in a beet field. Casualties nil, damage to mains nil, damage to road nil.
Throws Corner, Little Dunmow	21.14	Tuesday 24/09/1940	The first report shows one bomb dropped near Little Dunmow, not yet located. A second report in the early hours of 25^th September show the bomb was an unexploded mine at Throws Corner on the A120. The road had been closed and the traffic diverted through Little Dunmow and Felsted. The road was closed until 2nd October when the “Military exploded mine at 14.20.” The road was reopened to traffic at 16.50.
Village Stores Little Dunmow	20.35	Friday 18/10/1940	One Oil bomb reported dropped in garden of village stores at Little Dunmow at 20.35. No damage.
Pond Park, Cock Green, Felsted	22.35	Monday 21/10/1940	Two high explosive bombs fell at Pond Park, Cock Green at 22.35. No casualties, slight damage to Pond Park.
Watch House Farm, Watch House Green, Felsted	21.20	Saturday 02/11/1940	Report at 22.10 High explosive bomb and Incendiary bomb fell at Watch House Farm between Felsted and Bannister Green at 21.20. Dunmow Fire Brigade proceeding to extinguish blazing fire. Report of 3rd November 1940. 05.10 hrs. Fire at Watch House Farm extinguished. Bomb crater at side of road, guarded by Home Guard, road passable, telephones affected. Situation otherwise nil.
Little Dunmow	02.26	Saturday 09/11/1940	Incendiary Bombs, No other details
Straits Farm, Straits Lane, Felsted	23.07	Thursday 21/11/1940	Incendiary Bombs, No Damage [Near Gransmore Green, access from old A120]
Little Dunmow	07.07	Wednesday 27/11/1940	Unexploded High Explosive Bomb. No other details
Felstead	03.30	Monday 28^th July 1941	High Explosive Bombs and one Unexploded High Explosive Bomb. No Damage. Casualty: One Cow.
Oxneys Farm, Bannister Green, Felsted	02.15	Friday 14/05/1943	High Explosive Bombs dropped at Oxneys Farm, Bannister Green. No Damage.
Felsted (no specific location)	21.25	Saturday 29/01/1944	Two unexploded anti aircraft shells. No Casualties

V1 doodlebugs (codenamed FLY) in Felsted and Little Dunmow

Location on Incident Map held at Essex Record Office. n.b. locations would be approximate based on telephone reports	Details from Incident Logs held at Essex Record Office			Other Information
	Date	Time	Notes	Other Information
Little Dunmow North of Village Near route of the new A120	Saturday 01/07/1944	02.20	Tooleys Farm, No Damage
Felsted Village Centre	Wednesday 23/08/1944	08.02	Rear of Marshalls Road. Superficial damage. Overhead cables damaged. Electricity Cut Off. Damage to 21 private houses, 1 shop (small general store) and Felsted Mill	(Marshalls Road not yet identified) In an interview for Felsted Village Voices, a local DVD produced by Dicky Howett, Reg Bentall recollects that a V1 came down in the village some time in 1944 near Mill Road in a field between the mill and the sugar beet factory
Stebbing Road. East of Road, and South of railway				No details found in records
Fields South of Braintree Road between Oxney Villas and Buckcroft				Joyce Stone was born in 1940 at 9 Oxney Villas. One of her earliest memories is being thrown in a ditch at the bottom of the garden by her brother as a V1 came down.
Field between Watch House Farm and Bannister Green Villas, behind Westbrook				Witnessed by one of Graham Kemp’s sisters when the family lived at Bannister Green Villas.
Fields between Bannister Green and Frenches Green	Saturday 16/09/1944	06.00	Felsted Frenches Green. 10 houses damaged	Supplement to London Gazette 19^th October 1948 included a detailed report of the Air Defence of Great Britain. Extracts below.
Gransmore Green	Wednesday 11/10/1944	20.12	Serious damage to Gatehouse Farm. Some damage to 8 other houses.
Fields near Grand Courts				No details found in records
Cock Green				No details found in records
Fields South of Hollow Road, Molehill Green	Wednesday 15/11/1944	00.19	At Rutlands Farm, Felstead, reporting damage to ceilings of bungalow named ‘Patmans’ near Mann’s Bakery, Little Leighs, caused by ‘FLY’ at above incident	Probably in the fields between Evelyn Road, Willows Green and Hornells Corner, Little Leighs. There is now at house called ‘The Old Bakery’ at Hornells Corner
Fields South of Causeway End Road, opposite Glandfields Farm				No details found in records
Hartford End near Brewery

Extracts of a report in the Supplement to the London Gazette of Tuesday 19^th October 1948:

Air Operations By Air Defence of Great Britain and Fighter Command in Connection with the German Flying Bomb and Rocket Offensives, 1944 – 1945.

The following report was submitted to the Secretary of State on 17^th April 1948, by Air Chief Marshal Sir Roderic Hill, K.C.B., M.C., A.F.C., Air Marshal Commanding, Air Defence of Great Britain…..

Reporting on the threat of air launched flying bombs from the east paragraph 115 includes:

To meet this new threat I arranged with General Pile that the gun-belt should be supplemented by a gun “box” situated in the quadrilateral Rochester-Whitstable-Clacton-Chelmsford. By the middle of August 208 heavy, 178 40 mm., and 404 20mm. guns, besides 108 rocket barrels were deployed in the “box”.

In August a lull in attacks is then reported and that many believed the “battle of the bomb” was over, caused by the offensive in Europe crippling the enemies launch capabilities. Sir Robert Hill believed this was too sanguine, and that the enemy would develop longer range bombs that could be launched from bases in Germany and expected attacks to resume during the first fortnight of September. He was correct and paragraph 120 reports:

By the middle of September the German flying-bomb air launching unit had completed its move and was installed at bases in western Germany. Towards dawn on the 16^th September the attack was resumed. The first bomb fell in Essex at 0549 hours. A few minutes later another came down at Barking. During the next half-hour five more bombs approached this country; one reached Woolwich, one fell at Felsted, and the remaining three were brought down by fighters, one of them into the sea. Two bombs not included in these figures were destroyed at sea by the Royal Navy.