Roll of Honour

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 25th 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
28th 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

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 19th 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 19th 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 17th 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 16th 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.