The Beighton Doodlebug - Sheffield Xmas Eve 1944
"The Angel of Death is abroad in land only if you can't hear the flutter of his wings."
Winston Churchill - Cabinet meeting 15th January 1945
Until just recently I was totally ignorant of the fact that one of Hitler's so called "Vergeltungswaffe Eins" (Revenge Weapon Number One) had actually landed and exploded in Sheffield or more precisely Beighton. The Nazi V1 campaign against Britain began on the night of the 12th-13th June 1944, one week after the Normandy landings. The campaign is extensively covered both in books and on-line and so I am not going to go into the history of the campaign.
I had always assumed that Sheffield was beyond the range of the V1 rocket. The information that was available indicated that the "Doodlebug" had a maximum range of 150 miles and at that range it was neither accurate or reliable. In order to extend the range, the bomb was carried by a modified HE-111 Heinkel bomber.
The idea was for the aircraft to carry the V-1 at extreme low level to avoid detection from British radar, then as they approached the British coast they would sharply increase their altitude to about 1,500ft (450m) before releasing the V-1, then generally using cloud cover or low level flying to make good their escape back to their bases. The aircraft chosen to carry out this task was the He 111H. A number of these including the He 111H-6, the He 111H-16, the He 111H-21 and the He 111H-22, were modified to carry the new projectile which actually was a Fieseler Fi 103 flying bomb, but known as the V-1. All these aircraft, after modification became the He 111H-22. They were delivered to III/KG3 that was based in the Netherlands. Initially the campaign was successful - the modified He 111H-22 carried and launched over 300 V-1 rockets against London, 100 against Portsmouth and Southampton and 20-30 against Bristol. The use of the He 111H-22 and the V-1 rocket was such a success, that over 100 He 111H aircraft were modified to He 111H-22 standards and delivered to KG53 for the sole purpose of launching the V-1 at British targets. But the success was shortlived - in the next six months, only 20% of 1,200 V-1 rockets reached their intended targets, many of then falling and exploding in empty fields or remote suburbs, and some eighty He 111H-22 aircraft were destroyed either by the RAF or by AA gunfire. The loss of aircraft were to force the Germans to use specially constructed launch pads.
On Christmas Eve 1944, a formation of these specially modified HE-111 Heinkel bombers (I/KG53 squadron) flying over the North Sea launched 45 V1 Flying Bombs (Doodlebugs) from off the Lincolnshire coast at Mablethorpe. The target was Manchester. The raid was winessed by fisherman in the North sea who reported that some of the rockets had failed to ignite and had just fallen harmlessly into the sea Unfortunately the majority of the rockets did ignite. The RAF coastal radar station at Lowestoft had picked the raid up in its infancy and alerted the coastal defences along the coast. The Humber AA defences opened up but failed to destroy any of the incoming rockets. In total, thirty-one of the bombs reached the target area with fifteen falling on Manchester itself. The remaining bombs fell over a wide area of north west and north England.
The bombs took on average thirty minutes before they reached their target - the first one landing at Chorley at 5.30 in the morning, obliterating a hen coup with thirty birds in it. However the true destructive nature of the V1 bomb was revealed when one exploded in in Abbey Hills Road, in Oldham, landing on a row of cottages, killing 27 people and seriously injuring 49.
In March 2010, someone who came across these pages informed me about " the V1 that landed on Abbeyhills Road in Oldham that same day (as the one in Beighton). My mum was an Air Raid warden on duty when it landed and she just confirmed that it was the V1 she told me about years ago. She remembers some of the victims who she knew because she lived in Abbey Hills Road"
A further six people died when the V1 rocket landed on Chapel Street, in Tottington, near Bury, Greater Manchester - it destroyed a row of cottages and was one of 15 bombs to fall near Manchester - a memorial garden was built where the bomb landed.
In total, forty-two people where killed and over one hundred seriously injured. Many homes suffered damage but no military and industrial areas were damaged. In military terms the raid was a failure, but it was a sharp reminder of the dangers that still existed for those who had endured over five years of war.
One of the V1's did land in Beighton and destroyed a hedge. I have made a few preliminary enquiries and someone seems to think that it exploded in the region of of what is now Rother Valley Country Park but cannot be certain. The crater would have been very approximately forty feet across and four feet deep. For a couple of years I did not know the exact location but in June 2008 I received the following information
"(my father) John Cramp and my mother Anny Cramp saw the bomb explode in Cow Lane halfway between Holbrook and Beighton. ..... They were living in Killamarsh at the time"
Since then the area has been extensively redeveloped and so it is not possible to find the exact location of the explosion.
If anyone can provide me with any further information please contact me
Note:
In 1960, one of the gyroscope assemblies from a V1 was ploughed up in a field at Meadow Farm in Ringinglow which is situated to the west of Sheffield near the Derbyshire border. There were no eye witnesses to any incident involving a V1 and there is no official record. One explanation for the find is that this V1 exploded in mid-air as a result of damage sustained by the coastal defences or due to a technical fault. When it fragmented, any parts not buried on impact were not recognised as pieces of a V1 by the police or ARP hence the lack of an official record.
But in May 2010, I received the following information from a researcher that cast a whole new light on the gyroscope discovered at Ringinglow
"I have identified the gyro found at Ringinglow in 1960 as being from a German WW2 torpedo. I enclose a photo of the one found at Ringinglow which was posted on Flickr by the "Wreckhunters", to compare with the other ones. I have also informed Alan Clark of Peak District Aircrashes of my findings. .... See also, http://forum.axishistory.com/viewtopic.php?f=20&p=1436059"
The Giro discovered at Ringinglow (above)
"...the V1 had three giros, I have attached photos. There was a master giro and two secondary giros, none of which resemble the one found at Ringinglow.
Master Giro (V1)
Secondary
Giros (V1)
Also, the Ringinglow giro has the additional torpedo
capability of a zig-zagging course as used against the convoys. The V1s did not
have this capability, as they flew straight and level. As R.V. Jones, the WW2
scientific military intelligence expert once remarked,"If the Germans had put a
device in the V1 to vary the flight path, the defence against them would have
been far more difficult". The Ringinglow example was made largely of corrosion
resistant bronze, in keeping with marine equipment, as opposed to the V1s.
There is a section about the Ringinglow find in Pat Cunningham's book, Peakland
Air Crashes The North, published by Landmark Publishing in 2006, page 169. So, I
can positively identify what it is, but cannot say how it got there !. I saw
one of these torpedo giros in the 1970's, and it had been brought back from
Germany just after the war by a National Seviceman as a souvenir. Apparently
these devices could be found in German Naval Training Colleges, amongst other
places, for some years after the war. This
website shows the V1 in great detail.
Needless to say, I and no doubt many others would be fascinated to know how parts of a German WW2 naval torpedo ended up on the hills above Sheffield
Sources
Dark Peak Aircraft Wrecks 2 - Ron Collier
This page was last updated on 11/05/10 11:39