UK stations destroyed/badly damaged in WW1 and WW2

[70014IronDuke]

... St Pancras , ....

I believe the station throat was badly damaged. Repaired and running again within a day or so - or so I have read. I don't know if true or not.

 

[70014IronDuke]

It is interesting that whilst now there is a lot of historical coverage of the world wars in my youth they were not much mentioned.
Hartlepool was the first place to be attacked in the first world war, and there was a small plaque on the sea wall to mention this.

Do you mean the first place on the UK mainland? I didn't know that.

It was also hit in a Zeppelin raid in 1916 (?). That hit the football ground - which is, of course, very near the railway and loco sheds. i don't know if the Zeppelin raid also hit railway property or not.

- When I was young there there must have been many people who were alive and remembered the bombardment but it was never mentioned, and although I lived there I only discovered the detailed history much later. I don't think that we were even told about it at school, although the site of the first hit was visible through the window.
... .

I really do not wish to disparage the good people of Pools - but this may have been because of panic and defeatism at the time, about which they were ashamed later? A friend of mine from near Coventry told me that many there were fleeing the city scared stiff after the big raid in November 1940 - and defeatism was common in the immediate aftermath. Churchill then visited and stiffened resistance.

Which school did you go to? My dad went to Henry Smiths in the 1920s.

 

[yorksrob]

London Road viaduct on the approach to Brighton took a direct hit. Apparently the track was left hanging in mid air.

 

[ChiefPlanner]

I believe the station throat was badly damaged. Repaired and running again within a day or so - or so I have read. I don't know if true or not.

The LMS would have restored services PDQ , - but my very dear and aged neighbour (who was a commuter well into the 1950's from SAC) , advises me that the trains ran in a manner , but the non operational damage was not repaired for a very long time.

Tough old girl , only just given up smoking at a good age , tells me that in the winter of 1947 , the train service was dire , crush loaded and no heating - such that her arm froze to the window ledge on arrival at St Pancras . Never phased her , one just got on with it.

 

[Bookd]

Do you mean the first place on the UK mainland? I didn't know that.

It was also hit in a Zeppelin raid in 1916 (?). That hit the football ground - which is, of course, very near the railway and loco sheds. i don't know if the Zeppelin raid also hit railway property or not.


I really do not wish to disparage the good people of Pools - but this may have been because of panic and defeatism at the time, about which they were ashamed later? A friend of mine from near Coventry told me that many there were fleeing the city scared stiff after the big raid in November 1940 - and defeatism was common in the immediate aftermath. Churchill then visited and stiffened resistance.

Which school did you go to? My dad went to Henry Smiths in the 1920s.

Henry Smith's, but not until the 60s.

 

[Sir Felix Pole]

Plymouth was relentlessly bombed during WW2 with much of the city-centre destroyed, but surprisingly all three stations (Friary, North Road, Millbay) survived with only superficial damage. At the latter the large goods-station was completely destroyed,however, with the passenger station hurriedly pressed into use in lieu, and never reverting to its former role. My grandfather used to say that North Road resembled a bomb-site, however, with demolition and reconstruction starting in 1938, suspended at the start of the war and not recommenced until 1956. Devonport SR station (King's Road in BR days) took a direct hit and lost its fine overall roof - sadly after closure in 1964 its equally fine station buildings were demolished. Keyham station also took a direct hit, with 4911 'Bowden Hall' standing in the platform and damaged beyond repair. There were many attempts to knock-out the Royal Albert Bridge - the story goes that the main tubes deflected the bombs - but Saltash and Saltash Passage on opposite sides of the river were certainly badly damaged. There were no major infrastructure breeches, but several signal-boxes took direct hits and there was the constant menace of unexploded bombs. It is incredible how services were kept running, with full cooperation between the GWR and the SR and their alternative routes. On several memorable occasions the 'Cornish Riviera' was diverted via the SR due to bomb damage in Plymouth, running from Bodmin Road via Bodmin General, Wadebridge and the North Cornwall line to Exeter.

 

[randyrippley]

According to my mother, there was much amusement in the village when Lord Hawhaw (or one of his partners in crime) announced the destruction of the "marshalling yards" at Montacute, Somerset.
There was similar amusement when the Germans announced the bombing of the docks at Milborne Port..............(look it up on a map)

 

[Bevan Price]

Canada Dock station was damaged in WW2 and never reopened to passengers, but freight remained until (I think) the early 1960s.
The (Bootle / Docks) branch from Edge Hill split at Atlantic Dock Jn, one limb serving Canada Dock, the other Alexandra Dock (in Bootle). Both once had regular interval passenger services, but these could not compete with more direct tram / bus routes to the city centre. A sparse passenger service to Alexandra Dock survived for a few more years, and that line remains open for freight serving Liverpool Biomass Terminal & Seaforth.


Edit - correction.
Atlantic & Alexander Docks were typos; now corrected to read Alexandra Dock

 

[randyrippley]

Blackpool Central suffered severe damage following a mid-air collision between a Boulton Paul Defiant night fighter and a Blackburn Botha.
The Botha crashed on the station.
The accident caused more casualties than all enemy action over Blackpool and the Fylde combined

This link carries the detailed history prepared by the Lancashire Aircraft Investigation Team
http://laituk.org/Botha-Defiant.htm

 

[bspahh]

(Bear in mind. You had to do 30 operations. There was a 1 in 7 chance of not coming back each operation. Do the maths. He as 19 at the time. He escaped doing another tour because the was ended in the far east when the US dropped the A bombs.)

The odds of surviving were horrible, but they weren't as bad as 1 in 7 for each operation for 30 mission tour of duty.

https://www.bombercommandmuseum.ca/commandlosses.html says that at bad times, 25% of the airmen made it through a 30 mission tour of duty. That corresponds to a loss rate of 4.5% of airmen on each operation. For another group there was a loss rate of 6.05% on each operation, which ended up with 16% making it to the end of a tour of duty.

If there was a 1 in 7 chance (14%) of not coming back from each flight, then there is a 6 in 7 chance of coming back. To get the chance of coming back from 30 operations you would multiply (6/7) by itself 30 times, which would would give less than a 1% chance of making it through a tour.

 

[Ken H]

The odds of surviving were horrible, but they weren't as bad as 1 in 7 for each operation for 30 mission tour of duty.

https://www.bombercommandmuseum.ca/commandlosses.html says that at bad times, 25% of the airmen made it through a 30 mission tour of duty. That corresponds to a loss rate of 4.5% of airmen on each operation. For another group there was a loss rate of 6.05% on each operation, which ended up with 16% making it to the end of a tour of duty.

If there was a 1 in 7 chance (14%) of not coming back from each flight, then there is a 6 in 7 chance of coming back. To get the chance of coming back from 30 operations you would multiply (6/7) by itself 30 times, which would would give less than a 1% chance of making it through a tour.

Thanks for that. Ill look at your link in detail after work. 1 in 7 was a number I heard many years ago.
Dad was in 101 sq. they carries air bourne cigar equipment and and extra crew member -which is what Dad did. This was for jamming german fighter radio. High powered radio transmitters were detectable by the Germans, so losses were higher.

 

[ChiefPlanner]

Canada Dock station was damaged in WW2 and never reopened to passengers, but freight remained until (I think) the early 1960s.
The (Bootle / Docks) branch from Edge Hill split at Atlantic Dock Jn, one limb serving Canada Dock, the other Atlantic Dock (in Bootle). Both once had regular interval passenger services, but these could not compete with more direct tram / bus routes to the city centre. A sparse passenger service to Alexander Dock survived for a few more years, and that line remains open for freight serving Liverpool Biomass Terminal & Seaforth.

Canada Dock dealt with export coil steel in flat containers well into the 1980's , usually from South Wales, albeit intermittently. Trainload working. Despatched a few of them !

 

[ChiefPlanner]

8th September 1915 saw a major Zeppelin attack on the Clerkenwell area , they missed Farringdon station (but only just) , but took out a foundry and offices , the site of which was rebuilt in 1917 and named Zeppelin House ,which is still there , and adorned with a plaque.

Trivial damage compared to what came to the area in WW2 , when the Widened lines and the (Inner) Circle was out of action for several lengthy periods. See "London Transport at War"

 

[Bookd]

Do you mean the first place on the UK mainland? I didn't know that.

It was also hit in a Zeppelin raid in 1916 (?). That hit the football ground - which is, of course, very near the railway and loco sheds. i don't know if the Zeppelin raid also hit railway property or not.


I really do not wish to disparage the good people of Pools - but this may have been because of panic and defeatism at the time, about which they were ashamed later? A friend of mine from near Coventry told me that many there were fleeing the city scared stiff after the big raid in November 1940 - and defeatism was common in the immediate aftermath. Churchill then visited and stiffened resistance.

Which school did you go to? My dad went to Henry Smiths in the 1920s.

The raid on Hartlepool was on 16th December 1914, on the same day as attacks on Whitby and Scarborough, although Hartlepool was the most strategic target.

 

[InOban]

Wasn't Derby bombed?

 

[edwin_m]

Wasn't Derby bombed?

Yes, as I posted somewhere on the previous page. Not surprising as the main centre for aircraft engine production.

 

[Wirewiper]

Kings Cross , St Pancras , Paddington and Moorgate (LT) had heavy damage. Ditto Portsmouth and Southsea , Cannon Street , Blackfriars and of course the approaches to Waterloo (Main) had a large number of bombs on the approach tracks.

Funnily enough - St Albans had a "good war" - bomb wise , with no known impact on the MML north of Hendon.

And Sloane Square Underground - a bomb fell on 12th November 1940, killing and injuring a number of people on board a waiting train.

A terrorist bomb also exploded in the telephone kiosk in the booking hall on 26th December 1973, although fortunately on this occasion there were no casualties.

Poplar (North London Railway) gained the unenviable reputation as "London's most bombed Station" - the Poplar area suffered heavily during the Second World War due to the proximity of the Docks. It closed in 1944. All Saints DLR now occupies the same site.

 

[DerekC]

Southampton Central was hit quite badly - there are some photos in a book I have called "Southampton's Railways".

Dad was in 101 sq. they carries air bourne cigar equipment and and extra crew member -which is what Dad did. This was for jamming german fighter radio. High powered radio transmitters were detectable by the Germans, so losses were higher.

Read "Most Secret War" by R V Jones to get a from-the-horse's-mouth story of what was going on in the radar and radio field. It went from amateur (a van with aerials driving up and down the south coast to pick up German radar transmissions) to very professional in a remarkably short time!

 

[thewiltog]

Burdett Road (near Bow, east London) closed by bomb damage 29 December 1940. Re-opened 5 January 1941, but bombed again 10 April 1941 and never re-opened.

 

[Ken H]

some horrible ones on the Underground. There was the bank one where 51 people died. The bomb penetrated through into the underground booking hall, then went down an escalator shaft before exploding, causing a general collapse of the road above. Many were sheltering from the bombing.

And Sloane Square. Recently rebuilt. The station has a sewer (actually a the river Westbourne converted into a sewer) running over it in a conduit. It received a direct hit and the site was flooded by the broken sewer conduit.

 

[ChiefPlanner]

some horrible ones on the Underground. There was the bank one where 51 people died. The bomb penetrated through into the underground booking hall, then went down an escalator shaft before exploding, causing a general collapse of the road above. Many were sheltering from the bombing.

And Sloane Square. Recently rebuilt. The station has a sewer (actually a the river Westbourne converted into a sewer) running over it in a conduit. It received a direct hit and the site was flooded by the broken sewer conduit.

Balham - bomb penetrated the lower level and then exploded. Plus leaking gas and burst water mains.

When I lived in the poor end of Wimbeldon , I assisted one of my old boy neighbours to deep dig his allotment , turned up bits of LT style glazed bricks - rubble from the Balham incident we were told by someone who knew. Handy place to dump and then cover with London clay - eventually became allotments.

 

[Bald Rick]

Blackpool Central suffered severe damage following a mid-air collision between a Boulton Paul Defiant night fighter and a Blackburn Botha.
The Botha crashed on the station.
The accident caused more casualties than all enemy action over Blackpool and the Fylde combined

This link carries the detailed history prepared by the Lancashire Aircraft Investigation Team
http://laituk.org/Botha-Defiant.htm

I never knew ab It that incident. My grandfather built Defiants at the B&P factory in Wolverhampton.

 

[randyrippley]

I never knew ab It that incident. My grandfather built Defiants at the B&P factory in Wolverhampton.

It appears to have been heavily censored at the time, resulting in it being little known

 

[FGW_DID]

http://www.greatwestern.org.uk/m_in_gwr_history2.htm

Stations that were hit included Bristol, Birmingham, Birkenhead and Plymouth but serious damage also occurred at the South Wales docks especially Swansea.

 

[FGW_DID]

https://books.google.co.uk/books?id...ge&q=gwr loco damaged in bombing raid&f=false



A screenshot instead of quoting the text, hopefully that’s allowed?

 

[JWK]

My local station, Charlton, took a direct hit from a V1 in 1944. We have this to thank for its high ranking in the hotly contested ‘ugliest station on the North Kent line’ competition (though Slade Green still wins).

The Booking Office and ancillary buildings of Charlton Station were completely destroyed on 23rd June 1944, when it received a direct hit from a V-1 flying bomb, killing four civilians, including Mrs. Newick, the wife of the signalman, who lived in the Stationhouse. As a result, the whole station was demolished and remained as a collection of temporary buildings until 1967, when the station was rebuilt into the style we see today.

http://blitzwalkers.blogspot.com/2012/12/charlton-se7-london-suburb-at-war.html

 

[Mutant Lemming]

According to my mother, there was much amusement in the village when Lord Hawhaw (or one of his partners in crime) announced the destruction of the "marshalling yards" at Montacute, Somerset.
There was similar amusement when the Germans announced the bombing of the docks at Milborne Port..............(look it up on a map)

Has me wondering what the penalty was if you were caught listening to 'enemy broadcasts' and if anyone ever suffered the full effects of the law. Judging by the amount of anecdotal comment it would seem pretty much everyone had tuned in at sometime or other.

 

[Taunton]

Almost all the damage was repaired in short order, in notable contrast to far more destruction in Germany. Tracks were restored, stations could be reduced to open platforms only. Significant long term losses were Portsmouth Harbour, breached and cut off for some years, the West London line electric service from Willesden Junction to Earls Court, and the comparable North London line service from Broad Street to Poplar, both never restarted. These last two seem to have been more of an operational convenience of less-used services where there were parallel bus services than anything else.

The only locomotives I'm aware of being actually destroyed are the A4 at York and the Hall at Plymouth. In contrast in Germany destroyed locomotives ran into many hundreds. And again unlike Europe, can anyone think of a single mainstream bridge that was destroyed?

 

[edwin_m]

The only locomotives I'm aware of being actually destroyed are the A4 at York and the Hall at Plymouth. In contrast in Germany destroyed locomotives ran into many hundreds. And again unlike Europe, can anyone think of a single mainstream bridge that was destroyed?

I think in the early part of WW2 something as small as a train or railway could only be targeted by dive-bombing - any hits from high-level raids were essentially accidental. I imagine the Germans did this on the Continent but they never used Stukas over Britain to any great extent - presumably too vulnerable to the RAF. Towards the end of the war weaponry and tactics had advanced and such precision attacks by the Allies were common, but by then the Germans had largely lost control of the skies.

 

[Ken H]

you see this pic of Cologne after WW2 with the bridges wrecked and wholesale destruction. RAF and US bombing, the germans doing a scortched earth policy and artillery and this is what you get.
Luckily we didnt have a land war in the UK, and many cities escaped german bombing. Leeds was fortunate, I think.