[Politics] Russia invades Ukraine (24/02/2022)

[Nobby]

In fighter aircraft? More than once? Bit weird.

My Dad was machine gunned by an ME110. It was regular

 

[Nobby]

I very much doubt the Germans timed their bombing so they could be over schools in Brighton at midday! The timing would have been based on the primary target and according to a quick google, Brighton wasn't a primary bombing target. It was subject to indiscriminate bombing as bombers returning home would jettison any bombs left over Brighton (and other coastal towns) before heading back over the channel. That said, to a child at the time it probably felt that they were being targeted.

They bombed the gasworks and then strafed the streets
My Dad who was about 7 dived behind a low wall in Foredown Drive
They strafed the streets. They didn’t just jettison bombs

 

[Eric the meek]

I very much doubt the Germans timed their bombing so they could be over schools in Brighton at midday! The timing would have been based on the primary target and according to a quick google, Brighton wasn't a primary bombing target. It was subject to indiscriminate bombing as bombers returning home would jettison any bombs left over Brighton (and other coastal towns) before heading back over the channel. That said, to a child at the time it probably felt that they were being targeted.

The elderly woman I spoke to, I've known for years. I trust her completely. It just isn't in her to lie or embroider things.

She lived through the war. She experienced it.

 

[drew]

They bombed the gasworks and then strafed the streets
My Dad who was about 7 dived behind a low wall in Foredown Drive
They strafed the streets. They didn’t just jettison bombs

I take it back, a little more research shows there were about 56 air raids on Brighton. But I still doubt they were timed to catch children during their lunch break!

 

[Algernon]

They bombed the gasworks and then strafed the streets
My Dad who was about 7 dived behind a low wall in Foredown Drive
They strafed the streets. They didn’t just jettison bombs

Fockers?

 

[raymondo]

Quite a turnaround that we are giving this the thumbs up. Zelensky seems to have pulled it off - getting a decent deal and keeping Trump onside.

That tete-a-tete with Zelensky in the Vatican might have helped. There'll be orange smoke coming from the chimney before you know it.

I guess it's that the Ukrainian parliament feels Zelenskiy has got a good enough deal, a far better deal than the US offered, so it's worth a shot.

 

[GT49er]

Perhaps the grisly stuff wasn't shared with children, either by parents, grandparents, or by the school. You tend not to be told what happened to your parents in the war, as they want to protect you. You tend to only find out the odd grisly details from the memories of others. My father fought in Burma (as well as other places) but he never spoke about it. I've absolutely no idea what he did there.

Perhaps. But my relatives lived nearby, and although I'm sure that there is much I was never told, I would have thought the deliberate and repeated strafing of schoolchildren in the playground would have been one of those things that did register. I obviously can't say it didn't happen - I'm just a bit sceptical that it happened frequently and intentionally.
A train approaching or leaving the tunnel would be a more obvious - and certainly more legitimate - target, and close enough to frighten the living daylights out of a 6 or 7 year old girl.

 

[Nobby]

I take it back, a little more research shows there were about 56 air raids on Brighton. But I still doubt they were timed to catch children during their lunch break!

I expect they didn’t ask for birth certificates before a bit if the ol strafing though
And the kids would have been heading for the bomb shelters

 

[SouthSaxon]

There’s

I take it back, a little more research shows there were about 56 air raids on Brighton. But I still doubt they were timed to catch children during their lunch break!

Perhaps not, but fighter-bombers machine gunning the streets was a thing.

There’s an account of a 1943 raid on this archived page, given by a local historian who was there.

https://web.archive.org/web/2015110...s-to-go/south-east/brighton-and-hove/tra27768

 

[Eric the meek]

I expect they didn’t ask for birth certificates before a bit if the ol strafing though
And the kids would have been heading for the bomb shelters

The woman I spoke to, also mentioned the mothers of the schoolchildren (all the mothers came to get them), grabbing their children and diving down behind the low walls of the surrounding gardens.

She didn't mention a bomb shelter, but she did tell me about the Morrison shelter that they built inside the cellar of their shop.

 

[Eric the meek]

I very much doubt the Germans timed their bombing so they could be over schools in Brighton at midday! The timing would have been based on the primary target and according to a quick google, Brighton wasn't a primary bombing target. It was subject to indiscriminate bombing as bombers returning home would jettison any bombs left over Brighton (and other coastal towns) before heading back over the channel. That said, to a child at the time it probably felt that they were being targeted.

Have you ever thought of becoming an American?

When the Russian invasion of Ukraine is over, will you be questioning the eye-witness accounts of Bucha, Mariupol, Kherson and the rest?

 

[drew]

Have you ever thought of becoming an American?

When the Russian invasion of Ukraine is over, will you be questioning the eye-witness accounts of Bucha, Mariupol, Kherson and the rest?

Get over yourself. Like I said, to a child it would seem very different. If you check, you'll see that the worst reported air raid was one plane that had got detached from the rest of it's group and then targeted Brighton.

 

[Triggaaar]

My Dad was machine gunned by an ME110. It was regular

Any aircraft over here would have been on a specific mission. Bombers with a target, and fighters as escort. Bombers would of course drop anything they have left before returning home, and fighters which were low may well have a burst at any opportune target, but I can't see any mission being planned where a German aircraft would be firing guns at an unimportant target at a specific time of day.

I think it's more likely it was done one day, and given the time, the locals assumed it had been deliberately planned to coincide with children being hit.

 

[SeagullinExile]

There’s

Perhaps not, but fighter-bombers machine gunning the streets was a thing.

There’s an account of a 1943 raid on this archived page, given by a local historian who was there.

https://web.archive.org/web/2015110...s-to-go/south-east/brighton-and-hove/tra27768

It was indeed. My late dad and his older sister were strafed on Whitley Road bridge in Eastbourne. A woman dragged them in to her house thankfully. I guess they could of been going after the railway though, and not necessarily targeting children.

 

[Eric the meek]

Get over yourself. Like I said, to a child it would seem very different. If you check, you'll see that the worst reported air raid was one plane that had got detached from the rest of it's group and then targeted Brighton.

You don't understand. The 91 year old who relayed all the information, was there when it happened. She lived it. You were't there, and you didn't live it.

You are now doubling down, quoting things on google and whatever else you can find. Her account was first hand. Yours will never be that.

 

[fly high]

There’s

Perhaps not, but fighter-bombers machine gunning the streets was a thing.

There’s an account of a 1943 raid on this archived page, given by a local historian who was there.

https://web.archive.org/web/2015110...s-to-go/south-east/brighton-and-hove/tra27768

My Mum got shot at by a german plane as she walked back to school after lunch, she managed to dive down some steps to a basement and behind a wall. Admittedly it was in south London, Dulwich area. Germans didn’t care for the lives of children.

 

[drew]

You don't understand. The 91 year old who relayed all the information, was there when it happened. She lived it. You were't there, and you didn't live it.

You are now doubling down, quoting things on google and whatever else you can find. Her account was first hand. Yours will never be that.

I do understand and she would only have been 6 or 7 at the time the blitz started. What she experienced would have been horrific but that doesn't mean she would have known whether the bombing of Brighton was a deliberate target or if it were planes returning from a different target. Or, as in the case of worst raid I mentioned, a single plane getting lost and then targeting Brighton. .

To her it might have felt that the Germans were deliberately targeting the school at lunch time and that does not diminish what she went through.

And you're right, I wasn't there, and I'm guessing neither were you.

 

[Eric the meek]

I do understand and she would only have been 6 or 7 at the time the blitz started. What she experienced would have been horrific but that doesn't mean she would have known whether the bombing of Brighton was a deliberate target or if it were planes returning from a different target. Or, as in the case of worst raid I mentioned, a single plane getting lost and then targeting Brighton. .

To her it might have felt that the Germans were deliberately targeting the school at lunch time and that does not diminish what she went through.

And you're right, I wasn't there, and I'm guessing neither were you.

No, I wasn't there, but I listened to her carefully. The detail that she gave was utterly convincing. The kind of thing that is etched on one's mind.

Out of interest, are you even aware of the mistakes you are making? There are several.

By saying 'she would only have been 6 or 7 at the time the blitz started', you are trying to diminish her recollection. Classic 'shoot the messenger' syndrome. You don't know what age she was at the time of the raid, you have no idea what she would have known or not known, and no idea what she 'might have felt'. To argue that it was an isolated incident, based on what you have selectively gleaned from google, just doesn't cut it. You are just filling in the gaps in your knowledge.

You now have several other examples in the replies, who cite German pilots deliberately targeting children. I believe them.

 

[Bodian]

My mum was evacuated to Firle during the war and told me about all the times the bombers 'hedge-hopped' to avoid radar. Scared her silly.

 

[Nobby]

Get over yourself. Like I said, to a child it would seem very different. If you check, you'll see that the worst reported air raid was one plane that had got detached from the rest of it's group and then targeted Brighton.

So you’re calling my Father a liar? Feck off you imbecile