[Brighton] Old Brighton Postcard

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Perfidious Albion

Well-known member
Oct 25, 2011
6,080
At the end of my tether
The Odeon, Kemp Town.. St George’s Road … it suffered a bombing in WW2 and 52 people were killed one afternoon. I read that the bomber was being pursued and just ditched his load in a bid to escape. Sad story….
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Today it is the site of the block of flats , Cavendish Court.

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Shropshire Seagull

Well-known member
Nov 5, 2004
8,550
Telford
The Odeon, Kemp Town.. St George’s Road … it suffered a bombing in WW2 and 52 people were killed one afternoon. I read that the bomber was being pursued and just ditched his load in a bid to escape. Sad story….
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Today it is the site of the block of flats , Cavendish Court.

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My 96 year old dad tells a story of being at Varndean and out on a school trip on the cliff tops near Roedean when a Dornier German bomber dumped a load of bombs close by, all landing harmlessly in the sea. He reckons it was because the schoolboys were all wearing red caps so easy to spot from above.

I guess if you returned to base with unused bombs you might get accused of not doing your job?
 




dolphins

Well-known member
Jan 26, 2012
5,287
BN1, in GOSBTS
My 96 year old dad tells a story of being at Varndean and out on a school trip on the cliff tops near Roedean when a Dornier German bomber dumped a load of bombs close by, all landing harmlessly in the sea. He reckons it was because the schoolboys were all wearing red caps so easy to spot from above.

I guess if you returned to base with unused bombs you might get accused of not doing your job?
I've got a map from 1944 that shows the locations of all the bombs in Brighton. It's 44MB at full res - is there interest for me to reduce the resolution/size and post here? It's not a postcard, of course, so strictly speaking....
 








Eeyore

Colonel Hee-Haw of Queen's Park
NSC Patron
Apr 5, 2014
23,791
My 96 year old dad tells a story of being at Varndean and out on a school trip on the cliff tops near Roedean when a Dornier German bomber dumped a load of bombs close by, all landing harmlessly in the sea. He reckons it was because the schoolboys were all wearing red caps so easy to spot from above.

I guess if you returned to base with unused bombs you might get accused of not doing your job?
Whether there is truth in that or not I don't know. After all, the war is full of tall stories that grow by the year. I learnt not to believe much of what I was told. Apparently Hitler didn't allow the Pavilion to be bombed because it was going to be his English home after the war (no evidence) and loads of kids were due to be going to the Kemptown cinema that day but for some reason missed out. The other story I heard was of a bomb that fell on a house of a couple who were deaf and, I think, blind. They were found sitting in their arm chairs not knowing what had happened. I suspect this may not be true. But I believed the stories as a kid.

Apparently Lord Haw Haw announced that Brighton harbour had been bombed when the planes had hit Queen's Park pond and taken out a few rowing boats. Queen's Park pond was never hit.

The story my Dad told once was of a boy on his way back from his school who was killed by a bomb on Down Terrace. Sadly, that one appears to be true.
 


































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