Posted on 07/29/2007 9:04:43 AM PDT by NormsRevenge
LONDON (Reuters) - Police closed streets near London's Canary Wharf financial district on Saturday after an unexploded German flying bomb from World War Two was found on a construction site.
Bomb disposal experts were called in to make the V1 missile safe after it was unearthed close to the east London complex that houses 80,000 office workers during the working week, police said. At weekends the area is busy with shoppers and visitors.
Police closed several roads around the site in Millharbour, a road in the former docklands.
"Ambulance, fire and police are there and the building site has been evacuated," a London police spokesman said. The area was cordoned off, he said.
Thousands of V1s, nicknamed "Doodlebugs," were fired at the capital during the war, with the docks a prime target.
Hundreds of unexploded bombs from the war are buried across the country, according to government figures. They are unearthed from time to time, often during building excavations.
Canary Wharf's tenants include Bank of America, Barclays, Citigroup, HSBC, the Independent newspaper group and Reuters.
My recollection is that the fighter mainly associated with this tip-em-over manoeuvre was not the Spitfire but the later and faster Hawker Tempest (a superb aircraft, by the way, which was only produced in large number towards the end of the war, so never acquired the mythical status of the “Spit”). See www.hawkertempest.se
ps also on that website at www.hawkertempest.se/movies - an interesting clip of W.Cdr Beaumont explaining how to execute this manoeuvre (the same ‘Roly’ Beaumont who became a distinguished test pilot after the war, developing the English Electric Lightning and the early stages of the Tornado)
Probably. That old fart always seemed to have a private chuckle whenever he told anybody about this.
I still can't get over how men in those days signed up for another tour after completing 25 missions. Gee. Our guys do this even now. We've got countrymen who are just plain magnificent.
About 20 years ago I was working construction in South Jersey. One day a fellow worker showed me something he found in the Pine Barrens while deer hunting. He had a unexploded A10 round under the seat of his van! The thing was about a foot long. He found it near the Warren Grove bombing range. I told him it’s not a very good idea riding around with that thing under his seat.
Nice pic!!!!
Turret Gunner A20 thank you for your service. It took sand to climb into one of those babies 25 or 30 times. We are eternally grateful for your sacrifices.
As one entering his Old Farthood, I find myself having that same chuckle. Mainly when I watch the young, lost-look-in-their-eye farts & fartesses checking me out in the express line at WalMart, HEB, etc...
“That’s what Torchwood wants you to believe.”
Ah, another Doctor Who fan, I presume? I never really got into the old series, but I like the new one.
My dad trained to fly A20’s in the war but he washed out at Marshall U. This was after he got back from North Africa. I’m building a web page from his scrapbook from the war. I’ll freepmail you the webpage
Defective detonator.
So, the US Army had to have their version. The scientist they hired to run their project went on to run GM. Can't remember his name.
Any way, the "guidance" system was a based on the number revs of the engine.
Towards the end of the WWII, the US Navy considered adapting the V-1 to bombard the Japanese.
20 in A-20s and 20 in A-26s. And I think it took a lot more guts to fly in the big heavy 'Buffs.'
I would really appreciate that. Thanks.
Looks like my reply to the quote therein got lost somewhere in the transmission. So I'll try again. re: #31
... and that plank they had to walk from the Cockpit to the gunners station, small and scary.
You think that was scary. To get from the cockpit to the gunner's compartment in an A-26 you had to walk directly ON THE BOMB BAY DOORS -- devoutly praying that they didn't open under your weight. I think that made for many a new believer in the power of prayer.
I have never flown on a BUFF but I know guys who did very strange things in the Air Force to get back on flying status just to fly in that beast!!! In any case, I sincerely mean it - thank you, sir for your service and tell us more stories about the times you had.
The fastest in our Air Force. As I recall, the Gritish Dehavilland Mosquito was faster.
My Group (the 416th Bomb Group (Light) was the first Group in the Europen Theater of Operations to be equipped with the A-26. Flying the first missions beginning in November 1944, with A=26 lead ships, because the A-26 plexiglass-nosed jobs hadn't arrived yet. Great airplane.
And, speaking of BUFFS (Big Ugly Fat F----RS); I flew in the B-36 several times -- now THAT was a BUFF. And, I have always wanted to take a ride in a B-52, a B-2 and, above all an S-71 -- never had a chance. Never got a ride in an F-14 either.
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