Local Victims of the Second World War

In 1941 the Germans had recovered a very large stock of sea mines previously used by the French Navy. These contained between 800 and 1600 pounds of high explosive and they were re-deployed by the Luftwaffe to wreak havoc from the air on our towns and cities. Pointed bombs dropping at high speed lose much of their effectiveness when they penetrate the ground. By dropping these parachute mines suspended from a very large parachutes they would make a 'soft' landing and cause considerable collateral damage over a one mile diameter. They could also be detonated by a time fuse set for it to explode above ground level or deadlier still, a longer delay to explode some time after the all clear had sounded. These were often wrongly called 'landmines'.

This is an extract from the "Internet" contributed by Les Alexander 17/07/03

An Unexploded Mine

Hello everyone, Parachute mines or 'Luftmine' had, indeed, been used as sea mines earlier but by 1943 they were extensively used over land. The 1,000 Kg mine, 8ft 8in long was floated down to earth on blue/green artificial silk parachutes of a diameter just under thirty feet. This was supposed to gently drop the mine in order not to damage the clockwork mechanism. The mine was attached to the parachute by eighteen silk cords one and a half inches thick. About ten per cent of these mines did not explode and as most were made in Czechoslovakia perhaps the clockwork mechanisms had been sabotaged.

The Mine End Caps Unexploded at Oldham

This photo, above left, of the mine’s end caps show the loops which were used to tie the parachute cords to the bomb. Gordon Whitlock has given me a piece of the aluminium ring which landed in their garden No 1 Foord Rd after the Rose Cottage mine exploded and the hand postcard below refers.

The first of these to come our way floated down at lunchtime on Sunday morning 22 June 1941. It fell in the garden of Rose Cottage on the South side of the top of Sunday's Hill. Like many of these weapons the parachute caught up in a tree in the garden and did not explode. Some little while later a second one fell on the small bungalow where the Candy's lived in St John's Rd. on the Hedge End side of what is now the Motorway. The bungalow was obliterated but luckily no one was there at the time.

Whether the blast from this, dislodged the bomb at Rose Cottage or whether it triggered the detonation mechanism or more likely the time delay had expired, the one at Rose Cottage also exploded. Unfortunately one of the children, Harold Newman, then 13, was under the piano at the time and he was killed when it collapsed on him. We are trying to locate his interment in St Leonard's church, Bursledon.

The family were re-located to nearby Windmill Lane in the semi-detached house half way up towards the Windmill. Unfortunately Harold's Father, William, never overcame the devastating loss and took his own life before thw war ended. I hope that event can be dated from the records at St Leonards Church, Bursledon as Windmill Lane is outside the Hedge End boundary.

There was an aluminium ring fixing the end caps and these had the fixing eyes for the parachute's plaited silk cords. These were pale blue and about half an inch in diameter. I heard that a piece of this had ended up in the first house in Foord Rd where the Whitlocks lived and that Gordon Whitlock still lived in the village. Sure enough he did have the piece of metal which he readily gave me but sadly the cords had since disintegrated in his damp garage.

He then looked out the old postcard shown below which his mother had written. I can’t think why the year is wrong, as according to the official records the incident certainly took place on 22 June 1941. See [War Records].

This is photo of Gordon Whitlock who started his working lifed as a brickmaker in the Butts Road brickworks. It was taken in 2010. His Father George was the Hedge End Cemetery Superintendant and they lived at No 1 Foord Rd. It was his father George, who joined the Winchester rescue team at Elnathan a year later and Gordon was also there to help as he recounted that he frequently played with the Morant children. See [The Morant Tragedy] on the [Home] page.

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