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Dear All,
I am an occasional user of BOCN, and I'm always on the same kind of mission. I am a historian, but with no expertise in ordnance, and this is where I come to double-check things. I am writing an article about an eighteenth century Quaker clockmaker from Chelsea - which is pretty far off topic for this site - except that a clock of his was in St Lukes Church, Chelsea. This was flattened in a raid on the night of 16/17 April 1941 ("the Wednesday"). Because I am a nerd, I like to get my facts straight. My research so far has led me to try to identify the explosive device that did all the damage - and I would really appreciate an informed opinion as to whether I am anywhere near right.
All the accounts describe the church being destroyed, and five out of six of the fire watchers being killed by the explosion of two mines. There are many versions of the account given by the surviving fire watcher, Arthur Mallet, but this one will do as well as any other - It landed with a thump, not very loud, ‘like a fifty pound weight falling on soft ground’. It was not an alarming noise, and he looked round casually to see what it was. Actually it must have been painted dark green, with the sea green parachute collapsing beside it. Mallett described it as a ‘big thing about seven feet long and as big as you could get your arms round.’
I have decided the most likely culprit was a 1000kg Luftmine B. If you agree with the first premise, I may have the suffix wrong - so a first check is to establish the right type of mine. Secondly, my current draft text is as follows:
"veryprobably a 1000kg Luftmine B, designed to explode at roof level, causingmaximum blast damage, but also fitted with an auxiliary timer, to trigger 25seconds later if it reached the ground."
Is this right? I find conflicting accounts about fuzing and time intervals when I look around. It wasn't just an impact device, was it? The bit about being designed to explode above ground to maximise damage sounds convincing, but with differences in all the descriptions I read I would appreciate some authoritative guidance, and perhaps some pointers to sources I can definitely trust. And the 25 second bit is important, in order to explain what happened. Mallett was next to a mine that had hit the ground. He would surely need 25 seconds to run far enough to escape with his life. The other five were caught out by a second mine which fell close both to the church tower and where they were running. I estimate 1000 tons of masonry collapsed as the tower imploded, down onto the street over the top of them. Is the fuze timing right? What fuze was fitted to these things?
Many thanks in advance for any advice you can offer to get me on the right track.
Kind regards,
James Nye
I am an occasional user of BOCN, and I'm always on the same kind of mission. I am a historian, but with no expertise in ordnance, and this is where I come to double-check things. I am writing an article about an eighteenth century Quaker clockmaker from Chelsea - which is pretty far off topic for this site - except that a clock of his was in St Lukes Church, Chelsea. This was flattened in a raid on the night of 16/17 April 1941 ("the Wednesday"). Because I am a nerd, I like to get my facts straight. My research so far has led me to try to identify the explosive device that did all the damage - and I would really appreciate an informed opinion as to whether I am anywhere near right.
All the accounts describe the church being destroyed, and five out of six of the fire watchers being killed by the explosion of two mines. There are many versions of the account given by the surviving fire watcher, Arthur Mallet, but this one will do as well as any other - It landed with a thump, not very loud, ‘like a fifty pound weight falling on soft ground’. It was not an alarming noise, and he looked round casually to see what it was. Actually it must have been painted dark green, with the sea green parachute collapsing beside it. Mallett described it as a ‘big thing about seven feet long and as big as you could get your arms round.’
I have decided the most likely culprit was a 1000kg Luftmine B. If you agree with the first premise, I may have the suffix wrong - so a first check is to establish the right type of mine. Secondly, my current draft text is as follows:
"veryprobably a 1000kg Luftmine B, designed to explode at roof level, causingmaximum blast damage, but also fitted with an auxiliary timer, to trigger 25seconds later if it reached the ground."
Is this right? I find conflicting accounts about fuzing and time intervals when I look around. It wasn't just an impact device, was it? The bit about being designed to explode above ground to maximise damage sounds convincing, but with differences in all the descriptions I read I would appreciate some authoritative guidance, and perhaps some pointers to sources I can definitely trust. And the 25 second bit is important, in order to explain what happened. Mallett was next to a mine that had hit the ground. He would surely need 25 seconds to run far enough to escape with his life. The other five were caught out by a second mine which fell close both to the church tower and where they were running. I estimate 1000 tons of masonry collapsed as the tower imploded, down onto the street over the top of them. Is the fuze timing right? What fuze was fitted to these things?
Many thanks in advance for any advice you can offer to get me on the right track.
Kind regards,
James Nye
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