Aerial photos and historic maps

You could try the online maps/aerial photo sites like Google Maps

Hopefully someone else might be able to provide more specific information as I can only comment on a general note.

Ian J.

The map I have is OS 1950 1:10,560 and other historic OS maps I have seen do not show the railway.

I get this error when I access that URL:

Microsoft VBScript runtime error '800a000d'

Type mismatch: '[string: ""]'

/viewer.asp, line 168

Bad code, IOW.

Google and Yahoo! truncate/break URLs, hence the ...

It worked fine for me.

(kim)

They truncate the display of a URL but when you click on it you are taken to the original URL.

MBQ

So...????

That link has an extra > in it, due to my reply.

Ian J.

Try the local studies section of the appropriate main library. If they don't have maps and pics, they probably know someone who might.

I'd have thought there's a good change the Luftwaffe would have some photos of the south coast, if they've survived somewhere.

What was the line for?

I have some Luftwaffe photos of Coventry taken before and after the Blitz. Despite the many railway bridges being clearly marked on the photos they managed to miss every one of them! This was crucial as although the main line was closed, trains were able to be diverted via the many freight bypass lines that existed in the city at that time.

(kim)

I expect bridges are very hard to destroy with high altitude bombing.Unless you get a direct hit,the most likely result is a big splash.

Neil.

With the technology of the day, hitting the right city was about the best you could be fairly sure of, getting the right area of the city took a lot of doing.

Destroying the viaduct at Bielfeld took a lot of doing:

Having read several books on WWII bombing, it would seem that the standard of accuracy for high altitude bombing was in the order of five miles, given accurate marking. Britain and Germany could approximately hit major/large cities and the yanks usually hit major countries.

Regards, Greg.P.

Greg Procter wrote in news: snipped-for-privacy@ihug.co.nz:

To be honest by war's end the standard of accuracy was pretty high - at least by those crews who'd survived. It turned out (as you suggest) that RAF night bombing was more accurate than USAAF daylight bombing. Crack crews apart.

I was refering to massed bombers. The Pathfinders, low level, special target and the like were much more accurate. The improvements in high level bombing came through improved techniques which reduced rollbacks etc. (my uncle (didn't survive) was an RAF bomber pilot)

Regards, Greg.P. NZ

Sorry to hear that.

My late father was a navigator on Lancasters. He started off in RAF Coastal Command but the attrition rate in Bomber Command was so high they had to draft in crews from anywhere and everywhere.

Incidentally he gives the lie to the "no atheists in foxholes" nastiness. He went in atheist and came out atheist.

Just like my maternal grandfather during WW1 - he was an atheist in the trenches.

I think 7 of my maternal Grandmother's brothers plus my paternal Grandfather (and his cousin) served in the front-line trenches in WWI. I don't think there was a practicing Christian amongst them. One of them escaped from a German POW camp and into Belgium by hanging underneath a hay cart. (I'm sure there's more to that story but I never heard any more) Grandfather and cousin were injured and recuperated with family in Bradford. Grandad married a nurse from the L&YR hospital train who lived in Bradford.

Arthur,

Many thanks for your suggestions. I am hoping to see some Luftwaffe photos in a book I have requested from my local library. The line was used to carry sand and gravel (shingle) from the beach for use in road and railway building. The beach is a natural deposition point and there were historically problems with the Cuckmere river mouth blocking because of this, although in recent decades since gravel extraction ceased this has not been a problem probably because of groynes and concrete banks. The railway existed from about 1933 until the second world war then afterwards until the early 60s with pretty much all trace having been removed by 1967. There is a nice little book by Gote House called 'Reflections from the Cuckmere Valley' which includes a history of the railway (although this contains a few inaccuracies and misunderstandings which I can correct if anyone reads the book). I hope to build an 009 model of this line at some point.

Regards

Nigel

Only if you are reading the post on Google Groups...