What happened in your town/city during WWII?

[Dowly]

I´ve been meaning to make this thread for ages, finally I got myself to it.

Like the title says, I´d like to know what happened where you live during the heat of battle of the WWII. It doesnt have to be combat related, but something that is related to the fighting, e.g. ammunition factory etc.

Ok, let´s start then, shall we?

I live in a small, ~26,000 people town in eastern Finland called Varkaus. The town is ~150Km from the Russian border.

During the WWII, Varkaus didnt see much of action, it was bombed a few times because it was an industrial town (as it is still, there´s close to 30 industrial workshops in here, atleast 22 of them are metal industry.). And because of that same reason it was used to repair salvaged soviet tanks during the Winter and Continuation wars.

That´s it, not much but still something.

[Konovalov]

I suspect that this thread will have more posts from people in Europe and Asia than from my country Australia or others such as the U.S.A. Good topic though.

[Dowly]

Yea, I know that. But like I said, it doesnt have to be combat related. The work done in the homefront is just as important as is the one that is done in the frontlines.

Oh and small request, if you live in city like London, DO NOT copy&paste a list of ALL the bombings against it. 'It was heavily bombed through out the war' is good enough.

[Oberon]

We got bombed a few times during WWII, the post office got hit and three people killed. Just down the coast there was a suspected German invasion that was repelled using the 'burning sea' weapon. Google up "Shingle Street invasion"

[Kapitan]

My town i live inbetween southend and basildon, when the germans flew over they would use the thames as a navigational aid into london and i live at the mouth of the estury, the bombs they didnt drop over london though they ditched into the thames.

Off the coast of Southend lies a shipwreck the ship is called the Richard Montgomery i believe its a liberty ship, but it broke its back and sank with over 2,000 tonnes of ammunition authoities have stated that only about 190 tonnes has been recoverd over the last 50 years and that every year they leave it it becomes more and more dangerous.

Other than that they made the mulberry harbours in london and towed them down the thames, one sank off thorpe bay and is still there today.

[Linton]

This is a link to a map of v1 crash sites in kent:http://www.edenbridgetown.com/maps/v1.shtml

[Captain Nemo]

I have lived in Dagenham (East London) most of my life. Industry in Dagenham contributed to the war effort by having the Sterling Engineering Company where both the Lanchester and the Patchett were developed. Sterling also manufactured silenced DeLisle carbines for clandestine British Commando units. The other big contributor was Ford Motor Company which produced 360,000 military vehicles and 34,000 Merlin aero engines. Of course this made the area a target for the Luftwaffe and many civilians lost their lives.

Also, on the corner of Whalebone Lane and the Eastern Avenue, diagonally opposite the Moby Dick pub, is the site of a Saxon moot hall. The adjoining fields were used as a POW camp for Germans during WWII.

My dad was a young boy during WWII and he lived in Ford Road in Dagenham and he told me once that he saw three low flying ME 109s flying towards Romford where they attacked the Gas Works there.

Nemo

[STEED]

What happened in your town/city during WWII?

Nothing a big fat zero.

[August]

The last ship sunk by a U-Boat (U-853) was just off our shores.

http://www.usmm.org/blackpoint.html

PT boats and torpedos were also tested here and the first Seabee battalions were formed just down the road in Quonset RI. Pretty much the entire bay was turned into a giant Navy base for the duration.

[Oberon]

Aaay! A Dagenham man! My Dad lives in Dagenham over near Five Elms, drives for first bus out of Dagenham depot.

[WutWuzDat]

We built the A-Bomb (okay, maybe I don't live in Oak Ridge, but I'm about 3 miles from Anderson county... and about 15 miles from the Oak Ridge city limits)

[Captain Nemo]

Originally Posted by Oberon

Aaay! A Dagenham man! My Dad lives in Dagenham over near Five Elms, drives for first bus out of Dagenham depot.

I'm not too far from Five Elms, I live near the Roundhouse Pub.

Nemo

[Gizzmoe]

Düsseldorf, in the Rhineland area with a population of 535000 in 1939, was an important target with major steel, arms and chemical industry. The city was bombed 243 times (9 major attacks) from May 1942 to 1945 by a total of 5641 aircraft, 18000 tons of bombs were dropped. It also was under artillery attack for seven weeks.

By the end of the war more than 90% of all buildings and industry were either damaged or destroyed. 5858 people were killed during the attacks, the population at the end of the war was 185000.

[CCIP]

I was born in Leningrad. I think I don't need to indicate what it means.

(Over a million civilians have died as a result of shelling, bombing - but of mostly starvation in the 900-day siege of the city. Among the latter was my great-great-grandfather)

[Pioneer]

While I live in the USA now, my home town is Brisbane, Australia, and was at the core of important decisions during WW2.

Initially, after the USA entered the war, US General Douglas MacArthur was based in the Phillipnes. USA President Rooseveldt, a good friend to Doug, wanted to preserve an occupational force in a "safe" precinct. When he retreated MacArthur moved to the city of Brisbane and set up the US Theatre Headquarters, which operated from the heart of the city at the corner of Queen and Edward Street. The new building was appropiately called MacArthur Chambers, and still exists today. Brisbane residents can still recall walking by and seeing see MacArthur in the basement through the iron grills, which when I was last in brisbane still existed.

Now, more importantly, here's what DIDN'T happen in Brisbane.

The impending arrival of the Japanese scared the Australian people. Darwin was bombed, then a week later Townsville, and then the unthinkable, 2 midget submarines snuk into Sydney harbour and reeked havoc. The Prime Minister of Australia Robert Menzies sought advise from both MacArthur and Rooseveldt on a strategy, and The Brisbane Line was devised.

The Brisbane Line was essentially a retreat line which stretched from just north of Brisbane at a place called Wildhorse Mountain (near Moby Vic's on the Bruce Highway) to a location (that I cannot recall) west of Adelaide. This was ensure the protection of the nations capital and chief economic centres of Sydney and Melbourne. It was planned that in the event of invasion, Australian troops were retreat, and the remainder of the country handed over to the Japanese.

The implications of this retreat line, with hindsight, is unimagineable. The Australian government would have handed over the rich mineral and farming areas of the country, along with the strategic northern port of Darwin. Had the Japanese arrived, their food/land expansion process would be complete, and undoubtable, would have changed the look of the Pacific basin.