This may seem a little off topic but bear with me.
The site "Bomb Sight" is a project funded by JISC to put online information about the bombs dropped on London and the Anti Invasion defences prepared during WWII taken from various maps held mostly at the National Archives.
The site www.bombsight.org is currently off-line brought down by the huge amount of interest, a cached version is currently available.
But what might be of interest is the blog prepared by the project leader available here:
http://blitzbombcensusmaps.wordpress.com/ 
She discusses various technical issues surrounding lining up old maps with new and digitizing them and some of the issues surrounding intellectual property rights as they pertain to old maps.
In addition those of you searching for old mines in NE surrey might like to check that that "collapse" feature is not an old bomb crater (the data extends to just beyond the M25)
Gavin

On topic, almost.

This site is for the London area, at the moment.

We all know about bombing of manufacturing areas, cities and docks but what about mining operations? Stray bombs fell all over the place, but is there any evidence that mines were ever a target?

On topic, almost.

This site is for the London area, at the moment.

We all know about bombing of manufacturing areas, cities and docks but what about mining operations? Stray bombs fell all over the place, but is there any evidence that mines were ever a target?

couldnt see them going for mines really, not when theres an even chance that workings wouldnt be affected, depending on the type of mine, depth etc. steelworks and manufacturing are much easier targets to disrupt with only a few on target

On topic, almost.

This site is for the London area, at the moment.

We all know about bombing of manufacturing areas, cities and docks but what about mining operations? Stray bombs fell all over the place, but is there any evidence that mines were ever a target?

couldnt see them going for mines really, not when theres an even chance that workings wouldnt be affected, depending on the type of mine, depth etc. steelworks and manufacturing are much easier targets to disrupt with only a few on target

That makes sense. And power stations.

Shotton Colliery in County Durham was bombed in WW2 and the boiler chimney demolished. It was replaced with a concrete one which lasted until the place closed in 1973. Without knowing any further details I suspect it was an'opportunity' target on the way back from some other site.

---

I'm told that Botallack Mine was bombed [well, maybe only one bomb] during WW2 and that the resulting crater has been a source of some confusion ever since.

In addition those of you searching for old mines in NE surrey might like to check that that "collapse" feature is not an old bomb crater (the data extends to just beyond the M25)

The period covered is 7th October 1940 to 6th June 1941.

It therefore does not cover the period of the Battle of Britain, when the main focus of attack was airfields around London. After the focus of bombing switched to London, as you can see from the map, places surrounding London got off more lightly. This map won't, for example, show the BoB raids on Kenley and Biggin Hill, although later bombing there is represented.
For my particular interest in knowing where bombs fell in the Reigate area, for information to use in the Reigate Caves displays, this map shows almost nothing. Almost all the bombs that fell around Reigate that we are aware of fell outside the period used for this map.
As far as identifying mining craters/bomb craters goes, on the downs, the majority of sites popularly described as bomb craters are most likely deneholes, which are frequently to be found along the edge of fields in narrow strips of woodland called shaws. It would take a particularly ingenious German bomb aimer to ensure that all his bombs fell in nice straight lines, along field boundaries.

With regard to bombing mines, if you wanted to disrupt coal supply, then it might make sense to target mines, but at that time there were an awful lot of them, and perhaps it was thought easier to target the distribution network - railway yards and the like, which would also have been far easier to locate and identify.

Just to add my small change ...

A very interesting site, the address of which I passed on to my mother, as it shows quite clearly the location of the bomb which destroyed her home in November 1940, as she said the only night they didn't go into the garden shelter was the night they were dug out of the remains ! Five in the house when the bomb struck and all five survived !

I saw when I was growing up in Kent a map of the local parish showing were all the V1 and V2's landed, which made you think abit.

A site like this makes you wonder what else could be found in the archives and would if given time make in interesting site from a mining point of view.

---

interesting site. I'm sitting here in Baku waiting for the local, steam-driven internet to load it... there were two bomb-damaged houses in the street I was born in and I can see a "strike" shown that was probably it.

What it doesn't show is the subsequent V1 and V2 strikes which did far more damage per strike.

The biggest problem with a lot of this data ( and I've seen a good deal of it in my time tunnelling in Central London in the 80s and early 90s ) is that much of the data is incomplete. Reporting was not a high priority ( if you really want a headache, try digging up a UXB and trying to identify it in the records ).

Likewise a lot of the strikes represent approximate locations of multiple bombs.

Still, interesting stuff and the best answer that is available

---

I saw when I was growing up in Kent a map of the local parish showing were all the V1 and V2's landed, which made you think abit.

I've seen a map of the whole of kent with these plotted on, I've got a photo of it somewhere I'll dig out. Most of them seemed to drop short in the sea, presumably where they were shot down?

I saw when I was growing up in Kent a map of the local parish showing were all the V1 and V2's landed, which made you think abit.

I've seen a map of the whole of kent with these plotted on, I've got a photo of it somewhere I'll dig out. Most of them seemed to drop short in the sea, presumably where they were shot down?

Here it is

🔗Personal-Album-259-Image-81765[linkphoto]Personal-Album-259-Image-81765[/linkphoto][/link]

The above photo was taken at Grey Point Fort near Belfast which claims to have fired the fist shot of WWII (normally ascribed to a German Battleship which I've forgotten the name of 😞 )

Going back to the original forum message, I went onto the site and found details and pictures of mining in Yorkshire to purchase.
Might be a good site to keep your eye on

---