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Bomb Damage and Defences in South-West London

Editor's Note: The following content is a transcription of a period document or a collection of period statistics. It may be incomplete, inaccurate, or biased. The reader may not wish to take the content as factual.

21 Aug 1940

ww2dbase
USSRReference: 3/PPDT/T61

BOMB DAMAGE AND DEFENCES IN SOUTH-WEST LONDON
(1940)


From: LONDON
To: MOSCOW
No: 91921st Aug. 40


To DIRECTOR.

1. I have looked round the MERTON area (in south-west LONDON). Bombs have fallen in the working-class quarter, demolishing as many as 10 streets. MORDEN HALT Station and one factory have been demolished. More than 60 people have been killed. The bombs ranged from five to 50 kg. It turned out that the area had few technical resources. One bomb dropped on [B% 16th] August did not explode until 18th AUgust. The bulk of the bombs fell 100-500 metres north-west of a large group of factories without causing any damage to the latter. The raid had poor results because the run-in to the target was incorrect. The SAUSAGE-DEALERS [KOLGBASNIKI][i] bombed from south to north: the strip of factories runs for more than three kilometres from east to west and is 500 metres wide. The Captain of a Baltic States steamship, by the way, also reports that the SAUSAGE-DEALERS bombed across their convoy. An analysis of where the bombs fell in CROYDON confirms that some of them are late in dropping their bombs. Over 100 people were killed in CROYDON because the population received no warning. The raid was apparently a surprise to the military authorities.

2. I also saw signs of bombing at one factory in SURBITON (south-west of LONDON) and of dwellings in STAINES. At a large aerodrome on the western outskirts of ANDOVER one hangar has been demolished and one hangar pierced by an unexploded bomb. There were up to 30 BLENHEIM bombres and up to 40 fighters on the aerodrome.

3. A new group of barrage balloons has been established in the area between STAINES and UXBRIDGE, apparently in order to provide additional protection to LONDON from the west. Altogether there are 20 of them.


No. 234BARCh [ii]


Comments: [i] SAUSAGE-DEALERS: the Germans.
 [ii] BARCh: Possibly Simon Davidovich KREMER, whose official post was Secretary to the Soviet Military Attaché in LONDON. He was appointed in 1937 and is thought to have left sometime in 1946. The covername BARCh occurs as a LONDON addressee and signatory between 3rd March 1940 and 10th October 1940, after which it is superseded by the covername BRION.
ww2dbase

Source(s):
United States National Security Agency

Added By:
C. Peter Chen





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