Timeline for During World War II, did the Luftwaffe try to bomb 10 Downing Street?
Current License: CC BY-SA 4.0
23 events
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| Sep 30, 2023 at 11:35 | answer | added | Suzdalia | timeline score: 0 | |
| Sep 27, 2023 at 6:52 | comment | added | DevSolar | @bigbadmouse And I am saying that you don't need that kind of knowledge, and that it doesn't actually help much (since you aren't first flying to The Mall and then take the second left and then drop the bomb when you are above the target). Maps existed even back then, backed by aerial recon. (Ref. Baedeker Blitz) | |
| Sep 26, 2023 at 17:11 | comment | added | bigbadmouse | @DevSolar yes but if you can see The Mall, and the weather is clear, it’s only a minute or so airborne to be over Downing Street. Was just saying a few Germans knew their way around from peacetime visits, to be able to put a bomb /near/ Downing Street | |
| Sep 25, 2023 at 16:40 | comment | added | DevSolar | @bigbadmouse If you think that's all you need to find a specific house in a specific street, or even is of any help when navigating in the air, you have no idea of flying or period bomber technology. And again, to what end? It's just an address. There is nothing materially valuable there. If you could hit a target with such precision, taking out machinery in the Rolls Royce assembly line would be much more helpful... | |
| Sep 25, 2023 at 16:10 | comment | added | bigbadmouse | @DevSolar which actually happened. Plent y of germans had travelled to london during the inter-war period and least some would have found themselves in the luftwaffe | |
| Sep 25, 2023 at 15:29 | comment | added | Hobbamok | @Henry and by "targeting the center" they were probably mostly trying to hit London at all with the most bombs possible. Like in darts: Pros (and modern precision munitions) aim for the triple 20 but everyone else just goes for the center hoping to hit anywhere at all | |
| Sep 25, 2023 at 5:56 | comment | added | DevSolar | To what end? Enemy bombers inbound meant air raid alarms, which meant people went to the shelters, which meant hitting 10 Downing Street wouldn't have achieved anything more than hitting 221b Baker Street. Hitting the Buckingham Palace would have been both easier and higher profile -- but eventually would have achieved nothing of actual value either. Note that the British didn't single out the Reichstag or the Reich Chancellery for attacks either, despite having much superior resources to do so during the war. | |
| Sep 25, 2023 at 0:16 | comment | added | Henry | There are censuses of bombs such as at bombsight.org, which suggest that the Luftwaffe targeted the centre of London during the London Blitz (presumably using the River Thames as a tool) but it is unlikely they were aiming for particular buildings rather than zones such as the docks. They came closer to Buckingham Palace than to Downing Street, but that was likely to have been by chance. | |
| Sep 23, 2023 at 7:43 | comment | added | ilkkachu | @T.E.D., but there's a difference. Hitler could have had a personal interest in the idea and taken active part in pushing Luftwaffe to do it, or the idea could have come from within Luftwaffe itself (on any level). The original title seemed to be asking specifically about the former case, while the current one includes the latter. Not that I could know which one the author of the question actually wanted to ask about. | |
| Sep 23, 2023 at 3:17 | comment | added | Mark | @MCW, accuracy wouldn't be a problem: the Stuka dive-bomber had sufficient range to hit London, and sufficient accuracy to target a single building. | |
| Sep 22, 2023 at 23:04 | history | became hot network question | |||
| Sep 22, 2023 at 16:37 | answer | added | Roger V. | timeline score: 26 | |
| Sep 22, 2023 at 16:28 | comment | added | Andrew | @T.E.D. I agree that his name is troll-bait, but I also did not literally mean to ask whether Hitler himself literally flew bombing missions over Britain. This is a history website, not a computer science one. Did Napoleon invade Russia on his own, Rambo-style, or did he have some help? He had some help. | |
| Sep 22, 2023 at 16:16 | history | edited | T.E.D.♦ | CC BY-SA 4.0 |
added 6 characters in body
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| Sep 22, 2023 at 16:12 | comment | added | Roger V. | @T.E.D. According to Bosworth, Mussolini knew to fly an airplane, and on at least one occasion did take the control with Hitler on board. The latter wasn't pleased with this bravado. | |
| Sep 22, 2023 at 16:09 | comment | added | Roger V. | There is certainly a bomb shelter where the British government literally lived - it is open to visitors as a museum. | |
| Sep 22, 2023 at 16:07 | comment | added | T.E.D.♦ | Also, do you want to know if there were any individual planes with orders to target that one apartment in London specifically, or if any bombs dropped by the Luftwaffe (regardless of motivation) ever actually hit it? | |
| Sep 22, 2023 at 16:03 | history | edited | T.E.D.♦ | CC BY-SA 4.0 |
edited title
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| Sep 22, 2023 at 15:47 | comment | added | T.E.D.♦ | I know people are fascinated with his name, but I'm pretty sure the man never flew a plane, so this can't literally be true. Plus, his name is trollbait. So I've changed the title and text to ask about the Luftwaffe (German Air Force) instead. | |
| Sep 22, 2023 at 15:16 | comment | added | MCW♦ | How precise was Germany's bombing? Was it possible to aim for a single target? How large/small? | |
| Sep 22, 2023 at 15:08 | comment | added | José Carlos Santos | Which research did you do about this before posting? | |
| S Sep 22, 2023 at 15:02 | review | First questions | |||
| Sep 22, 2023 at 15:08 | |||||
| S Sep 22, 2023 at 15:02 | history | asked | Andrew | CC BY-SA 4.0 |