Bombing maps

How many bombs fell on Acocks Green?

Detailed records were kept of the bombs that fell on Birmingham. These were transferred onto maps, and a set of composite maps now held in the Central Library. They show that the number of hits increased rapidly as the countryside was left behind, and that residential areas were hit many times.

Obviously, British cities were not going to display where their crucial armaments and other factories were, so that the bombers could try to avoid hitting houses. Camouflage was used, and bombers usually attacked at night. So it was inevitable that many bombs would miss industrial targets. The question of whether civilian areas were deliberately targeted would probably get varied answers. Certainly total war eventually came to mean deliberate targeting of civilians.

Maps courtesy of Birmingham Libraries

The blue dots represent High Explosive bombs that exploded, and blue crosses those that failed to. Red dots represent incendiary bombs, and red crosses incendiaries that failed to ignite. Although there are many hits shown over the four years that Acocks Green suffered air raids, there must have been many more incendiaries dropped than were shown here. Indeed, several people have remarked that some sites in Acocks Green where both incendiaries and HE are known to have fallen do not appear on these composite maps.

Acocks Green's vulnerability

Air Raid Precautions and civil defence

Air raid shelters

Anti-aircraft and barrage balloons

Rover shadow factory at the Vineries

Strafing incidents