Liverpool’s Crosby Beach Is a Mile of World War II Blitz Rubble
atlasobscura.com
atlasobscura.com
It's very visible on google maps if you're interested in seeing the extent - https://maps.app.goo.gl/QutF47BFeoYpUC6YA. It extends from just above Crosby beach up to the mouth of the Alt River.
Gormleys another place is pretty cool. Pro tip: take a friend who doesnt know about it and ask why they think there are people standing motionless in the water.
I wish people put more effort into commemorating these places, the pain and suffering that humans have inflicted upon other humans, and celebrate the fact that we’ve collectively come together with (imperfect) international institutions that have so far succeeded in broadly avoiding the same fate again... and that therefore should be protected and enhanced rather than disparaged.
It’s quite... sobering that this is ‘surfaced’ on the vey day we commemorate the thirtieth anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall.
I'm sceptical of the idea that this is a deterministic phenomenon, but it's an interesting take.
https://jalopnik.com/how-the-ruins-of-europe-built-a-major-r...
“ During the war, 53 Allied bombing missions destroyed over 45% of Stuttgart, and nearly the entire city center. Between 1953 and 1957, 1.5 million cubic meters[1] of rubble were cleared and moved to the hill, which resulted in an increase in height of around 40 meters”
[2] shows what 45% of destruction looks like.
It wasn’t as hard hit as other places... sadly much of it wasn’t rebuilt.
[1] https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Birkenkopf [2] https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bombing_of_Stuttgart_in_Worl...
Incredible! The intensity of the bombing is hard to comprehend unless you see it for yourself.
There's a tacit component of this story which will be difficult for someone to understand who hasn't themselves been in combat. There is simply no proxy for warfare and this is nothing like playing a sport or running or whatever until you cannot. You'll just have to trust me when I tell you that to fall asleep so readily in those conditions -- especially as a healthy young fighter pilot -- truly speaks to the intensity of the combat that happened in the defense of Great Britain (and the tenacity of her pilots).
It was far, far more than 3,000 bombs. There were around 1,500 V2's sent to London and the SE (and a similar number against Belgium), and around 10,000 V1's (doodlebugs).
In terms of conventional bombing there were tens of thousands of tonnes of bombs dropped on London. Liverpool and Manchester got far, far less but I remember both had bomb sites scattered around well into the seventies, maybe eighties.
Edit: I found some numbers - 20k tonnes on London, 2k tonnes on Liverpool, and they only include raids where over 100 tons were dropped in the figures: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Blitz#Bombing_raid_statist...
Also worth noting the Nazis had terrible bombers - all twin engined light bombers - they had no heavy bombers. Their heaviest bomber was the He111 with a two tonne bomb load. Ju88 and Do17 were nearer one tonne. A Lancaster or Flying Fortress 5-10 tonnes depending on range.
For whatever reason I always figured the Battle of Britain was in the hundreds of bombs, not thousands. Really puts it in perspective to see the map.
Better rubble than what they threw in Beaufort's Dyke - the narrow but deep trench mid way between Scotland and Northern Ireland. That's where much of the surplus munitions, including chemical were dumped at the end of WW1 and WW2. There's even nuclear waste barrels down there. It's long overdue a cleanup as they're disintegrating.
I guess the perspective of the people at the time was that it would probably all be alright - or not as bad as what had already happened (WW2). Still though, it's not such a great idea from our perspective.
I wonder what that beach will look like.