Chris Dodkin
West Coast Correspondent
Had my mum & dad over on holiday recently, and one evening during the vacation dad started telling 'war stories' from his childhood.
He told a great story about how he was evacuated into London during the war, to stay at his grandparents house in Eltham.
He went on to say how he had stayed there through the Blitz, but was eventually evacuated back out of London for his own safety.
He then told us how his grandparents house was later damaged by a German V2 rocket attack, with the front being blown in by the blast, with his grandparents still inside (both survived).
Sounded like a great story, but I'd never heard it before, so I did a little research online, and found this chap who has built a google map of the V2 sites in London
http://maps.google.co.uk/maps/ms?hl=en&ie=UTF8&msa=0&msid=108088877885353953763.00045e8ff5d5ea3507b5e&ll=51.501477,-0.054245&spn=0.149602,0.439453&z=11&source=embed
When I looked up the address from the UK Census for his Grandparents house on the Google Map, I could see that a V2 landed close to the house as he had described.
What's more amazing was when I changed the Google maps view to Satellite Image - I could now see the actual V2 crater, still visible in the landscape - It's never been built on!
I then flew over the area using Google Earth, and took this shot of the area, and put in a drop-pin for the house, and a market for the V2 crater.
Told him on the phone today, he's really excited to see it!
Isn't technology amazing - after all these years I can send him a picture of something that happened to his grandparent's neighborhood in WW2.
Google Earth picture attached:
He told a great story about how he was evacuated into London during the war, to stay at his grandparents house in Eltham.
He went on to say how he had stayed there through the Blitz, but was eventually evacuated back out of London for his own safety.
He then told us how his grandparents house was later damaged by a German V2 rocket attack, with the front being blown in by the blast, with his grandparents still inside (both survived).
Sounded like a great story, but I'd never heard it before, so I did a little research online, and found this chap who has built a google map of the V2 sites in London
http://maps.google.co.uk/maps/ms?hl=en&ie=UTF8&msa=0&msid=108088877885353953763.00045e8ff5d5ea3507b5e&ll=51.501477,-0.054245&spn=0.149602,0.439453&z=11&source=embed
When I looked up the address from the UK Census for his Grandparents house on the Google Map, I could see that a V2 landed close to the house as he had described.
What's more amazing was when I changed the Google maps view to Satellite Image - I could now see the actual V2 crater, still visible in the landscape - It's never been built on!
I then flew over the area using Google Earth, and took this shot of the area, and put in a drop-pin for the house, and a market for the V2 crater.
Told him on the phone today, he's really excited to see it!
Isn't technology amazing - after all these years I can send him a picture of something that happened to his grandparent's neighborhood in WW2.
Google Earth picture attached:
