V2 Rocket landings in Rochford District 1944/45

Rawreth, Canewdon and Foulness each hit five times

By Sid Barker

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V2 Rocket attacks on England started on 8th September 1944 and ended in March 1945. Some resulted in serious loss of life and many others landed fairly harmlessly on open farmland and marshland, often causing only slight damage to property or very slight injuries to people.

In all I've managed to trace about 27 incidents in the Rochford District plus about 3 where the rockets landed harmlessly in the sea off Foulness Island. Listed below are the dates and places together where known with the details of any injury or damage. If anyone can remember anything further about any of these it would be most interesting to hear their recollections.

Sun Sept 17th 1944 - a V2 landed on open ground in Hockley amongst brambles, seriously injuring 3 people.

Tues Sept 12th 1944 - Paglesham - Fell on marshland - Slight damage to farm.

Mon 9th Oct 1944 - Havengore Island - Fell on marshland -  No damage.

weds 11th Oct 1944 - Rawreth - Landed in ploughed field - 3 slight casualties.

Thurs Oct 12th 1944 - Rawreth - slight damage to property.

Fri  Oct 1944 - Barling - Slight damage to farmhouse.

Sat Nov 4th  1944- Gt Wakering - Fell in minefield.

Tues Nov 14th 1944 - Rayleigh - Fell in field - Slight damage to property.

Thurs Nov 23rd 1944 - Foulness - Fell in field - Slight damage - No casualties.

Fri 8th Dec 1944 - Canewdon - Fell in field - Slight damage to property.

Tues Dec 12th 1945 - Creeksea - Slight damage to property. - Motor recovered by Royal marines and taken to nearby large house where they were billeted.It stood in the garden for some years until acquired by the Wallis Family in 1973.

Thurs Dec 14th 1944 - Gt Stambridge - Landed in creek.

Thurs Dec 24th 1944 - Rayleigh - No details of where, casualties or property damage.

Sat Jan 13th - Hockley - Fell in field - No damage.

Thurs Jan 14th 1945 - Rayleigh - Fell in field - 2 serious injuries - 2 Bungalows severely damaged.

Sun Jan 14th 1945 - Foulness - No damage.

Sat Feb 10th 1945 - Rawreth - No details.

Wed Feb 14th 1945 - Rawreth - No details.

Sat Feb 17th 1945 - Canewdon - No details.

Sun Feb 18th 1945 - Canewdon - No details.

Tues Feb 20th 1945 - Foulness - No details.

Sat Mar 3rd 1945 - Foulness - No details.

Sat Mar 10th 1945 - Rawreth - No details.

Sun Mar 11th 1945 - Foulness - Warhead failed to explode.

Thurs Mar 15th 1945 - Rayleigh - No details.

Sun Mar 18th 1945 - Battlesbridge - No details.

Thurs Mar 22nd 1945 - Canewdon - No details.

Rawreth took several hits and I remember my late mother telling me that one rocket hit a barn on the corner of Hooley Drive and Rawreth Lane, and demolished it. Subsequently a new modern style barn was erected which I remember. This has now been replaced by a house. Can anyone verify this or pin down the date?

This page was added by Sid Barker on 08/08/2014.
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My Aunt and Grandfather were killed in the V2 bombing in Rayleigh on the 14th November 1944 so the record here is incorrect.

By Marion Stanton
On 08/09/2021

My mum says she was injured by glass from windows being blown in at a house called "Dunoon" near "Rochford  Corner" after a V2. She says it went down at the same site as an earlier V1 impact which hit a bungalow "at the back of Denham/Blenheim orchard". Has anyone got an angle on this?

By Paul Glennon
On 07/08/2015

There are two known V2 impact sites in Hockley:

September 17th  1944, (13.02 hours) - Battery. 485, (location unknown), V-2 rocket fired, impacted Hockley, Essex. Fell on open ground among brambles. 3 Persons seriously injured.
January. 13th  1945, (17.51 hours) - Battery 444, Den Haag, Site 47 North of Waterpartij (Scheveningse Bosjes), V-2 rocket fired, impacted Hockley, Essex. Fell in field. No damage.

By B. Meldon
On 31/07/2015

There is a huge crater off the footpath in Marylands Woods just the other side of the Railway in Hockley. I believe this is a site of a V2 rocket attack.

By Neil Foster
On 29/07/2015

A V-2 launched from Holland at 09:19 on January 29th 1945 landed in a field in Shotgate causing slight damage to a farm and injuring 3 people.
Perhaps this was the one?

By B Meldon
On 29/01/2015

I was told by my parents that several V2s came down in the area of Shotgate. During WW2 one of Norman Clarke's (former Mayor of Southend) jobs at Fort Halstead in Kent was to produce reports of V2 strikes in the UK, but to associate each strike with the arrival time of a different launch, so that, if the Germans actually checked the newspaper reports, they would associate impacts with the wrong launches, thereby distorting their range calculations and settings.

By Bernard de Neumann
On 26/01/2015

I am not sure I will be able to help much but……

Is this the crater perhaps?

https://www.google.co.uk/maps/@51.6096158,0.7135584,181m/data=!3m1!1e3

I think there are were six V-2’s that landed in Canewdon that could have made this crater:

December 4th 1944 (V-2 rocket launched 09.30 hours) - Impacted Canewdon. Fell on marshland. Slight damage to property.

December 8th 1944 (V-2 rocket launched 12.44 hours) - Impacted Canewdon. Fell in field. Slight damage to property.

January 20th 1945, (V-2 rocket launched 02:52 hours) - Impacted Canewdon. Fell on open land. Farm buildings damaged.

February 17th 1945, (V-2 rocket launched 03.37 hours) - Impacted Canewdon.

February 18th 1945, (V-2 rocket launched 15.11 hours) - Impacted Canewdon.

March 22nd 1945, (V-2 rocket launched 02.31 hours) - Impacted Canewdon.

It is not marshland so that rules out the December 4th. According to the owner the V-2 that damaged Lambourne Hall fell ‘towards the end of 1944’ so that would probably be the December 8th V-2.  My guess that with the proximity to the farm buildings it would have damaged them so the Hyde Wood Lane crater was probably made by the January 20th V-2. But it could be one of the later three as I have not seen the damage reports these.  It also may have not been a V-2?

There are no recorded V-2 impacts for Ashingdon and I think the parish boundary ran, as it does now, down the middle of Hyde Wood Lane. So if it was to the west of the lane it may not be a V-2 impact crater.

By B Meldon
On 22/08/2014

Hello Sid,

Sorry cannot help with your two questions, all I know is the site where it landed.

Regards, Richard

By Richard
On 20/08/2014

Hello Richard,

Very interesting.

Have you any idea of the date this V2 landed and whether there were any casualties?

Thanks,

Sid

By Sid Barker
On 19/08/2014

I remember (and still would be able to find) the site of a V2 just south west of Hyde Wood farm in Hyde Wood lane, Canewdon.

My father pointed the place out to me but never actually went near the crater, I think he thought it might go off again!

its probably one that you have logged anyway, but I always remember it with awe as a child in the fifties.

Richard

By Richard Hall
On 15/08/2014

This website may be of help as it lists all the known V2 launches and impact sites:

http://www.v2rocket.com/start/deployment/timeline.html

However none are listed for Rochford.

By B Meldon
On 12/08/2014
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