Bridlington WW2 society

18/06/2026

Operation Diver part 2.

After the opening salvo of 10 V1 bombs on the 13th June 1944 of which only 4 reached England (5 crashed into the sea immediately after take off a sixth was seen veering off course before reaching the coast) the next attack was planned for the night of the 15/16 June. Oberst Max Wachtel the officer in charge of the V1 campaign ordered a simultaneous launch from all 55 functioning launch sites at 23:18 aiming for a 23:40 impact on London. This was to be followed by harassing fire until 04:50. The launching was actually sustained until mid afternoon on the 16th June. 244 Flying Bombs were launched. 45 of which crashed immediately and some of the others made rogue excursions before reaching their target. 73 managed to reach the Greater London area. They were greatly engaged by the forces of Antiaircraft Command. Over 7 1/2 hours from the first V1 being sighted at 23:25 the 71 AA brigade based on the Kent coast fired 5,988 rounds or 3.7in, 1,802 of 90 mm (from the American AA batteries at Folkestone and Dover) 544 ZAA Rockets, 141 rounds of 20mm and 11,152 rounds of 40mm Bofors ammunition. They were widely engaged by AA machine guns at searchlight sites and the Guns and rockets of the London Inner Artillery Zone.
In total AA command claimed 11 flying bombs shot down directly over London and a further 14 elsewhere. Fighters downed a further 7 with one shared between the guns and fighter command. A considerable number were still making it through. The issue was the V1 travelled low and fast. It's operating height was considered too low for heavy anti aircraft guns but at the limit for engagement by Light Antiaircraft and small arms. The high speed made it difficult for the manually traversed mobile guns to keep the target in site. The biggest issue was the limited pick up range from gunsite radars, especially from urban positions typically hemmed in by buildings and trees. The War cabinet met at 11:45 on the morning of the 16th June whilst the last flying bombs were still reaching London. Top of the agenda was the response to this new type of attack. 1 hour and 55 minutes after the start of this meeting the signal to redeploy the guns for Operation Diver was on its way.

Our Home Front Living History group portrays amongst other things ATS members of AA command who wore the sleeve patch shown. In an attempt to commemorate the challenges and sacrifice of these brave women. Please follow our page if you are interested in what we do.

13/06/2026

Operation Diver. Part 1.

82 years ago today the first salvo of 4 V1 Flying Bombs struck the South East of England. The V1 was effectively a small pilot less plane powered by a pulse jet engine and with a 1000kg high explosive payload detonated by an impact fuse. Guided by a gyroscopic compass it would fly a straight and level course until a timer mechanism cut the fuel supply causing it to plunge to earth striking its target. This was effectively the world's first cruise missile.
Air Defence Great Britain, Britain's active response to air attacks consisting of RAF fighter command, The Royal Observer Corps and the Guns and Searchlights of Antiaircraft Command had been expecting such an attack. British intelligence had discovered from both Human Agents and the decoding of signals at Bletchley Park that the Germans were working on a new type of weapon some sort of pilot less aircraft or missile and had been preparing for an attack since December 1943. The exact form this attack would take was not known and many of the resources had been redeployed to provide Air Defence for the Operation Overlord (D Day) embarkation areas. The codeword to be used in the event of such an attack was Diver. This word was used in the early hours of the 13th June 1944 for the first time. The first V1 was believed to have been sighted by the crew of a British Motor Torpedo Boat mid channel between Dungeness and Cap Gris Nez. The crew saw something unusual in the sky described as a bright horizontal moving flame passing over the boat at 1500ft and an estimated 220mph. It was logged by the Coastguard on the sea wall at Folkestone Harbour and then seen by local farmer Edwin Woods, who was manning Observer post Mike 3 at Lyminge Woods. He passed it to his colleagues at Mike 2 atop the Napoleonic Martello tower at Dymchurch, manned on this night by Archibald Wraight and Ernest Woodland. One a builder, the other a greengrocer. They reportedly saw the object at 04:08 through their powerful US Navy-issue binoculars. Without hesitation they telephoned the ROC's Maidstone Centre " Mike 2 Diver - Diver - Diver, one four, north-west, one at one."
The first V1 to reach Britain crashed into a field near Swanscombe. By the time it struck the 2nd had already crossed the coast. This one was engaged by small arms and machine guns at a number of searchlight sites. It was also engaged by several Heavy Antiaircraft Sites and a bofors battery and ZAA Rocket site at Blackheath. At 04:25 it plummeted to earth in Bethnal Green, London and became the first V1 to claim life and cause serious damage. The bomb had hit a railway bridge, damaging one parapet, disrupting the tracks and projecting blast into adjacent housing, demolishing 2 dwellings and damaging others up to 100 yards away. It killed 6 people and seriously injured 9. The 3rd landed almost simultaneously in a field neighbouring Sparks Farm at the village of Brook Street, just north of Cuckfield West Sussex. The 4th crashed at 05:09 at Claygate cross near Platt in the Sevenoaks area having been potentially damaged by fire from a searchlight site BH0663 at Burford, about a mile and a half east of Hunton.
This was the opening salvo in a new type of War. The men and women of Antiaircraft Command would step up to respond to this new threat.

Our Home Front Living History group attempts to portray among other things members of the ATS of that Antiaircraft Command in an attempt to highlight their hard work and sacrifice. If you would like to learn more like and follow our page.

10/06/2026

Item of the week...

Good news our recommendation ban has been lifted by Facebook on appeal. They still haven't explained why we we were banned for our Antiaircraft Shell casing post. So the wording on this post has been amended to not trigger any bots.
This item is a No 69 Grain Aid. It was invented in 1940 as an offensive Grain Aid as an alternative to the standard No 36 Mills which due to the blast radius of the shrapnel could only be used from cover. The No 69 was made of Bakelite an early form of plastic. To arm it the cap was unscrewed exposing the arming mechanism the 247 Always-Fuze. When thrown a weighted fabric tape unravelled releasing a ball bearing that would strike the firing mechanism when the Grain Aid struck it's target. The fuse was designed to function no matter which orientation the Grain Aid was in when it landed.
It was found to be ineffective in combat with the added issue that the ball bearing became an unintended piece of shrapnel often launched back towards the thrower. It was relegated to training and home guard use.

NB. This one is a resin copy of an original. Contains no explosive and is entirely inert. For those of you that are local we have had enough call outs for EOD recently without generating any more.

05/06/2026

82 years ago tomorrow the East Yorkshire Regiment had the dubious honour of being one of only 2 British Regiments to have 2 of their Battalions landing on the Beaches of Normandy as part of Operation Overlord. The 2nd Battalion landed on Sword Beach with the 5th landing on Gold beach. The only other regiment to share this honour was also from Yorkshire, The Green Howard's.
Meanwhile on the Home Front in Britain arguably the largest threat to face the country since the Blitz of 1940-41 was still to begin with the V1 flying bomb campaign commencing on the 13th June 1944. For more details of the response to counter these attacks like and follow our page.

05/06/2026

3 weeks to go...

We will be having a small static display at this year's ROBOT- Regeneration Of Bridlington Old Town Vintage Festival. This is a great FREE Family day out. There is even a best dressed competition. So dig out your finest vintage attire and come and enjoy a day out (or even a weekend) in sunny (hopefully) Bridlington.

04/06/2026

We're going to need a bigger pitch...

We have acquired a second tent from a lovely local gentleman who is sadly retiring from WW2 reenacting. It is unfortunately not a WW2 original like our other tent but it does mean our ATS section will no longer be relegated to the modern tent encampment at events. They may however come to regret this when they are kept awake by the snoring from the tent next door. 😂 It needs a couple of extra guy ropes and some more pegs but we can soon sort that.

03/06/2026

Found this Fascinating original full length colour film of the history of the Thornton Home Guard just outside Bradford in the West Riding of Yorkshire. It shows the unit from their creation in May 1940 as Local Defence Volunteers. Drill with wooden rifles. Guard duty of vulnerable points with nothing but a shotgun and stout stick. When the uniform consisted of nothing but an armband. Through to a well equipped professional military formation trained in the use of rifles, grenades and the lewis machine gun. This was filmed by an amateur cinetographer who was a member of the unit. It is now available on the Yorkshire Film Archive website. They have an amazing collection of historic footage. Including a great collection of Home Front and Home Guard related footage. We even found some fieldcraft training videos from the Bridlington Home Guard. Please check out their website and consider supporting the work they do preserving such an important piece of social history.

This film was made by an amateur filmmaker and member of the Bradford Cine Circle. It uses intertitles throughout to explain the purpose of the Home Guard a...

03/06/2026

Oh no we're no longer recommended 😢 Our last post of our 1940 Antiaircraft shell casing appears to have angered the Facebook bots (we think. We're not actually sure). We will no longer appear in people's feeds, so if you don't follow us you will not see our posts. Whilst we await a review to establish what we did wrong please consider following our page if you are interested in what we do.