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03-01-2005, 01:17 AM
How V2 menace terrorised Whitehall
Top secret papers reveal that flawed intelligence led to fear of 100,000 deaths in London in first month of rockets. Ben Fenton reports
Flawed intelligence brought the Government to the brink of panic at the threat of Hitler's weapons of mass destruction and led to the drawing up of plans to run war-time Britain from underground, formerly top secret papers reveal today.
http://portal.telegraph.co.uk/news/graphics/2005/02/28/nvtwo28a.jpg
The scene of devastation when a V2 rocket fell on New Cross, London, November 1944
An emergency committee set up to predict the damage that V2 rockets could cause warned Winston Churchill that more than 100,000 Londoners would die in the first month of the bombardment, with the same number severely injured.
Spies, led by MI6, discovered in early 1943 that V2 rockets, codenamed Big Ben, were being built by Germany and believed they could strike London at the rate of one an hour carrying 10-ton warheads.
The amount of high explosive expected to rain down on the capital was the equivalent to a Hiroshima nuclear bomb every seven weeks.
The committee, set up in the Ministry of Home Security 18 months before the first rocket struck England, considered recommending the complete evacuation of London as soon as the V2s began to fall.
But the War Cabinet decided that would be "tantamount to accepting a major defeat" and decided to "stand firm".
Plans were drawn up to move the key ministries below the streets of London with up to 15,000 civil servants and military planners working 24 hours a day from deep tunnels connected to six Tube stations on the Northern line of the Underground.
The plans, included in top secret Cabinet Office papers released after a request by The Telegraph under the Freedom of Information Act, go into great detail as to how the war could still be conducted in such circumstances.
But it also shows for the first time the depth of concern felt by the Government in 1944 that V2 attacks might give Hitler the chance to win the war that had been going against him since defeat at Stalingrad in Feb 1943.
In a memorandum to the Prime Minister, Sir Findlater Stewart, the head of the home defence executive, said: "Some 1,200 missiles, assuming that there were no overlap in their effects, would, to all intents and purposes, lay waste the County of London.
"Theoretically, this effect might be produced in 100 days, but even if it is assumed that they would take twice as long, say six months, it is certain that long before the end of even the shorter period conditions would be such that it would be impossible to carry on normal activities in the County of London even if the bulk of the population were prepared to stand firm."
Working on the basis of MI6 intelligence from occupied France and Holland, Sir Findlater's committee assumed an attack of one V2 an hour, day and night, causing damage seven times greater than a direct hit on Hendon in 1941 by a huge bomb that killed 80 people.
They calculated an average mortality per missile of 150 with 150 seriously wounded and 300 slightly hurt. After one day at one missile per hour, there would be 3,600 dead, after five days 18,000 and by the end of a month 108,000 Londoners would have been killed by the "Big Bens".
By comparison, the worst nights of the Blitz caused 1,750 deaths on April 16/17, 1941, and 1,450 on May 10/11, 1941.
The committee also reckoned that for each missile 60 acres of London would be demolished and 180 acres rendered uninhabitable.
In a month of rocket attacks, as much damage would be done and as much debris scattered as during the entire Blitz.
The committee concluded that the emergency services would "be overwhelmed on the second day" of strikes by the rockets.
There was a severe danger of a complete breakdown of normal life in London, Sir Findlater told the War Cabinet.
"Theoretically, it should be possible to maintain essential services at a minimum standard for a substantial period in the absence of damage to key points, but it would be rash to assume that in the conditions envisaged any body of men not under military discipline could be induced to continue at work."
The huge explosions would render 100,000 Londoners homeless a day, a rate that could be coped with for no more than five to seven days.
Sir Findlater said: "It would appear to follow that the only alternatives are a) to prepare plans for a large-scale evacuation of the centre of London or b) to take effective military action against the source from which the missiles came.
"The former, even if practicable, would be tantamount to accepting a major defeat."
http://portal.telegraph.co.uk/news/graphics/2005/02/28/nvtwo28b.jpg
A V2 rocket, transported to Britain for testing after the war
Link (http://portal.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2005/02/28/nvtwo28.xml)
Top secret papers reveal that flawed intelligence led to fear of 100,000 deaths in London in first month of rockets. Ben Fenton reports
Flawed intelligence brought the Government to the brink of panic at the threat of Hitler's weapons of mass destruction and led to the drawing up of plans to run war-time Britain from underground, formerly top secret papers reveal today.
http://portal.telegraph.co.uk/news/graphics/2005/02/28/nvtwo28a.jpg
The scene of devastation when a V2 rocket fell on New Cross, London, November 1944
An emergency committee set up to predict the damage that V2 rockets could cause warned Winston Churchill that more than 100,000 Londoners would die in the first month of the bombardment, with the same number severely injured.
Spies, led by MI6, discovered in early 1943 that V2 rockets, codenamed Big Ben, were being built by Germany and believed they could strike London at the rate of one an hour carrying 10-ton warheads.
The amount of high explosive expected to rain down on the capital was the equivalent to a Hiroshima nuclear bomb every seven weeks.
The committee, set up in the Ministry of Home Security 18 months before the first rocket struck England, considered recommending the complete evacuation of London as soon as the V2s began to fall.
But the War Cabinet decided that would be "tantamount to accepting a major defeat" and decided to "stand firm".
Plans were drawn up to move the key ministries below the streets of London with up to 15,000 civil servants and military planners working 24 hours a day from deep tunnels connected to six Tube stations on the Northern line of the Underground.
The plans, included in top secret Cabinet Office papers released after a request by The Telegraph under the Freedom of Information Act, go into great detail as to how the war could still be conducted in such circumstances.
But it also shows for the first time the depth of concern felt by the Government in 1944 that V2 attacks might give Hitler the chance to win the war that had been going against him since defeat at Stalingrad in Feb 1943.
In a memorandum to the Prime Minister, Sir Findlater Stewart, the head of the home defence executive, said: "Some 1,200 missiles, assuming that there were no overlap in their effects, would, to all intents and purposes, lay waste the County of London.
"Theoretically, this effect might be produced in 100 days, but even if it is assumed that they would take twice as long, say six months, it is certain that long before the end of even the shorter period conditions would be such that it would be impossible to carry on normal activities in the County of London even if the bulk of the population were prepared to stand firm."
Working on the basis of MI6 intelligence from occupied France and Holland, Sir Findlater's committee assumed an attack of one V2 an hour, day and night, causing damage seven times greater than a direct hit on Hendon in 1941 by a huge bomb that killed 80 people.
They calculated an average mortality per missile of 150 with 150 seriously wounded and 300 slightly hurt. After one day at one missile per hour, there would be 3,600 dead, after five days 18,000 and by the end of a month 108,000 Londoners would have been killed by the "Big Bens".
By comparison, the worst nights of the Blitz caused 1,750 deaths on April 16/17, 1941, and 1,450 on May 10/11, 1941.
The committee also reckoned that for each missile 60 acres of London would be demolished and 180 acres rendered uninhabitable.
In a month of rocket attacks, as much damage would be done and as much debris scattered as during the entire Blitz.
The committee concluded that the emergency services would "be overwhelmed on the second day" of strikes by the rockets.
There was a severe danger of a complete breakdown of normal life in London, Sir Findlater told the War Cabinet.
"Theoretically, it should be possible to maintain essential services at a minimum standard for a substantial period in the absence of damage to key points, but it would be rash to assume that in the conditions envisaged any body of men not under military discipline could be induced to continue at work."
The huge explosions would render 100,000 Londoners homeless a day, a rate that could be coped with for no more than five to seven days.
Sir Findlater said: "It would appear to follow that the only alternatives are a) to prepare plans for a large-scale evacuation of the centre of London or b) to take effective military action against the source from which the missiles came.
"The former, even if practicable, would be tantamount to accepting a major defeat."
http://portal.telegraph.co.uk/news/graphics/2005/02/28/nvtwo28b.jpg
A V2 rocket, transported to Britain for testing after the war
Link (http://portal.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2005/02/28/nvtwo28.xml)