Bomb Sight Map Of The Blitz Unveils Scale Of London's Darkest Hours

Bomb Sight Map Of The Blitz Unveils Scale Of London's Darkest Hours

An interactive map of every recorded bomb site during World War II has taken the web by storm.

Bomb Sight is a website and Android app which collates an incredible amount of information about where and when bombs fell on the capital.

After a year of work by the University of Portsmouth and the National Archives, the map illustrates the true scale of the Blitz in a way that is now hard to appreciate.

The map was made using census data taken between October 1940 and May 1941.

The service also includes interviews and photographs of the bombings, and details about what types of explosions were recorded.

The website is currently down due to an overload of traffic, but it is still possible to see a cached version online here.

More than 20,000 people were killed and 1.4m made homeless by German bombing during the Blitz of 1940 and 1941. Many other cities and towns across the UK were targeted, but London witnessed the largest number of attacks.

Dr Kate Jones, from the University of Portsmouth told the BBC: "When you look at these maps and see the proliferation of bombs dropped on the capital it does illustrate the meaning of the word Blitz... It seems astonishing that London survived the onslaught."

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