On 18/05/2012 15:16, Martin wrote:
On Fri, 18 May 2012 14:51:46 +0100, Nightjar
wrote:

On 18/05/2012 14:15, The Natural Philosopher wrote:
...
statistically the chances of a plane landing on a house are quite slim
BUT of course AA gunnery probably did bring planes down over and into
London, but at night,

Although their main job was not to shoot aircraft down, but to make
accurate bombing difficult and to discourage bombers from entering the
defended zone. A Ministry of Information booklet on air defence claimed
that up to half the bomber force in any attack on London would turn back
before entering the AA zone.

AA was specifically located in "boxes" along the east coast as far
north as Bridlington to bring down V1s. They were very successful at
it.

That was a different and later campaign. Bombers raids on Britain were
mainly in the first couple of years of the war, with casualties of
54,206 in 1940 and 42,722 in 1941, which dropped to 7,387 in 1942 and
5,822 in 1943. The V weapons increased them to 30,499 in 1944.

Colin Bignell