Staveley Road

Staveley Road is a road in the Grove Park district of Chiswick in the London Borough of Hounslow. It was the site of the first successful V-2 missile attack against Britain.

History

Staveley Road was built between 1927 and 1931 as part of the Chiswick Park Estate.

September 1944 explosion

On Friday 8 September 1944, a V-2 launched from Wassenaar in Holland, by 485 Artillerie Abteilung at 6.37pm,^[1] landed in Staveley Road near the junction with Burlington Lane, killing three people (including a three-year-old girl), and injuring nineteen.^[2] The crater was thirty feet across. Earlier that day at 8.39am, a V2 had hit Maisons-Alfort in France, where six people were killed; the V2 had been launched from Petites-Tailles, near Houffalize, in south-east Belgium by Lehr und Versuchsbatterie 444.^[3]

Eleven houses were completely destroyed, and another fifteen had to be extensively rebuilt. The area at the time had been partly evacuated. The explosion could be heard six miles away in central London. Within an hour of the explosion, government officials were arriving at the scene.

The explosion has been shown in the 2015 production Hitler's Space Rocket,^[4] produced with ZDF of Germany, and in the 1965 film Operation Crossbow.

British knowledge of the V-2

General Wilhelm Ritter von Thoma discreetly mentioned to General Ludwig Crüwell about the V-2, when being bugged by MI19, so disclosing the rocket's propensity on 22 March 1943 - this was the first occasion that the British knew. Fritz Lustig, father of Radio 4's Robin Lustig, was one of the translators.

RV Jones received most of his information on the V2 from the French spy Jeannie Rousseau.

The general public was not notified about the existence of V-2 rockets until 10 November 1944.

References

^ Target London: Under attack from the V-weapons during WWII
^ Britain and Ballistic Missile Defence, 1942–2002, Jeremy Stocker
^ Battery 444
^ IMDb

External links

51°28′58″N 0°15′54″W / 51.4828°N 0.265°W / 51.4828; -0.265

[1] Target London: Under attack from the V-weapons during WWII

[2] Britain and Ballistic Missile Defence, 1942–2002, Jeremy Stocker

[3] Battery 444

[4] IMDb

[1]

[2]

[3]

[4]

v t e London Borough of Hounslow
Districts	Bedfont (historically East Bedfont) Bedford Park (also partly in the London Borough of Ealing) Brentford Brentford End Chiswick Cranford Feltham Lower Feltham North Feltham Grove Park Gunnersbury Hanworth Hatton Heston Hounslow Hounslow West Isleworth Lampton North Hyde Osterley Spring Grove Woodlands
Attractions	Brentford London Museum of Water & Steam Musical Museum Syon House Watermans Arts Centre Chiswick Chiswick House Chiswick Mall Walpole House Fuller's Brewery Hogarth's House Strand-on-the-Green Tabard Theatre Bell Square Boston Manor Griffin Park football stadium Gunnersbury Park and Museum Myrtle Avenue Osterley Park and House
Parks and open spaces	Parks Bedfont Lakes Boston Manor Park Crane Park Cranebank Cranford Park Dukes Meadows Gunnersbury Park Lampton Park London Air Park Osterley Park Nature reserves Chiswick Eyot Duke's Hollow Gunnersbury Triangle Hounslow Heath Pevensey Road Nature Reserve Syon Park Turnham Green Other Isleworth Ait
Constituencies	Brentford and Isleworth Feltham and Heston
Bridges	Barnes Railway Bridge Chiswick Bridge Kew Bridge Kew Railway Bridge
Tube and rail stations	Boston Manor Brentford Chiswick Feltham Gunnersbury Hounslow Hounslow Central Hounslow East Hounslow West Isleworth Kew Bridge Osterley Stamford Brook Syon Lane Turnham Green
Places of worship	All Saints, Isleworth Cathedral of the Nativity of the Most Holy Mother of God and the Holy Royal Martyrs Christ Church, Turnham Green Our Lady of Grace & St Edward, Chiswick Our Lady Queen of Apostles, Heston St Dunstan, Cranford St George, Hanworth St John the Evangelist, Brentford St Leonard, Heston St Mary, Osterley St Michael, Grove Park St Michael and All Angels, Bedford Park St Nicholas, Chiswick St Paul, Grove Park
Other topics	Council Grade I and II* listed buildings People Public art Schools
Category Commons