V2 Crater Report, Forest Row, England

Mon May 21 11:07:19 CDT 2001

self-explanatory:

---------------- Begin Forwarded Message ----------------
Date:        5/20/01 7:53 AM
Received:    5/21/01 9:38 AM
From:        Murray Barber, murray.barber at virgin.net
Reply-To:    v2research at yahoogroups.com
To:          v2research at yahoogroups.com

Dear V2 Egroup,

                       For a very long time, I have been promising to 
detail my discoveries and activities investigating a V2 crater.  At long 
last I have finished the article and scanned all the photographs that I 
thought would be of interest.  

A Report of the V2 crater, Forest Row, East Sussex, England.
0019 hours, 28th January 1945.

  Forest Row is to found 45 km (28 miles) SSSE of central London and is a 
rural location.  The crater is located a total of just 40 minutes away 
from my home.  Part of the journey being a 20 minutes walk from the 
nearest vehicle access.

  According to Tracy, this particular V2 was launched from either The 
Hague or Wassenaar by Wehrmacht Abt. Batterie 444 or 485.  Careful 
analysis of the relative positions of the two alternative launch sites 
and relating this to the intended target area reveal some interesting 
facts.  I was fortunate to be able to use an ex-RAF operations map of 
southern England and Europe for this investigation.  If my assumptions 
are correct, this could have been one of the most accurate V2's fired 
throughout the entire London offensive!  I have determined that the 'burn 
time' for this V2 was perfect, it should have fallen in the very centre 
of London.

  According to R.V. Jones, the principal British Intelligence and Science 
advisor, statistical evidence indicates that the intended target area 
during the V2 campaign against London was the Wapping dock area slightly 
east by 1.5 miles of the borough of 'The City of London'.  Assuming this 
to be true, the southerly angle of deviation from Wassenaar was 10 
degrees.  From The Hague the southerly angle of deviation was 9 degrees.  
If launched from Wassenaar the actual impact site (assuming no deviation) 
would have been the Beckton area of East Ham, London, approximately 8 
miles east of the target area.  If launched from The Hague the impact 
site would have been just over one mile west of the target area!  This 
would place this impact just north of Southwark Bridge in 'The City of 
London'.  Although it is impossible for me to be entirely confident, on 
balance I believe that this particular V2 was launched from the Hague.  
In any event, the deviation of between 9 and 10 degrees saved many lives. 

   During the total campaign, 14 V2's landed in the East Ham area, 
curiously not one V2 fell upon the borough of 'The City of London'!  A V2 
falling within the 'City of London' would have been a very significant 
coup for propaganda reasons! 

  This V2 was the first of 8 launched on this date - 28th January 1945.  
24 minutes later the second V2 of the day exploded in West Ham, London.  
I am delighted to report that the V2 of this article did not kill anyone 
with the possible exception of wild animals like hares and badgers which 
are still very much in evidence today.  I have not been able to find any 
witnesses of the event unfortunately, although it is well known to the 
land owner that this crater was made by a V2 rocket.  This knowledge is 
also known to members of a local historical society.

  The crater is located in a wood that is used as a reusable resource, 
coppicing is very much in evidence.  The crater is so well hidden that on 
more than one occasion, I walked right past it even though I had 
previously been shown the crater by the land owner.

In this photograph I am standing beside the crater.  If you look 
carefully you might notice water in it. 
 http://freespace.virgin.net/murray.barber/v2images/location1.jpg

 This photograph shows the crater as seen from an incline.  Notice the 
rhododendrons that have completely covered the crater rim, I know of no 
logical reason why they grow here and nowhere else in the wood.  The tree 
in front of the crater and many others close-by show signs of trauma as 
they have grown.  
http://freespace.virgin.net/murray.barber/v2images/location2.jpg

  The crater is about 20m to 23m in diameter and is very roughly 
elliptical in shape. It's depth is unknown because of the presence of 
water. 

  With the exception of a few items, the V2 parts were discovered using a 
metal detector.  I spent some 24 hours searching the woods and attempted 
to cover an area approximately 7850 squared meters on 8 separate 
occasions.  The wooded nature of the area making the investigation very 
hard work!  I carefully scanned the trees but could find no evidence of 
shrapnel imbedded in them. 

    The crater rim had remarkably few V2 remains in it apart from very 
small items about 10mm in size.  I discovered an annulus ring of larger 
items centered on the crater about 23m out.  The furthest item discovered 
was about 63m from the crater!

  I found no evidence to suggest a fall out pattern that corresponded to 
either the in bound flight or the manner in which shrapnel was thrown 
from the explosion.  

   In total I found over 14.2 kg of V2 material.  Of this 3.1 kg 
comprised of heavy, highly corroded ferrous material which I was to 
discover via correspondence in the group to be often the remains of steel 
sheeting.  The following photograph shows the items found during a four 
hour visit on the 7th December 2000.
http://freespace.virgin.net/murray.barber/v2images/v2partspic5a.jpg

This photograph shows the items found on the 17th February 2001 during a 
much shorter visit.
http://freespace.virgin.net/murray.barber/v2images/v2partspic2a.jpg

The items found can be divided up into 4 approximate categories:-

1. Aluminum skin.  88% of the total finds
   a. Thickness - 1mm thick
   b. Thickness - 2mm thick

2. Heavy aluminum casing 5% of the total finds
http://freespace.virgin.net/murray.barber/v2images/v2partspic10a.jpg
http://freespace.virgin.net/murray.barber/v2images/v2partspic3a.jpg

3. Pipes or plumbing fixtures 1% of the total finds*
http://freespace.virgin.net/murray.barber/v2images/v2partspic7a.jpg

4. Highly corroded iron.  6% 

* It will be noticed that only a very small number of items are of real 
interest, these being pipes and other potentially recognizable items.  
The rest of the items being shrapnel.  The following photograph shows 
heavy aluminum shrapnel find discovered on the 17th November.
http://freespace.virgin.net/murray.barber/v2images/v2partspic1a.jpg

   When the metal detector gave a 'sounding', I would gently scrape the 
ground with a trowel so as not to damage a potentially interesting item.  
 Most items were only about 5cm to 8cm deep. Occasionally items could be 
found laying on the surface.   One item, a small but superb piece of 
plumbing was laying on top of the surface litter of leaf mulch!  I 
suspect it may have been excavated by badgers of which many colonies can 
be found in the wood.
http://freespace.virgin.net/murray.barber/v2images/v2partspic12a.jpg

   I had been told by Tracy that paint chips have been found at craters 
but I could not find any paint on aluminum skin matter which was a great 
disappointment.  The aluminum appears to have been attacked by the soil 
chemistry ruining the paint.  It is of course possible that paint work 
may have been destroyed in the impact. Only occasionally on plumbing 
items is it possible to see evidence of paint.  The following photograph 
shows the most interesting item of plumbing so far found.  The item has 
the remains of dark green paint.  Also a yellow greenish sheen can be 
seen on its surface.  I have seen this colouring on numerous plumbing 
fitments from German aircraft of WW2.  It is possible on the following 
photograph to see a flow arrow that indicates an output to the left of 
the fitting.
http://freespace.virgin.net/murray.barber/v2images/v2partspic14a.jpg

  Many of the items show horrendous damage.
http://freespace.virgin.net/murray.barber/v2images/v2partspic4a.jpg
  Some items of aluminum skin have had shrapnel pass through them and 
then the item has been folded.  In other examples, the opposite is true, 
that is to say folded by the explosion then peppered by shrapnel. 
Occasionally an item of skin would be found with a second item that has 
pierced through the first.  Examining the items with a magnifying lens or 
with stereo microscope is amazing for it reveals the violence of the 
impact.  Tiny irregular impact craters can be found in the aluminum sheet 
material suggesting that very small shrapnel was driven at speed into the 
larger item.  

  A surprisingly small number of items show exposure to great heat.  Two 
finds had been completely turned in to molten blobs whilst another has 
the appearance of a plastic sheet that has been blistered as if exposed 
to a 'blow lamp'.
http://freespace.virgin.net/murray.barber/v2images/v2partspic8a.jpg

Occasionally however, I discovered that some pieces of aluminum skin 
would show perfectly straight score lines across the surface of the 
material.  These could not have made during the explosion but I think 
during the manufacture of the sheet or perhaps its evidence of the 
cutting machine or hand tool that was used to cut parts before assembly.  
 Although photographs of the V2 show a great deal of riveting in the 
construction, very rarely did I find aluminum skin with evidence of 
riveting.  This was a great surprise to me. Again thanks to the 
communication within the group it would appear that most of the finds of 
aluminum skin is part of the remains of the alcohol and liquid oxygen 
fuel tanks.

  I found one item which appears to be of a phosphor bronze material.  It 
showed no signs of corrosion and appears to have been a collar insert of 
some kind.  The rectangular notch was one of 4 and must have facilitated 
the fitment during manufacture.  Although distorted it once had an 
overall diameter of 75mm approximately.
http://freespace.virgin.net/murray.barber/v2images/v2partspic13a.jpg

  The heavy iron items are covered in a ferrous oxide (rust) to such a 
thickness that its impossible at first glance to tell what the object 
might be.  However, striking the corroded mass with a hammer, 
occasionally reveals something of interest, one item is a spindle 
complete with very fine splines that indicate that perhaps the component 
once rotated at high speed?
http://freespace.virgin.net/murray.barber/v2images/v2partspic6a.jpg

One item of heavy aluminum material has been the subject of one of my 
emails to the group.  This item was eventually discovered to have 
originated from the oxygen distribution valve.  The first photograph show 
the item prior to cleaning when I first suspected I could see writing.
http://freespace.virgin.net/murray.barber/v2images/v2partspic18.jpg
This photograph shows the item when cleaned showing the text - 12.44  RJY.
http://freespace.virgin.net/murray.barber/v2images/v2partspic17.jpg
The following picture is an enlargement with un-sharp masking applied.  
The writing is best seen with a inspection stereo microscope. 
 http://freespace.virgin.net/murray.barber/v2images/v2partspic16.jpg  
 Although some members of the group may disagree, it is my belief that 
the 12.44 relates to the date of manufacture and the initials RJY might 
be those of an overseer. 

    Curiously, I found evidence to suggest an interest in the V2 that 
predated my investigation by about 56 years.  The metal detector 
registered a huge find about 0.5m square.  I was very excited because I 
was hoping it might be a substantial piece of wreckage, but no!  I had 
discovered a hidden cache collection of V2 aluminum, consisting of 12 
parts concentrated in one area.  This was not due to fall out from the 
impact but due to collecting done at the time.  Most likely by young 
boys.  A popular hobby for boys in WW2 was collecting shrapnel and spent 
bullet cartridges!  My guess is that these items were discarded in 
preference to more interesting finds!

  On another extraordinary occasion, I found two metal jacket or coat 
buttons.  When these items were cleaned, they revealed the out spread 
wings of eagles indicating they had come from a RAF tunic.  Possibly, 
they had been torn off a RAF Intelligence Officers coat whilst examining 
the remains of the V2!   How it was that two buttons were lost is beyond 
my imagination.   I would stress that this is speculation on my part but 
the thought delights me nevertheless! 
http://freespace.virgin.net/murray.barber/v2images/v2partspic9a.jpg

This photograph is shows a general review of heavy aluminum, plumbing and 
other items.  
http://freespace.virgin.net/murray.barber/v2images/v2partspic11a.jpg

  I do hope the article is of interest.  I hope to visit as many other 
crater sites as I possible can, although I feel that this crater is 
probably a good representation of the others.  There is a possibility 
that the combustion chamber was rolled into the crater at the time of the 
incident.  I have a lot of anecdotal evidence to suggest that combustion 
chambers not only survived the impact but were often disposed of in this 
manner.   Because this V2 at Forest Row was launched well in to the 
campaign, the authorities would have perhaps given it scant regard and I 
believe that this increases my chance of finding and recovering the 
engine.  The land owner is a most agreeable gentleman and I am hoping he 
will not mind a more intensive examination of the crater.  The main 
difficulties in such a recovery being the presence of rhododendron bushes 
and other small tree like plants, secondly the crater is full of water 
and this will have to be drained.  I am hoping for a long summer of hot 
dry weather!  If any one would like to help me with my endeavor, either 
resident in the UK or visiting, do please contact me.

   I do hope you have enjoyed the article as much as I have enjoyed 
visiting the crater.  If you are able to help me with identification of 
parts, I would be grateful.  I would be very please to hear your comments 
and if I can answer any questions, I would be happy to do so! 

  Assuming you have made it to the end of the article, if anyone would 
like some parts of the Forest Row V2, please let me know.  Not all of the 
parts will be cleaned but every part will have been disinfected.  I would 
ask that if I send you parts, please do not offer them for sale to a 
third party.  If the demand is great, I may have to make a charge to 
cover the postage and packaging.  I hope to avoid this!  The group is so 
very generous and I would hate to appear to be mean.  I think you would 
agree that preparing perhaps 30 or more packages to send through out the 
world would be no small undertaking.  Send me an email if you are 
interested! 

  Kind regards.

  Murray

----------------- End Forwarded Message -----------------

John______________________________________________________________
                            J W Verity   TECHNOLOGIC PARTNERS, NYC
                                         212-343-1900 x128