UXO risk in Bristol

Why was Bristol targeted and bombed in WWII?

Bristol, located within the south-west of England, sustained a significant amount of bombing due to its concentration of industrial features, including several docks and areas of aircraft industry.

This made it an obvious target for the Luftwaffe. Some key targets in Bristol were the ‘Bristol Floating Docks’, ‘Bristol Gasworks’, ‘Prince Wharf Granary’, ‘Bathurst Basin’ and ‘Albion and Wapping Docks.’

Various defensive features were constructed in an attempt to protect the city. However, the distinctive waterway running through the area formed a natural flight path between Avonmouth and Bristol City Centre – which made it very difficult to camouflage key target locations.

Home Office Bombing Statistics for Bristol

Details obtained from the official Home Office bombing statistics, indicates the quantity and type of bombs that fell on the County Borough of Bristol during WWII (excluding incendiary bombs).

A total of 6,203 bombs fell on Bristol, equating to an average of 254.2 items of ordnance recorded per 1,000 acres.

However, this does not account for any bombs that fell unrecorded during these heavy raids, many of which fell into areas that had already been previously bombed. These unidentifiable items, falling unnoticed are what pose a potential risk to construction today.

Major bombing raids on Bristol

Throughout the war, Bristol was subject to approximately 548 raids, eleven of which were considered to have been extensive in nature.

Some of the other major attacks on the city occurred on these dates.

• 24th November 1940
• 3rd and 6th December 1940
• 3rd, 4th and 16th January 1941
• 16th and 29th March 1941
• 3rd, 4th and 11th April 1941 (Good Friday Raids)

Below is an extract of a bomb map showing the locations of bomb strikes and roads blocked as a result of the Good Friday Raids, obtained from the Bristol Archives. H.E bombs are shown as blue dots, incendiary bombs as red, green dots with an ‘x’ as confirmed U.X.B’s and unfilled ‘x’s as unexploded A.A shells.

A red line is used to show which roads were blocked. This map highlights the extent of bombing sustained by Bristol from a singular raid, and therefore highlighting the likelihood of a UXO going missing throughout the war.

In total, 1,299 people were killed during the bombing over Bristol, and over 89,000 buildings were damaged including around 84,000 homes. Between 24th November 1940 and 11th April 1941, there were six major bombing raids, and overall, 548 air raid alerts and 77 air raids¹.

The bombing transformed many areas of the city post-war. Among the most notable was Bristol’s main shopping district, Broadmead. Pre-war, Castle Street was the shopping hub, but German bombing raids reduced almost every building in the district to rubble leading the council to create the Castle Park development in the 1960’s and create a shopping centre in Broadmead.

Today, anyone walking along the Floating Harbour from Bristol Bridge, into Castle Park, up to the top of Union Street and back down to the top of Corn Street would have little idea that they’d just strolled around what was the city centre of Bristol for centuries².