UXO risk in Hull

Why was Hull targeted and bombed in WWII?

Kingston upon Hull, often referred to as ‘Hull’, is located in the East Riding of Yorkshire upon the Humber Estuary. Hulls history is that of a Port Town, with key links to both mainland Europe and other counties.

The importance of the Hull Docks to the UK’s maritime and industrial infrastructure and its close proximity to mainland Europe – approximately 360km away – led to Hull being a Key Target of the Luftwaffe bombing campaign in the early years of WWII.

Luftwaffe target imagery clearly identifies targets like the Alexandra and King George Docks, indicating that Hull had been designated a target for bombing before the war had even started.

As the war progressed, the Luftwaffe moved away from only targeting areas of military or industrial importance and commenced the indiscriminate bombing of Civilian areas of cities in order to reduce the morale of the public.

The result was the heavy bombing of not only the dockyards but the entire borough as Luftwaffe aircraft could easily reach the city from airfields in France and Belgium, with the Humber Estuary making navigation – even at night – an easy task.

Home Office Bombing Statistics for Hull

Home Office bombing statistics indicate that nearly 1,400 items of ordnance where recorded as dropped on Hull over the course of the war. This included an estimated 1,213 High explosives bombs and over 100 incendiary devices – a density of almost 99 items 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 unidentified items, falling unnoticed are what pose a potential risk to construction today.

Major bombing raids in Hull

Throughout the war, Hull was subjected to approximately 72 bombing raids with more than half of these occurring in 1941.

Some of the heaviest raids occurred on the following dates:

• 18/19th March 1941 – which included 134 50kg bombs and 117 250kg bombs dropped over the city centre,
• 9th May 1941 – which included 113 50kg bombs and 49 250kg bombs dropped over the dockyard area of the city
• 18th July 1941 – which included 92 50 Kg bombs and 55 250kg bombs dropped over East Hull.

These were not the only bombs dropped on Hull, with many different types of ordnance dropped throughout the war.

Local Bomb Maps for Hull show a significant density of bombing in the city’s centre and around the docks – which are both within close proximity to the Humber Estuary.

Despite this high level of bombing and damage recorded in Hull during the war, much of the public outside of the city where unaware of the devastation caused. This was due to the decision to only refer to a ‘North-East Town’ in newspaper and radio address. This was decided to prevent the German Forces learning how effective there bombing campaign was.

However, these maps also show that the bombing was not restricted to the city’s landmarks and areas of importance, with reports of bombs far out of the city centre – such as the village of Cottingham which was also bombed.

In fact, there are few areas of the city in which bombs are not recorded. This density of bombing led to Hull being labelled as one of the most bombed cities in the country, with some estimates indicating that over 95% of structures in the city centre were destroyed or damaged.

This is the highest percentage for a city outside of London, with much of the city having to be rebuilt in the post-war period.