| Detailed records were kept of the bombs that fell on Birmingham. These were
transferred onto maps, and a set of composite maps now held in the Central Library. They
show that the number of hits increased rapidly as the countryside was left
behind, and that residential areas were hit many times. Obviously, British cities were not going to display where their crucial
armaments and other factories were, so that the bombers could try to avoid
hitting houses. Camouflage was used, and bombers usually attacked at night. So
it was inevitable that many bombs would miss industrial targets. The question of
whether civilian areas were deliberately targeted would probably get varied
answers. Certainly total war eventually came to mean deliberate targeting of
civilians.
Maps courtesy of Birmingham Libraries
The blue dots represent High Explosive bombs that exploded, and
blue crosses those that failed to. Red dots represent incendiary bombs, and red
crosses incendiaries that failed to ignite. Although there are many hits shown
over the four years that Acocks Green suffered air raids, there must have been
many more incendiaries dropped than were shown here.
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