LUFTWAFFE OVER RIVINGTON

De Havilland Attack Via Rivington

Former classified documents of interviews of prisoners of war of the German Luftwaffe reveal a  top  secret bombing raid, its pilots only given the target details on the morning of the raid, 3^rd July 1942, it was flown by Germanys most experienced crews for a very low altitude attack by two Junkers Ju 88 dive bombers, the crews had spent a week training, on leaving their base in occupied France they were flying heavy on minimum fuel, skimming the waves and just over tree tops carrying on its wings four 250kg  bombs with 8 second delay fuses and a mixed load of 50kg HE and 1kg incendiaries and its flight path used the Rivington reservoirs as navigation at six minutes zero altitude completing the bombing raid at 60ft.²⁵⁾

The German squadron was 2nd Staffel of Kustenfliegergruppe 106 based at Dinard / Pleurtuit airfield Brittany, (2nd Coastal Command Group 106) led by Squadron commander Hans Bergemann, (left) had persuaded his superior Group Commander Major Ghert Roth that a daytime bombing mission to target the De Havilland Aircraft factory at Lostock in Bolton was possible, using the distinctive shape of Rivington reservoir's as a guide to home in on the target, he was ambitious and seeking medals. The factory was a major manufacturer of variable pitch propellers, the main supplier to all the UK airplane manufacturers, Bergemann was a trusted and experienced pilot.^{23), 24)}

The flight inbound was via the Irish Sea at wave height, toward the Isle of Man, at which point their presence became known to IOM defenses on detecting German Elecktra 2 signals. 

On detection Royal Observer Corps were now monitoring the bombers. On reaching IOM the bombers turned hard right to the Ribble estuary at 7.45pm, their flight plan was to navigate six minutes at zero feet over Rivington reservoir’s then south, over Horwich rooftops rising to 60ft for the final stage for what would have been a huge bombing raid on De Havilland, Lostock.

By the grace of God unexpected low cloud cover on approach to Rivington caused the bombers to lose direction, taking the mission off course, away from De Havilland, Lostock near Bolton. ²⁵⁾

Another theory put forward to explain why they went off course was that the bombers used a Luftwaffe map that was wrong, showing De Havilland at Lostock Hall,  near Preston,²⁴⁾ however they made land at the Ribble Estuary and their flight path had set off air raid siren's for raid 299 in Manchester, as the bombers headed out on the escape route over Stockport. One of the JU88s crews were all killed,  the surviving crew stated very low cloud cover had sent them off course.

The bombers continued on at very low altitude, Derek Gould, age 16 a fire watcher at Bailey’s bandage works, saw them flying very low over Hillgate, Stockport, he said he could see the crews faces, another witness described how they were “blowing the leaves off tree’s", now heading toward  the Peak District in Derbyshire where no air raid warning was given, the bombers were now on their escape route toward Schipol. A boy named John Ingham out playing at Marple ridge witnessed the JU88s fly low down the valley towards New Mills, where bombs were released on mostly civilian targets. The planes were also equipped with machine guns, that they fired indiscriminately on civilians homing in on people at low altitude, including a group of two teams of boys playing junior cricket, firing at upto a 1000 rounds a minute, after this moving on to bomb Hayfield,  then  blowing windows in at Chatworth House, then bombing Darlton Quarry before Spitfires from 303 Squadron piloted by Polish pilots brought them down around 8.30pm near Baumber and between Aswardby and Harrington in Lincolnshire. ²³⁾

Civilians were not trained in how to identify German bombers and at this stage in the war aircraft technology was advancing rapidly, civilians who saw the JU88s at distance did mistake them for allied bombers.

This raid is proof the Luftwaffe used Rivington reservoirs to navigate for bombing missions, the JU88s route also shows they were heading to the correct target.