Bombing in the Villages

Bombing in the Villages of Lancing & Sompting and hamlets of Cokeham & Coombes

VILLAGES AT WAR 1939 ~ 1945

- Police Air Raid Incident Reports July 1940-May 1944 available at WSRO under reference Pol W/HQ/15/5 ^[1]
- As part of a joint WWII project between the Record Office and Worthing Local Studies library the Action Officers Minute Books were digitised and are available here:
- http://www2.westsussex.gov.uk/learning-resources/LR/learning/learning_resources/wartime_west_sussex_1939-45/wartime_events/war_records_day_by_day_1940_to.html . ^[2]
- Worthing Rural District Council Air War damage files, July 1940-December 1944 are available at the Record Office under RD/WO 56/4/6.⁽³⁾

Abbreviations

HE = High Explosive

UXB = Unexploded bomb.

IB = Incendiary bomb

There are various records available listing the bombing raids and the subsequent damage at West

Sussex Record Office and at The National Archives, Kew. Please be aware that the original records

will provide substantially more information than listed here. Also, please note that where there is a

contradiction in the records the information in the Action Officers Minute Books has been entered.

Old OS Map

MR 598243 is in the region of the ‘p’ in Sompting.

This grid reference is given as the point of impact

for the HE bomb and the approximately the site of

the subsequent repatriated British prisoner of war

camps in Sompting.

More details about the incidents that follow can be obtained by accessing the above sources as

indicated by the numbered suffixes…... [*]