Small "practice" bombs were dropped, seemingly by accident, on two Auckland suburbs in 1943. Photo / Herald file
Small "practice" bombs were dropped, seemingly by accident, on two Auckland suburbs in 1943. Photo / Herald file
Aucklanders were alarmed in the middle of World War II when "small" bombs fell from a plane on a summer Saturday afternoon.
Two suburbs, Birkenhead and Herne Bay, on opposite sides of the Waitematā Harbour, were hit by the seemingly accidental bombing in quick succession about 3pm on December 11,1943.
No one was injured by the so-called "practice" bombs. Homes were narrowly missed but none was damaged. However, the bombs, which fell on to roadways, blew craters through the surface and threw debris into the air.
Witnesses likened the explosion they heard to the sound of a car backfiring.
At Argyle St in Herne Bay the hole was more than a metre deep.
The Air Force said the bomb from a plane which blew a crater more than a metre deep in Argyle St, Herne Bay, Auckland in 1943 was a practice bomb. Photo / Google
Some residents of the street were unaware of the incident, but one described hearing a screeching sound as the bomb fell.
"It came slanting in over the house opposite mine and startled that family quite a bit. They were sitting on the front lawn," the man told the Herald.
