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BombMaps

Grimsby & Cleethorpes — the Butterfly Bomb Raid

13–14 June 1943 · Grimsby, Lincolnshire

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Date
13–14 June 1943
Record type
Historic bombing area
Bomb type
mixed
Casualties
114
Location
Grimsby, Lincolnshire
Position accuracy
Confirmed event, area-level point (town-wide raid, not a single site)

What happened

Starting at 1:43am, German bombers dropped roughly 18 tonnes of high-explosive and incendiary bombs on Grimsby and Cleethorpes, followed by around 3,000 SD-2 'butterfly bombs' — small anti-personnel cluster munitions scattered across streets, gardens, allotments and rooftops. An estimated 1,350–1,500 failed to explode on impact, turning both towns into a live minefield. 332 fires were burning within two hours, with 68 more unattended; 211 houses were destroyed and around eighty fish-dock businesses burnt out.

Casualty note

114 killed in total, including deaths in the days, weeks and months after the raid from bombs with anti-disturbance fuses — more than half of all civilian deaths across 37 raids on the two towns over the war. 44 died in the raid itself and its immediate aftermath; the toll rose to 114 over time (research by James Rogers, University of Hull).

Also worth knowing

A 300-strong bomb disposal team (No. 3 Bomb Disposal Company, under Major William Parker) worked from the night of the raid until 9 July 1943 to clear roughly 1,350 devices, but the area was not declared fully safe until 1948 — bombs with anti-disturbance fuses kept killing and injuring people for years: John Johnson and Sydney Russell died in May 1944 when a plough disturbed one, and nine-year-old Frank Childs was killed in a cemetery explosion in March 1944. This is a town-wide area point; individual incidents (Canon Ainslie School, Burgess Street) are recorded separately below. A permanent memorial to the 114 dead was still being campaigned for as of the sourcing below — check for an unveiling before treating the memorial as built.

Sources