Bomb Sight

The Bomb Sight project is mapping the London World War II bomb census for the period of the Blitz, between 7th October 1940 and 6th June 1941.

The Bomb Sight app allows you to explore where the bombs fell as you walk around the streets of London. If you are in London you can use your GPS to find your location and discover where the bombs fell using Augmented Reality. Simply hold up your phone and use your camera and GPS location to see their locations.

Previously available only by viewing in the Reading Room at The National Archives, Bomb Sight is making the historical maps and newly created data available to citizen researchers, academics and students.

The project has scanned original 1940s bomb census maps that record the location of bombs that were dropped by the Luftwaffe during WW2. The historical maps have been scanned and matched to a present day location which allowed us to the capture the geographical locations of all the falling bombs recorded on the original map.

Bomb Sight has been created by a collaboration between Dr Catherine Jones, Department of Geography, University of Portsmouth and The National Archives, England, UK with development of the mobile app by Dan Karran of Geobits Ltd, the responsive web application by Dr Patrick Weber of Location Insights and Jasia Warren created the design of both tools.

The development of the app was funded by JISC - Joint Information Service Committee under Strand C: Clustering Digital Content of their Content Programme 2011-13. The project funding ran from Jan 2012 to Jan 2013.

Bomb Sight is a not-for-profit project with the objective to facilitate presentation and increase accessibility of different historical data sources relating to WW2. Access to the website and the app is publicly available and free to all users.

The Bomb Sight Project gives no warranty to the accuracy, completeness or fitness for purpose of the information provided. Commercial exploitation of the images, maps, datasets, and background material provided on this website is prohibited. Material should be used only for purposes of non-commercial research, private study or education.