Monument record TQ 77 NE 1334 - Second World War v2 missile crash site, Halstow Marshes

The earthwork of a Second World War bomb crater is visible on an aerial photograph taken in 1947. This crater is situated on Halstow Marshes south of Egypt Bay at TQ 7848 7823. No crater can be seen on aerial photographs taken on 23 March 1942. This feature, which survives as a shallow earthwork, was mapped from aerial photographs as part of the English Heritage: Hoo Peninsula Landscape Project. (1-2)

Crater - possibly the result of the V2 bomb fired on March 2nd, (07.47 hours) by Battery 1./485 (Art. Reg. 1./902), Den Haag, Statenkwartier, impacted High Halstow. (3)

On 17th February 1945 a V2 missile impacted in Halstow marshes at at 14.22 pm. It was probably fired from The Hague, Netherlands. There were no casualties and no damage recorded. A magnetometry and metal detecting survey carried out in 2023 plotted, recorded and removed all surface fragments.

The visible depression of the crater measured around 6 metres diameter. However, the recorded original diameter was 21 metres (69 feet, which is much larger than the average V2 crater size of 12 metres, 40 feet). The original depth was 2.75 metres (9 feet), which is only a little less than average. The recorded depth may or may not reflect what was measureable if there was water present in the crater immediately following the impact.

Complete detector search to study and record the blast field from the impact produced many pieces of evidence of the V-2 rocket, within the topsoil (100mm). All readings were entered into our GPS database to create a blast field pattern.

A magnetometer survey produced strong (not excavated) readings to the south west of the edge of the original crater shape. It was impossible to precisely estimate depth with this machine, but the signal strength suggested some large finds at a range of around 3 metres.

The excavator suggested some possible excavation approaches that could follow the initial survey phase (4)

<1> RAF, 1947, RAF CPE/UK/1923 4025 16-JAN-1947 (Photograph). SKE58836.

<2> Google Earth, 2011, EARTH.GOOGLE.COM 31-DEC-2003 ACCESSED 18-MAR-2011 (Photograph). SKE59225.

<3> Peter Higginbotham, Higginbotham, Peter. 2000. The Workhouse. (Website). SKE53741.

<4> Research Resource, 2023, V2 Brice Field, Halstow Marshes, Kent, Initial survey report and proposed further analysis (Unpublished document). SKE57741.