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The blue dots represent High Explosive bombs that exploded, and blue crosses those that failed to. Red dots represent incendiary bombs, and red crosses incendiaries that failed to ignite. Although there are many hits shown over the four years that Acocks Green suffered air raids, there must have been many more incendiaries dropped than were shown here. http://aghs.jimdo.com/acocks-green-s-vulnerability/bombing-maps/ Incendiary bombs, filled with highly combustible chemicals such as magnesium, phosphorus or petroleum jelly (napalm), were dropped in clusters to spread fires. The Luftwaffe tended to use thermite incendiaries. They were eighteen inches long and weighed only a couple of pounds. They were dropped in containers of different sizes. The average "breadbasket" was seventy-two incendiaries.
Incendiary bombs One of the biggest dangers was from firebombs, or incendiary bombs. These were small devices and were dropped out of planes in large quantities. When they hit something they started to burn, slowly at first, but then more strongly. So many of these bombs were scattered around that it was impossible for the fire service to get to them all. In fact it was the responsibility of local people, men and women, to put the fires out before they got out of hand. These bombs could fall in the street, in the garden, or through your roof, where they might start a fire in the loft or an upstairs bedroom. People were supposed to have buckets of water, buckets of sand and a thing called a stirrup pump available. Three people were needed to operate the pump, which sprayed a jet onto the flames. If you just poured water onto the burning chemicals, you could actually spread the fire. So teams of people in every road did firewatching and tackling fires. People had to do two hour periods during the night, then wake the next person. Some people doing firewatching were killed in the raids. In the centre of town and at factory sites, it was soon found that with no one about after dark fires could develop into huge blazes which could destroy rows of businesses or workshops, and eventually every fit man over 18 and under 60 had to do firewatching.
Here is a picture from 1926 of the site on which the current Robin Hood Primary School stands.
