A definitive list may be possible, depends if the records have survived. There were some locos damaged and repaired, some damaged and replaced, some may have even been rebuilt into other forms, and of course some were simply struck off the records.
I don't know about being preemptively moved, but there are stories of trains being driven sharply into tunnels when enemy planes appeared.
Was one of the reasons why locos were painted black during the war, was to make them less obvious to bombers?
Quite likely yes. Maintenance and the simpler costs of all-over black (no lining to worry about) were also factors.
Worth remembering that aerial bombing was very imprecise, and vast amounts of bombs never actually exploded. Whereas Germany and France suffered a direct land campaign (France twice), and sabotage was used quite regularly whereas in the UK the German espionage network never really got going and eventually MI5 had every single agent identified.
I wonder are you thinking of T14 458, which was destroyed on Nine Elms shed?
A4 4469 just happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time. It was ex-works from Doncaster, being run in on local trains, and was stabling overnight at York north shed. It took the full blast from a HE bomb while on shed.
The Stukas were really for military targets though, due to the risk as they pulled out of the dive. They were seriously impressive though, up until they came up against the RAF Hurricanes and Spitfires.
Oh yes, a good ME109 pilot was deadly, and a bombe flying low level would have multiple turrets that could take potshots.
No, I thought a loco was destroyed in the same raid as closed the W&C line 9/12/1940 but at the moment I can't find a reference
The loco was cut-up at Doncaster Works, but surprisingly the tender was put aside and eventually repaired. It was put back into service in 1945 attached to newly built Thompson A2/1 3696 Highland Chieftain.
Despite the mythology (/propoganda) surrounding the Blitz and Battle of Britain- The Luftwaffe (and Italian) bombing campaign(s) were actually pretty tiny. Neither the Luftwaffe or the Regia Aeronautica used dedicated strategic bombers, instead using aircraft designed for tactical army support with small bomb loads and even by the time of the Blitz, the Luftwaffe were worn down enough after the Battle of France and suffering enough shortages to be using concrete bombs, which are less effective than the metal versions. Equally, the air fleets used might look impressive on paper but serviceability rates were extremely poor.
I am not sure how that could have happened unless the aircraft was flying extremely low? Do we know if the loco crew survived the attack?
According to the LNER forum I linked to, it was indeed flying very low across Romney Marsh (quite usual tactics at that point to do hit-and-runs crossing the channel at low level to avoid radar). The crew apparently jumped clear before the attack, but no source is cited for definite.
It looks to me as if the blast has happened underneath the loco and it’s suspended across a small crater with the last set of tender wheels and the pony truck on the rails. The cab was either removed before the picture was taken or might have been crushed as the loco also seems to have jack-knifed somewhat and twisted with the first set of driving wheels still under the boiler but the second one on the visible side seems forced outwards. Seeing as Swindon was churning Halls out into the 1950s, it was probably just as easy to remove any undamaged components and add another one to the order.
Indeed. Those 8Fs lost when SS Thistlegorm was sunk in the Red Sea in October 1941 come to mind here, but there were doubtless several dozen others lost in this way.
That's why a large number of tender locomotives were fitted with tarpaulins between the cab roof and tender for use during the hours of darkness. They were also quite handy for keeping the rain out, I would imagine!
This is a picture of 4911 damaged at Plymouth
