大象传媒

I am not sure exactly when but it was possibly in early 1941 that when I returned to my parents in Grimsby, after havimg been evacuated,I have memories of sirens going almost every night as German bombers passed over the town. They used the Humber to seek out industrial targets further inland. We were up for hours, waiting for the planes to return as they had the habit of dropping any unused bombs over Grimsby. One night, however, there was a full scale raid and Grimsby had been selected as the target. It gave us a very uncomfortable taste of Germany's new secret weapon - ant personell bombs. These comprised explosives packed into everyday articles. For example :- cigarette lighters, fountain pens, small torches etc. The morning after the raid streets were littered with these objects. We were warned about them immediately upon our arrival at school (South Parade Juniors). Fortunately I had not seen one on the journey there. We were told that they would explode if touched and had the capacity to blow an arm or a leg off. The raid disrupted many activities within the town for some time. I remember that a number of these bombs fell into the chimneys of Spiller's flour factory, which was situated next to the Palace Theatre on Alexandra Dock. I do not know how many people were killed or injured by this event but production at the flour factory was interrupted for a long period of time. Some of these bombs landed in the Old Cemetary near Doughty Rd. and it was fenced off for many years and declared 'out of bounds'. The area became a wilderness of overgrown shrubs and trees. Because this event was kept secret until well after the war was over the Germans, I think, believed that their anti personell bomb raid on Grimsby had produced no significant results and as far as I know there were no similar raids on the rest of the country.
David Peers.

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