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The Battle of Britain had been raging for seven weeks over Southern England in a war with Germany which had been going on just two days short of a year when the reality of war was brought home to the people of Bradford.

News of the war just happened on radio or in the newspapers. Wartime censorship forbade the identification of towns hit by air attack. Every evening we had to sit in silence and listen to the 大象传媒 Newsreaders relating news stories from distant parts.

When Dad finished his milk round off he went with his gas mask in its cardboard box and his black steel helmet with a 鈥淲鈥�, into the 鈥渂lackout鈥� to the Wardens Post. The main job was to check the 鈥渂lackout鈥� down the road and join his mates in the East Bierly Memorial Hall, the wardens post. All was peaceful in Bradford.

At 10.13pm on the night of Sunday August 31st1940, an air raid 鈥減urple warning鈥� was received at the ARP control in Bradford.

The mill siren wailed the warning, dad dashed out on duty, while we went down into the small pantry under the stairs. It was a very tiny space with just enough room to squeeze onto the tiny step.

Twenty minutes later we heard the sound of heavy bombers droning overhead, some very loud, others far away, as they circled around. Then the thump of bombs, some near, some far away, it was hard to tell.

The night would fall silent for a short spell followed by more aircraft, more bombs and the rattle of anti aircraft fire. Two explosions were very close and the house shook with the blast. It was a long night under those stairs in the dark.

By 3.15am the following day, the last wave of the raid was over. I don鈥檛 remember dad returning home that night, but he was off on his milk round as usual and we lads were packed off to school to swap tales and valued bits of shrapnel to impress our mates.

Shortly after that raid, my brother and I were taken by train to Leeds, each with a small suitcase and the obligatory gas mask. We were taken to a selected road junction to await the arrival of a milk wagon.

On its arrival our cases were stuffed behind the milk kits, we were bundled into the very large cab and told to keep down and stay out of sight as we trundled out of Leeds towards Harrogate, then on to Ripley and High Gill Moor.

It was a real contrast to the dark satanic mills of Bradford. We went to school at Pately Bridge in Nidderdale. We learned to play cricket, went rabbiting with the big lads and even had extended holidays for farming pursuits like potato picking, a very cold job.

I loved the days when the giant steam engines came for threshing. It was a mucky but exciting time. It couldn鈥檛 last, and as the fortunes of war changed we returned to Bradford.

So just what did happen that Sunday night? The local newspaper was unable to give a full account of the attack as Wartime censorship forbade the identification of the towns hit by air attacks.

All it was able to report was, that a chain raid caused considerable damage to property in and around the central area of a northern town. Having regard to the severity of the bombing the casualty roll was insignificant.

A full picture was recorded and published when the war is over. The Odeon Cinema was hit just after the audience had left.

Eleven fires were all caused by bombs that night. Lingards, a large departmental store was destroyed, the Robert Peel Hotel was damaged, Robert鈥檚 Pie Shop in Godwin Street had its window shattered. However the famous pie in the window which puffed out steam carried on regardless.

A number of wool warehouses were set alight. People waiting for trams in Tyrrel Street to Gt Horton and Wibsey had a lucky escape when a bomb landed in the middle of the street, snapping the tramlines.

A signalman jumped from his signal box in Battye St when it was hit by an incendiary bomb. The nearest bang to our house was in a little used and very deep railway cutting near Drighlington Junction.

The records show that only two people died as victims of that raid. The German bombers never returned again to bomb Bradford throughout the war.

As young lads we used to cycle past a large camouflaged structure with model cows on top, this was the Avro Workshops where the York and Lancaster RAF bombers were made.

The Germans never found it. Now it is part of the Leeds Bradford Airport complex.

This story was submitted to the People's War site by Lis Edwards (the volunteer) of the 大象传媒 Radio Shropshire CSV Action Desk on behalf of Neville Lorrimer (the author) and has been added to the site with his permission. The author fully understands the site's terms and conditions.

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