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THE TRUE STORY OF THE BOMBING OF BRADFORD.

It was well over sixty years ago this year when this country had no alternative but to declare war on Germany. We were left no option in the face of the aggression portrayed by their leader, Adolf Hitler. It was quite clear that this man intended to annexe the whole of Europe initially, with world-wide domination as his ultimate goal.

After all these years, it is quite feasible events that happened then will have become somewhat hazy in recollection. It is only by being able to associate incidents with various times in the past, that we are able to remember clearly what happened, and when. When it comes to the question of 鈥渨here were you on the day that war broke out鈥�, I personally have no problem; here鈥檚 the answer.

On Sunday noon, 3rd September 1939, I was performing on the stage of the Baildon Woodbottom Working Men鈥檚 Club. At the time, I was part of a piano accordion and harmonica band. We had noon and night-time engagements at the club. On this memorable afternoon, the then Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain announced over the radio that we were, from that time forward, at war with Germany.

This happened four days before my 18th birthday. Mobilisation into the armed forces commenced with the men who were born in the year 1919, and who would have been 20 years of age in 1939.

At the start of the hostilities, I was employed in the cloth warehouse at Henry Mason鈥檚 of Shipley. Shortly after, I left there to go to work in the dry cleaning factory of Martin鈥檚 of Apperley Bridge. A vivid incident I recall took place there, when a great many khaki uniforms were received for cleaning. As we were only too well aware, these had been worn by the British forces, during their retreat to (and evacuation from) Dunkirk. Also, the news that Italy had entered the war on the side of Germany was made public during my stay at Martin鈥檚. I pedal cycled from my home to both Mason鈥檚 and Martin鈥檚 during the time I was in their employ.

Shortly afterwards, I left Martin鈥檚 and commenced work in the grey cloth room at Salts (Saltaire) Ltd. At this stage, whereby work had hitherto been hard to come by, there were now many vacancies to fill, owing to the call-up of men into the armed forces. I was set on to fill the vacancy, created by the departure of a young man into the Royal Air Force. His name was Albert Fillingham.

This sequence of events took place in 1940, up to 28 August 1941. That was the day I was eventually called into the RAF. I say 鈥渋nto鈥� because I had already been attested (or 鈥渟worn in鈥�) during the month of March that year, at RAF Padgate, near Warrington. I was instructed to report there, going on a Wednesday and returning home the following day. That memorable Wednesday night; I have a vivid recollection of occupying a top bunk and being made aware of an air raid in progress, in the vicinity of Liverpool. The reason for being sent home (until my call-up proper) was to wait for a wireless course to become available. It took from March until August for this to materialise, when I was eventually recalled to RAF Padgate.

By going into detail about this vital period of events in my personal life, it puts into perspective my clarity of memory regarding events in 1940 and 1941. Also 鈥� very importantly 鈥� putting into perspective my return to the Saltaire scene, and the events that were relevant to the time I spent there in 1940/41.

When I left school in 1935, my first spell of work was as a 鈥渞eacher-in鈥� in Salts鈥� warp twisting department. At this time, I came into contact with Alan Nicholls, a young warp twister who was just 鈥渙ut of his time鈥�, meaning that he had completed his apprenticeship. Later, when I was back at Salts, I again met up with Alan. He was Bradford-based, and played cricket for Jer Lane Congs.

To come to the point, Alan had been to the Ritz cinema in Bradford, on the night that the bombs fell on Bradford. He had been near enough to the city centre incident to know that one high explosive bomb had caused most of the damage. As he left the city centre, he was aware of places being on fire. Owing to the blackout, the fires stood out very plainly. According to Alan鈥檚 account, that was it; certainly no sustained further bombing. The attacker had been and gone. Alan related these details to myself, and other people at the mill.

Alan did not go into the armed forces, owing to a permanent illness from which he died at a young age.

The limited wartime recording of enemy activity was mostly achieved by word of mouth. Very strict censorship saw to this. So, as the years have passed, vague rumours of fictitious bombings have grown into stories, accepted by a gullible number of successive generations. As Dr Goebbels, the German Minister for Propaganda famously stated, 鈥渢ell people lies often enough and they will believe them鈥�; or words to that effect that meant roughly the same thing.

It is only by being present at the time that the true facts of any situation can be related. Because of this, there is no doubt that one high explosive bomb 鈥� and one only 鈥� fell on the centre of Bradford that night. A present-day neighbour of mine told me that on the night of that incident, he and his friends (14-15 years of age) went from Saltaire to Bradford to survey the damage. His name is Walter Hawley. He also bore out the words of Alan Nicholls, in that there was no sustained attack. Walter saw the twisted tramlines in Tyrrell Street.

It is a known fact that when an aircraft commenced a bombardment, the bombs were dropped in succession as the aircraft flew over the target. The aircraft in question reportedly dropped a 鈥渟tick鈥� of five bombs across Bradford. These would have dropped in an approximate straight line. Also, they would have gone directly down and not diverted in the course of their descent. For anyone to say that a bomb was coming down directly at them, then diverting elsewhere would be, to say the least, a bit far fetched.

The 鈥渟creaming bomb鈥� which, on another isolated occasion, fell in Heaton woods, had tail fins specially fitted to produce the screaming sound. On that occasion, I was lying awake in my bed at home in Caroline Street, Saltaire when I heard it. The distinctive sound was heard by many local people including the younger element, who are still alive today.

It is only going on 70 years, a comparatively trifling spell of time considering the countless number of bygone ages there have been. Nevertheless, it is long enough for a human being to forget events which happened in the early part of their lives. People do become confused, regarding recollections of things happening sixty-plus years ago. Apart from the extremely limited information available at the time, censorship being rigidly applied, there was no publication of exact details in the newspapers. This, with reference to the extent of damage done, and the location. In the local press, Bradford was only referred to as a 鈥淣orth East town鈥�.

In an official letter I received from the RAF, relating to a list compiled by the Ministry of Defence, a chart was included. This listed the cities and towns that were bombed. For 1940 and 1941 it shows Bradford as having been bombed on only one occasion. The date coincides with that recorded on microfilm in Bradford library; Saturday, 31 August 1940. Yet, in an article last year in the Bradford Telegraph & Argus (T&A), it is stated that the city suffered an even heavier bombardment on 14 March 1941! It is alleged that 600 (six hundred) bombs were dropped. This came within the period of time when fire-spotting activities, carried out by myself and others were in progress.

On Thursday 31 August 2000, an article appeared in the T&A. The headline read 鈥淭he night terror rained from the sky鈥�. It went on state 鈥� sensationally 鈥� 鈥淒eath raid that destroyed some of the finest buildings鈥�. This was composed by a relatively young T&A reporter. Microfilms in Bradford library contain editions of the paper that covered the war years. In these are pictures of the buildings that were damaged by the bombing. They give the appearance of having been penetrated and burned by incendiary (rather than high explosive) bombs. A direct hit by the latter would surely have destroyed the buildings completely; especially Lingard鈥檚 shop.

This totally unfounded account said that the raid started at 10:30pm and continued until 3:14am on the following day; where did this mysterious report come from? It must be emphasised again that no official details were released, nor have any been kept since. Any historic archive in Bradford will bear this out; particularly the library.

An even bigger mystery is the alleged larger raid, which, it is claimed, took place on 14 March 1941. If 600 bombs had been dropped, Bradford would have been well nigh obliterated, particularly the city itself.

I sampled some of the various activities concerned with my contribution to the war effort in a civilian capacity, mainly confined to Salts mill. The emergence of the Local Defence Volunteers (later to become the Home Guard) was my first contribution. I took up activities with the Air Training Corps, to get tuition on wireless and morse code procedures. That meant resigning from the Home Guard. Consequently, this left me open to another compulsory duty; every able-bodied employee 鈥� with the exception of those involved with other essential wartime civilian tasks 鈥� had to take a turn at fire-spotting (this is not to be confused with fire-watching).

Even today, there is a concrete structure on the end of Salts mill roof, nearest to Shipley. It is there for all to see. It was reached by going out of a skylight on the roof, and climbing a ladder set into the wall. A door leads into the interior of this structure (which is bare) and still has a lookout slit in each of the four walls. It was through these slits that we had to take turns 鈥� all night long 鈥� to look around the district. From this panoramic elevation, we could see a great distance; Bradford was relatively near.

My immediate companion on the nights we had to share the duty was Alan Rushton, who was a maintenance joiner at the time. In later years, he became the assistant mill engineer. During the time of our surveillance from early 1941 until late August, there was nothing to report. There were no fires and certainly no air raids.

When correspondence to the T&A on this subject was suspended, I decided to contact RAF records at Insworth, Gloucester. After waiting for several days, I received a letter from Insworth, which contained information from the Ministry of Defence. A chart shows the number of air raids carried out on the main towns and cities of Britain during 1940 and 1941. ACCORDING TO THIS VITAL INFORMATION, BRADFORD WAS BOMBED ON ONLY ONE OCCASION.

To relate once again to my overnight stay at Padgate in March 1941, that night I occupied a top bunk in the accommodation provided. Also on that night, an air raid was taking place in the vicinity of Liverpool. I remember that only too well, because I could hear the explosions and feel the vibrations. I do not mind admitting that I was frightened. That made it more memorable. Padgate is several miles from Liverpool, a greater distance than Saltaire is from Bradford.

This begs the question: why was I not aware of any massive air attack on Bradford, when the Liverpool episode remains so vividly in my memory?

Up to my call-up on 28 August 1941, it was all quiet with nothing to report. The fire-spotters naturally compared notes, and this made doubly sure that there was no enemy air activity over Bradford in 1941.

It is extremely unlikely that the flag-waving people (as depicted in the paper) were issued with Union Jacks in the early part of the war. It suggests that they were celebrating the end of the hostilities; what else?

In the early days following the war, emphasis was placed on providing mass-produced housing. This was in the form of pre-fabricated, bungalow type structures. I recall some of these being brought into the district by road haulage from Manchester. The name 鈥淚rlam鈥� on the transporters was either the place where these structures were manufactured, or the name of the manufacturer.

The forerunner of the four-engine Lancaster aircraft was the Manchester. This aircraft, produced by A. V. Roe was a twin-engine aeroplane, and was produced in the city whose name it bore. Lancaster bombers were also produced in Manchester, as well as the works at Yeadon, West Yorkshire. It is quite feasible that, with the emphasis on the manufacture of the Lancaster fuselage no longer being a necessity, attention could be turned to the production of prefabs.

In other words, unless someone in the East Bowling area of Bradford was the provider of the reproduced picture of the prefabs, then that photograph could have been of anywhere in the country; especially, anywhere that had been heavily bombed!

To say that the prefabs had been produced during the war is totally unfounded. They were most certainly a post-war conception. The exposed Anderson shelters were no doubt surplus to wartime requirements, and were therefore utilised as garden huts.

It is not feasible to think that a high explosive bomb could explode in the middle of a street of houses and not destroy all of the property, particularly with the streets in the suburbs of Bradford being relatively narrow.

To bypass all thoughts of 鈥渂ionic human beings鈥�, it is not possible to see with the naked eye, from King鈥檚 Road to the bottom of Manchester Road in Bradford, much less to see a bomb strike the Odeon cinema. But to be able to see the patrons coming out is really insulting the intelligence of the reader! In reality, the best that could be seen would have been the glow of the fire(s) in the night sky immediately above the scene, from such a distance.

It is impossible to specify how many bombs were alleged to have been dropped, and where they made contact. No official records were kept, because of strict censorship. Information was practically non-existent. To say that 600 bombs were dropped (assuming that they ever were); who counted them? Where is the evidence? 600 high explosive bombs would have devastated Bradford!!

It is more likely that the aircraft jettisoned the high explosives and incendiaries across the city, before returning to base. Heavy bombers were not designed to fly up and down street, firing machine guns! Their mission was to drop bombs on to targeted areas from a high point in the sky. Unless proved different, it suggests that the people who observed an enemy aircraft machine-gunning an ambulance either have distorted memories, or have watched too much television.

The official record from the Public Record Office shows that Bradford was bombed on only one occasion. The Ministry of Defence substantiates this in DOCUMENT REFERENCE 20/7288, in co-operation with the RAF historical branch. The latter is situated at:

Room 308
3-5 Great Scotland Yard
London
SW1A 2HW.

A historian in Manchester, Mr Wheaton, assured me that the prefabs were a post-war conception. Although Irlam transport contractors were employed, the prefabs were produced in Manchester, or somewhere in that locality. The fact that Bradford was supplied with them shows that the Manchester manufacturers supplied customers far and wide.

My cousin, Eric Price lived in a complex of pre-fabricated bungalows in Gaisby Lane, Shipley in the 1960s. Mr Wheaton informed me that prefabs were given a ten-year lease of life. They evidently lasted much longer.

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