大象传媒

Looking back at my Family Tale (see 'A Family Tale' by Keither Featherstone and Nancy Maughan (Nee Huitson) ~ cousins) regarding events of the air raid on March 11th 1943, neighbours had declined to use the shelter. They were watching an enemy plane that the searchlights had fixed upon. The plane lit up as a silver colour and could not escape the searchlights. The anti aircraft guns opened up, hitting the plane which turned into a ball of fire. One lady remarked "they are some poor mothers' sons". A short while later a
huge explosion took place ~ there was debris of all descriptions flying about and a rush of air. The blast was blowing people off their feet. The lady who had sympathised now was calling the bomber crew different sorts of names. It transpired that parachute mines had been dropped, all of them not far from the railway marshalling yards, station and the prime target of the rail bridge spanning the River Tees. They did, of course, cause a lot of damage to property. The nearest to us fell on Thornaby Road. There was a huge crater and the Britannia Pub had disappeared as well as surrounding property. It was here that our ARP Warden was killed. A day or so later teams of men were hard at work repairing property where this was possible. Where house were flattened re-housing took place as available

While checking on relatives with my mother in the Mandale Road area, a well dressed woman appeared looking at the devastation. On speaking to us I understood her to be Lady Dorothy Macmillan, the wife our local MP, Harold Macmillan. It was not unusual for those people in authority to visit bombed areas to give moral support and sympathy.

28th April 2005

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