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28.11.40
It is now November 28th. We have had a fairly quiet week here up until tonight when the Jerries came over at 7.45 p.m. and continued in relays for 9 hours. Heavy gunfire and bangs. Bristol, Sheffield, Liverpool, Birmingham and Merseyside were heavily bombed.

16.12.40
Monday, December 16th was a bad night with bombs being dropped on Ripponden Road, Oldham and Manchester. The Angel Hotel and chemists shop next door were bombed, 14 killed.
Planes came over for 7 hours on Friday night and bombs were dropped.
On Saturday night they were over again from 6.30 p.m. There was heavy gunfire and we heard bombs dropping.
Our fellows have had a good week with the Italians. Over 30,000 prisoners have been taken. Greece is still doing very well.

20.12.40
We had two bad nights on Friday and Saturday, December 20th and 21st, but Sunday night was terrible when they made a blitz on Manchester. It began at 6.45 p.m. and went on all through the night without a break until 6.30 on Monday morning. They dropped three in Chadderton, one of which was a land mine 7 feet long and as far round as a pillar-box, with a parachute attached. There was a lot of damage to Boundary Park Hospital and Westhulme Hospital, also to houses. Nobody was injured but several suffered from shock. The centre of Manchester is a shambles, and fires have been burning all day. Lots of people have been killed and injured. We could see the fires from our door. They dropped lights from the planes, which hung in the sky and looked like lanterns. I suppose they were parachute flares.

23.12.40
It is now Monday night, December 23rd and the Germans have returned at 7.00 p.m. with another blitz on Manchester. We can already see more fires raging, and the guns are deafening. It is terrible, and only one night before Christmas Eve. I don’t know what Manchester will look like tomorrow.
On Tuesday we were expecting our Harry and Nora to stay with us for Christmas. They arrived in Manchester on Monday night just in time to be caught in the raid. They spent a terrible night in a shelter under the newspaper offices. All the windows were blown out of the building above them during the night. They got a lift on a lorry to Middleton the next morning. Harry says it would break my heart if I saw Manchester now. Salford and Stretford also suffered very badly along with Manchester. The death toll is very heavy. After giving us four bad nights running, they let us have a quiet Christmas.
They had mass burials on Saturday at the Southern Cemetery and Agecroft Cemetery in two large graves. Five of the Oldham firemen were killed in Manchester by German machine guns. I believe there are still a lot of people buried under the debris.

29.12.40
We had another blitz on London last night, December 29th, when they tried to burn the city down with incendiary bombs. I still think we should do the same to their cities.
The death toll for Manchester is 500 so far, but there are still some people trapped under buildings.
There were big raids on Portsmouth, Bristol and Cardiff this week, and in the south west of England. Hundreds have been rendered homeless. There has been another big raid on London, with many buildings destroyed by fire including the Guildhall, Trinity House, several Hall of City companies, a museum, 2 hospitals, 9 churches, several schools and lots of commercial buildings and houses. Broadcasting House was bombed and several of the staff killed.

9.1.41
On January 9th we got them near here again for 7 hours when Springfield Laundry was bombed and several bombs were dropped on Victoria Avenue. Many houses were damaged and a few people killed.


14.1.41
Monday, January 14th 1941. Big raid on Plymouth with heavy death toll and great damage.
The government now orders each block of houses to have their own firewatchers. Everyone who is able has to do their bit. We are also paying our share towards stirrup pumps so that we can have more of them.
Received a letter from Harry saying that the Rolls Royce works at Crewe has been bombed, with 22 killed including 6 girls.

28.1.41
It is now January 28th and we have had two very quiet weeks around here. What is Hitler up to now? We are doing very well against the Italians.

1.3.41
It is now March 1st. We are having a quiet time here, but Hitler has promised to wipe us out this Spring, so we are looking forward to his long promised invasion.
Bulgaria has joined the axis. Will Turkey come in on our side. I hope so.
We are now getting short of certain foods here. We got corned beef this week in our 1 —2 meat ration, but I made some very nice cooked dishes out of it, so we are not grumbling. I can’t get currants, raisins, figs, cheese, onions, lemon, syrup, jam. Cigarettes are hard to get, no chocolates and sweets, and everything has gone up to double the price, and down in quality.

7.3.41
March 7th, and two alerts today. Bowlee balloon works was bombed, several killed and injured. The streets in Middleton were machine-gunned.


15.3.41
March 15th. We have had four busy nights with the Germans coming over in waves for hours. The gunfire was terrific. Salford was bombed again on Tuesday night. The Home Guard turned out on Friday night to scour the districts, as word had come through that parachutists had been seen to drop. I think it was a false alarm but very disturbing all the same.

29.3.41
March 29th, a very quiet week with no alerts. Revolution in Yugoslavia after signing the tripartite pact.
Up to now nearly 29,000 civilians have been killed in Britain, and over 40,000 wounded. These are 50 times more than those killed in the army.

14.4.41
Easter Monday, April 14th. A big black twin engined bomber (German) came over this afternoon. It just skimmed our housetops. We went out to watch it and it swooped down over A.V.Roe’s and dropped bombs, then machine-gunned the place. Being Easter Monday the work people were having a holiday, so there was only one man injured, with a bullet in the arm. The damage wasn’t very great.

4.5.41
May 4th, went to see Mrs. Brown at Broad Street, Pendleton. She had a terrible time in the Christmas blitz when her house was damaged by blast.


13.5.41
May 13th, went to our Harry’s. Baby Carol was born on 7th. I stayed for a week, and during this time we had one alert. The AA guns nearly shook the house down as they are just at the end of the road.

1.6.41
On Whit Sunday, June 1st 1941, we had another blitz on Manchester and district. It only lasted a few hours, but it was very severe. Among the places hit were the Salford Royal Infirmary where a lot of nurses were killed, the Theatre Royal and Gaiety Theatre, the Assize Courts, the Central Hall, Marks and Spencer, Hope Brothers and several other places. A synagogue was burnt out. We spent a bad night as the planes came over our house all the time and the gunfire was terrific. We stood at our back door watching the fires on Manchester and Salford, which is not far away as the crow flies. We heard the shells whistle out of the AA guns, and one bomb was dropped near A. V. Roe’s but it exploded in a field and caused no damage. The Germans dropped flares, which came down very slowly and looked like fairy lanterns hung in the sky.
The German battleship Bismarck has sunk one of our finest battleships, The Hood. There were only 3 survivors out of 1300. Our ships chased the Bismarck and sunk it.
We were beating the Italians in Greece and Albania, but the Germans came to help them, and so we had to evacuate. We have also lost Crete. Now we have invaded Syria to stop the Germans from taking it. I hope we have better luck there.
We are now rationed for clothes — 66 coupons for a year. We are being rationed for eggs this week. About time too, I haven’t seen one for two months. Some people are getting a dozen each week.

I began this diary at the beginning of 1940 and continued to the middle of 1941 when Harry started to be unwell, and I had neither the time nor inclination to go on with it.

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