大象传媒

Message 1 - The Blitz

Posted on: 05 June 2003 by Mark E

Simply reply to this message or start a new discussion to add your stories of the Blitz to be included in this month's collaborative article.

All best, Mark

Message 1 - Slade Green

Posted on: 10 June 2003 by Montague Trout

My Father recalls:

"There was an ammunition works down on the marshes next to the Thames. I can remember people working down there even well after the war finished. To fill cartridges with explosives in Woolwich Arsenal would have been to dangerous so it was done at Slade Green. A hut blew up after the war killing women carrying out the work.

When the Germans were looking to find and destroy this Works, Slade Green was said to look like a 'fairyland'. This was due to the incendiaries dropped. Someone said one lodged in our roof at No. 58 but did not ignite - Phew!

German fighters and bombers etc. used the Thames as a guide to London. Also if they got into trouble they dropped the cargo wherever they were. I believe that I can remember a dog fight between fighters over Slade Green. I can also remember a 'doodle bug'. These were unmanned guided missiles that were aimed at us. Crude rockets. When the engine stopped they would drop and explode. Many were sent into Kent.

Also landmines, these I believe were sea-mines dropped from aircraft by parachute, exploding on impact. Bombs usually made a hole and then exploded back-upwards whereas the landmine exploded when touching the ground. The blast went sideways causing a great deal of damage. One dropped in a field along Thames Road, the blast went along the ground over the railway embankment, immediately along back gardens to break windows and do other damage to houses in Lincoln Road. Thank goodness for the railway embankment. I can remember Mr and Mrs Barr (from Manchester) in No. 58's kitchen just after the incident. They lived in Lincoln Road and were friends of grandma Martha.

Collecting shrapnel was also a pastime.

All houses had air raid shelters in the back garden, ours was partially buried in the back garden. Someone, possibly your Nan, fell out of the top bunk. Your Great-Nan and Great-Grandfather up the road at No. 78 (possibly ?) had an air-raid wardens' shelter in their front garden."

Message 1 -

Posted on: 16 June 2003 by Researcher 231329

What was night's of Blitz like it must of been terrible seeing other people getting their life's took off them for no reason at all.

Message 1 - Incendiary Bombs WW2

Posted on: 17 June 2003 by Member no. U229957

Whilst the air raids on Liverpool were very destructive and caused many civilians casualties, there were however, lighter moments.

During a daylight raid in 1941 a "stick" of incediary bombs fell on the grass centre dividing strip of Queens Drive, West Derby. A few others found more serious targets. One of these latter went straight through the slate roof and the ceiling of a house on Queens Drive and incredibly landed in the toilet bowl of the dwelling. The man of the house had visited the toilet a few minutes earlier and yes, you guessed it, he left the lid up!

Smoke could be seen coming through the broken roof and before long many volunteers carrying buckets of sand and strirrup pumps converged on the house. A large number of people then crowded into the toilet and witnessed the incendiary bomb sitting in the toilet bowl burning furiously but harmlessly. It was left to eventually burn itself out and the prized tail section was added to my collection.

The toilet bowl sustained fatal heat damage and was replaced by the local council depot.

Ken Williams

Message 1 - war

Posted on: 01 July 2003 by Researcher 233001

hello what do u think of war

Message 1 -

Posted on: 01 July 2003 by Researcher 233001

someone speak to me im lonly please

Message 1 -

Posted on: 01 July 2003 by Researcher 233001

someone speak to me im lonly please

Message 1 - The 'Blitz'

Posted on: 01 July 2003 by Researcher 233027

Can anyone who knows about the 'Blitz' please contact me at azzer90@yahoo.com.

thankyou
Azzer

Message 1 - Aunt Jennie's Blitz Letters

Posted on: 12 July 2003 by Barney's Bucksaws

These letters were sent to my Mother from her Aunt in London during the Blitz. There are more letters from before and after, all telling of the life of the family during the War. All her sons, and her husband, Uncle Phil were in uniform, and she was left mostly alone to cope. She was, however, wealthy, and was able to remove to Maidenhead to escape the worst.

"110 Aldermans Hill
Sunday, Dec 8th (1940)

Dear Helen

I am hoping this will reach you to wish you all a Happy Christmas, & trust the New Year will bring us all happier times? I have no news from you, so am not sure that our letters reach these terrible times. I have tried to send you 2 (pounds) this week as a little help toward a little X-mas happiness & I do hope it will reach you. Hope you are all keeping well. I am fairly well but not too happy. I have already told you , I have sold Redcliffe & all its contents & am staying here at Twynford with Stella (her daughter). London is not very happy place. Most of my windows have been blown in, & I am having them boarded up, it is an awful time for me without Uncle. No one can do as he did, this is three hours from 110. One cannot get away from the horror, but it is a little more peaceful here & most of the bombs drop in fields. I have also ordered a weekly paper to be sent you which gives you some London news but not much. It would break your heart to see some of the places, & how the poor people stand it I do not know without a roof or "stick" left. I shall only be too grateful if my house suffers no worse. I can write you more about it later. Reg (her youngest son) has had windows broken, and Will (another son) roof damaged. Your Dad will remember Ruby, Aunt Nell's daughter. Her house has caught it badly but ok. I think has been able to save her furniture. I expect you are getting some of the news your side & radio or own papers, no one seems to think it will soon end. Am not looking a bit forward to Xmas. Shall be glad when it is over, hoping for Peace to look forward to after.

At any rate we can do that & wish each other happier times.
Which I am wishing for all
Yours affectionately
Aunt Jennie"

"110 Alderman's Hill
Wednesday March 19th (1941)

My Dear Helen

A letter from you to hand this morning dated Feb 1st. You just mention the 9 (pounds). I have already written you I have put it in bank with other & hope you may one day receive it tho' God knows if and when that will be. I am glad you get the little papers, it gives you some news of this side. Pleasant to know you are all well, the same here in health, only wish could say the same in mind. The worry is dreadful. Glad to hear like us you are busy knitting. We do our best but have an idea your Mother is a much more proficient knitter than either Stella or myself. This is what we do, socks for Army & Navy, helmets, scarves, mittens, gloves, caps for tin helmets, & sea boot stockings & hospital stockings, but not pull overs or jackets. Bedroom slippers & bed socks we do for ourselves & Stella does ankle socks for herself. If it was only a reasonable time we could send you a sample of each but have not yet seen the ones you mention with a leather sole. At any rate I can try & send you slips of how to make some. I do not like the heelless socks. The sea boot stockings are very huge, very thick oiled wool & makes your hands quite sore to knit them. Wool has become very expensive here & scarce, except only the service colours. Most of that is now very poor. We reinforce the heels & toes with "Star Silko" for strength. Sorry to say the new office(Uncle Phil's second law office) has suffered a little, but thank God not like the first. I am sure you cannot imagine not even a pen left.(Uncle Phil's first office was bombed to oblivion). By the way we have been knitting the gloves on two needles, they are quite practical. I found the four needles much too "fiddling". Have you tried them yet? We got the instructions from the War Comforts Fund depot here. Very thick harsh wool, but fairly quickly done.

Well once again all the best to all
& Best love from
Aunt Jennie"

"110 Aldermans Hill
Wednesday April 30th (1941)

Dear Helen

No news from you but if this should reach you it will let you know we are all well tho' this horrible time. I sent you some knitting papers, hope they reached you & that you found them useful.

I went up to London yesterday & found the sight most depressing. Regies house has suffered a bit, windows & doors blown in, but thank God nothing worse. Suppose will tell you all about it one day, when the Beasts are got under.

Until then wishing you all, all the best
With love
Yours affectionately
Aunt Jennie"

Message 1 - Near Miss!!!

Posted on: 05 August 2003 by Carol Jordan

A couple of months ago, I spoke to an elderley Jewish lady who told me an incredible story about one of her experiences of the Blitz.

One evening, as a young woman, she attended a dance at the Cafe de Paris near Leicester Square. During the evening she was struck with a particular sense of impending doom. Racked with this strange feeling, she took leave of her friends and left abruptly and alone. A short while ater, not 500 yards away from this spot, a German bomb dropped.

To this day, this lady has not had a feeling like that again and cannot explain the sensation that forced her to leave. However, thankful for her life, she feels no burning need for a logical explanation.

Message 1 - The Blitz

Posted on: 26 August 2003 by margaret hine

I returned to Gosport after being evacuated just in time for the first blitz. As we were so near Portsmouth we had plenty of raids. My Mother who was one of the few woman at that time who could drive was a member of the WVS and my father an air raid Warden. I well remember the first bombs dropping and the noise of the big guns. As children we soon became used to nights in the shelter , incendary bombs in the house roof and a large bomb nearby. We had some very happy times despite all the hardships, and looked out for each other.I can remember vividly seeing Portsmouth burning after one huge raid, I still cannot bear to hear a siren going off.

Message 1 - Family at War

Posted on: 30 August 2003 by Eddie Gardner

Our Anderson air raid shelter was one of the largest in the area for it had be large enough for the family of Alfred and Beatrice Gardner and their eight children.

The shelter was used every night during the blitz but after my mother and the four youngest children were evacuated to Pentewan in Cornwall my two older brothers and myself decided that we would risk sleeping in our own beds at night.

My father worked at night for the News Chronicle and Star which were national daily and evening newspapers and as a garage supervisor he had his own office and he slept there and only came home on Sundays.

My first experience of being bombed was on 16th August 1940 during the first daylight raid in the area when a bomb fell just a hundred or so metres from my shelter.

One Sunday morning in November 1940 two bombs dropped on Tolworth Hostpital - my brother and I were asleep at the time and awoke to the sound of the bombs whistling down followed by the explosions.
The house fairly lifted with the impact and the sound of breaking glass was immediate - I was sure that the house next door had been hit but in fact it was the hosptial.
As we rushed to the shelter we met a strong smell of cordite (gunpowder) as we left the house.

Some time later my brother was called up into the Army.
Four hundred bombs fell in the Surbiton area including twenty V1's and two V2's.

The memory of those long nights of the blitz with the throbbing of the German bombers engines carrying their heavy load of death and destruction, the whistling of the bombs coming down and that explosive impact cannot be forgotten and my area was not the area most heavily bombed!

Message 1 - Living with the V1s

Posted on: 02 September 2003 by George Knott

In 1944 I was a schoolboy of thirteen living in Tooting,a district of S.W. London. The first V1 Flying Bomb attacks started on the 13th June, only four landing on English soil, and only one causing any real damage, none came our way though we did hear vague sounds in the distance, at that time we had no idea what they were.
However two nights later large numbers started to arrive and from then on they came in salvo's, night and day.
We had a Anderson shelter in the garden which we spent every night in for some months, good job it was summertime.
For the first week or two the A.A. defences remained in London, so we didn't get much sleep with all the noise of the barrage through the night. Then they moved all the guns and rocket batteries to the coast the silence that came with this move was as unnerving as the noise had been, plus we felt as though nothing was being done to counter the "Doodlebugs", another thing was
we could now hear them arriving.
My school closed indefinitely as it was pointless running up and down to the shelters every few minutes, no work was getting done. My friend and I spent our time watching the bombs fly over or visiting the bomb sites as soon as we could, looking for pieces of flying bomb or just being inquisitive, many times we saw sights that were upsetting.
As time went on fewer bombs got through the defences so life became less harrowing, everyone became very nervy, always listening for a approaching bomb, sometimes it was only a car or lorry in the distance, but one could never be sure.
I had a morning and evening paper round which I carried on doing, one thing that became obvious to me was whilst I still covered the same distance on my round I had less and less papers to deliver so many people had left to escape the attacks, in fact London became quite empty and noticeably so.
I left school at fourteen, in the October, and started work helping repair lightly bombed houses, with a building firm.
The V1s continued to arrive until about March 1945, but were so few in number by then that they were almost a novelty.
Outside of London and S.E.England little was known of these weapons and anyone arriving from the rest of the country got a shock to find themselves in the middle of it all.
I'll always remember the sound they made and the sudden silence between the engine cutting out and the explosion, it seemed endless.

Message 1 - Norwich in the Blitz

Posted on: 20 September 2003 by James Gower

Their is a very good website about Norwich in the Blitz from the Evening News. The web address is ^{About links}

They are also after stories about people living in Norwich after the war and their contact details can be seen at Normandy Stars website at ^{About links} and click on the Norwich after the War link.

Message 1 - The Blitz

Posted on: 22 September 2003 by McIntosh

I was in Hyde Park on the Saturday afternoon when the blitz began.I was stationed at Chelsea Barracks and had the afternoon off. I was near the bandstand when the heavy drone of aircraft became apparent. Suddenly the anti-aircraft guns opened up startling the girls we were chatting with and then the sirens started wailing. Looking up there appeared to be hundreds of German aircraft but I doubt if hundreds was correct. They droned their way across the park and then in the far distance we could hear the crump of bombs landing on the docks. There was no panic but no-one really knew what was happening. That was the beginning of the bombing of London and it went on night after night. I saw the whole of Regent Street on fire one night and on another our barracks was hit.
Just before the war began we had been filling sandbags to protect the barracks and I lost my identity disks whilst doing this chore. On the night the bomb hit the barracks it landed close to the petro dump, fortunately not igniting anything but blowing apart the protective wall of sandbags. Early the next morning just after reveille a mate of mine
came racing into the barrack room and stared at me as if he were seeing a
ghost. He had my long lost disks in his hand. He thought I had copped it. Later an Ats girl was killed when a bomb hit their mess at the back of the barracks.
King`s Road ,Chelsea seemed to be a favourite target for the German bombers and several of my friends were killed when a bomb hit the tube station where they were sheltering
It was a relief to go on leave but I finished up at home on the night the Germans decided to bomb my home town.