Sheffield blitz information

[ValeAngel]

Thanks for information...must have been horrific.

[Cynthia]

I am bringing this thread forward as there is a further thread - 'Sheffield Blitz' asking the same questions.

[cartav]

Cynthia,

 

It was the picture palace on chesterfield road opposite the railway station,we were taken to the air raid shelter under the railway arches. There was a burnt out tram outside the pictures with a carbonised body hanging onto the rail,it was very surreal. My brother and I went down town the next morning and picked up a pile of shilling pieces which had been in one of the banks on the Moor, A copper saw us pick them up but said nothing. The city was still burning,with firemen almost dead on their feet,some just lying in the road where they had fallen exhausted.

 

Out of all the emergency services only one operated that morning,the Womens Volunteer Service,they operated a small van dishing out tea and buns.

 

We saw a german come down by parachute,he dropped into a burning building and a big cheer went up,not one person thought of helping him I was glad to say at the time. I think that was on Pinstone St. top of the Moor area.

 

My father and oldest brother built a sahelter second to none,we lived in it for weeks on end,it was on Millmount Rd. and the council tried to take away the Wrought iron railings but my old man told them to bugger off,and they did.

 

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Hate to say so, but the bit about a German in a parachute stretches the imagination a bit. Don't believe there were any reports of German A/c being shot down over Sheffield. There were parachutes, these were attached to mines which didn't penetrate the ground on impact & caused blast damage much as our later blockbusters did. Understand there was a "parachutist" seen coming down in the Southey area (I think). Those who ran out to confront "him" were blown about a bit by the mine when it exploded. Equally I've not seen any railings still in place anywhere. Bags of old stumps, but that's all. Some people might have been irritated at losing part of the front garden, but they were public spirited enough to give up their fences to help the war effort. The same with aluminium saucepans & kettles. Nobody complained or asked for recompense, they just handed them over to the Boy Scouts who ran collection drives.

[Plain Talker]

<snippitty>Equally I've not seen any railings still in place anywhere. Bags of old stumps, but that's all. Some people might have been irritated at losing part of the front garden, but they were public spirited enough to give up their fences to help the war effort. The same with aluminium saucepans & kettles. Nobody complained or asked for recompense, they just handed them over to the Boy Scouts who ran collection drives.

 

Just to slightly correct you there.

 

The Victorian house that I lived in, and the house next door, certainly kept the railings to the side of the steps, as a safety issue, (the drop was too deep, and dangerous to take the railings away) although the railings to the front wall were "taken" as part of the "drive" to collect metal.

[Harleyman]

I lived on Montgomery Terrace Road across from the Royal infirmary. I was a babe in arms at the time so dont remember any of the actual events except what was told to me years later. The wrought iron railings, as has been mentioned already were removed leaving only the stumps. Dad was away in the army and grandad was employed as a porter at the hospital across the road. On one night of the blitz he was on duty and helped evacuate some of the patients to shelters while the bombs were falling around. Apparently he received a commendation for doing this. I was sleeping in a cot up in the attic of the house when a fire bomb came through the roof and set some washing alight that was hanging near the cot. My mom tore up the stairs extinguished the fire which hadn't got out of hand and hauled me out of there. We still had the steel casing for that bomb many years later.

[jmdee]

There were rumours that the scrap metal collected was for propaganda purposes only, to give everyone a feeling they were doing their bit. Don't know if there is any truth to this. As with you PT., the railings around our house, which was at the top of Bloor St., in Walkley, were left because the front door opened onto a flat raised area, about six feet above the pavement. All the others in that area had theirs removed.

 

Just to slightly correct you there.

 

The Victorian house that I lived in, and the house next door, certainly kept the railings to the side of the steps, as a safety issue, (the drop was too deep, and dangerous to take the railings away) although the railings to the front wall were "taken" as part of the "drive" to collect metal.

[Bayern Blade]

 

Hate to say so, but the bit about a German in a parachute stretches the imagination a bit. Don't believe there were any reports of German A/c being shot down over Sheffield. There were parachutes, these were attached to mines which didn't penetrate the ground on impact & caused blast damage much as our later blockbusters did.

 

This is correct.

Luftwaffe loss records confirm that no aircraft were lost anywhere near Sheffield let alone over the city itself either during the "Blitz" or later in the war.

The nearest German aircraft shot down was a Ju 88 brought down near Bradford in 1941 as far as I know.

[Plain Talker]

There were rumours that the scrap metal collected was for propaganda purposes only, to give everyone a feeling they were doing their bit. Don't know if there is any truth to this. As with you PT., the railings around our house, which was at the top of Bloor St., in Walkley, were left because the front door opened onto a flat raised area, about six feet above the pavement. All the others in that area had theirs removed.

 

I had heard rumours identical to that, JMDee, that the railings, pots, pans etc, were collected, to be melted down and turned into ammunition, and planes etc for the war effort.

 

The problem was, the metal was of such poor quality, it ended up being dumped in the North Sea, and left to rust on the sea bed.

[hillsbro]

My bungalow in Wadsley still has its 1930s railings. I have no idea why they were left - they certainly are original, as they appear on a watercolour of the house dated 1942 (see here for a "then and now" view:

 

http://i169.photobucket.com/albums/u219/twigmore/bungalow.jpg

 

so why they were not removed I can only guess. Of the 33 houses on the street it's apparently the only one that ever had railings, and so maybe the street wasn't on the list of those to be dealt with. Otherwise maybe the owner removed the railings and hid them until after the war - the six- and eight-foot lengths could have been unbolted from each other, and the lead seatings melted with a blowlamp.

 

The Barracks on Langsett Road has retained its railings for part of their length. The railings are on top of a wall that varies in height with the slope of the road. Only at the upper end where the wall is less than a foot or so in height did the railings survive - you can still see them. Maybe if the wall was below a certain height the railings could be kept?

 

An article in the Star many years ago stated firmly that some of the metal collected was used for munitions, though not all.

[cartav]

Hi

 

The Lufwaffe tried to bomb Sheffield a number of times before they finally did it, Dec. 12 & 15, 1940. It was low cloud and atmospheric polution that saved us on other occasions. You could hear them up there (Heinkel bombers had a distinct sound: one engine ran clockwise and the other counterclockwise.) but because of the cloud and smog, they didn't know exactly where they were. We lived near to downtown and spent quite a few nights, or parts of nights, in the shelter before the nights of the big raids.

 

On the night of the first blitz raid, it was a clear and cold with a wind that moved enough of the usual smog for the bombers to get their bearings.

 

Regards

 

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Sure, there were other raids on Sheffield apart from the big ones, but these were minor attacks & more likely to be some Kraut having a spare bomb or maybe an attempt to test their navigation systems. From childhood memory, or recalling the talk of elders, the first bomb fell on Seniors' works about where the Ponds Forge baths are now. For certain German aircraft did make a different sound...... more of a throb than a constant beat. I'd not heard it was because their engines rotated clockwise & anti clockwise..... we used that system on some multi-engined a/c but that was to minimise the swinging off centre caused by torque when taking off with all engines turning in the same direction. That didn't seem to vary the sound. I always understood that the engines on enemy planes were de-synchronised to confuse the sound detection system which preceded radar. Probably that's an intelligent guess too, but inevitably some one would announce "It's alright! It's one of ours" & then look foolish when the bomb exploded..