cat631 Posted August 12, 2006 Share Posted August 12, 2006 I have an old map of Sheffield reputed to have been removed from a crashed German plane that took part in the Sheffield Blitz. The map is a German version ordnance survey. Does anyone know if any planes or plane did actually crash after the raids? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
eyretile Posted August 12, 2006 Share Posted August 12, 2006 I remember my dad telling me about a bomber that came down near foxhill. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
algy Posted August 13, 2006 Share Posted August 13, 2006 There are no records of any aircraft crashing or being brought down in either of the 2 attacks on Sheffield. The Local Studies Library has an original German target map prepared for the raids on Sheffield marking out the intended targets for the bombers, but it was donated by a member of the public whose relative had picked it up in Germany at the end of the war. Could your map have come from a similar source perhaps? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Falls Posted August 13, 2006 Share Posted August 13, 2006 Hi, At the time of the blitz, we lived on a street off the Wicker. On the Saturday morning following the first raid , my Father took me to see some of the damage in town. We only got as far as the top of Haymarket before being stopped by the police. Fitzallan Square was a terrible mess but there was a piece of metal debris that caught my attention. It was on the south side of the square in front of the Electra cinema ( later the News Theatre) One end was on the ground and the other end was on the roof of the old stone tram shelter that used to be there. Was it part of a German plane, such as a wing section? I don't know. It was metal, slender and a mid grey colour. It could have been part of the metal roof or siding from a building that was carried into the square by the blast from some bomb. One thing I do know is that it had a smooth surface, not corrugated like most of the roof and wall sheeting at that time. Regards Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
buck Posted August 13, 2006 Share Posted August 13, 2006 There were lots of rumours around at the time of the two blitzes about crashed german airplanes. None of them ever materialized. The only german aircraft I saw on the ground at the time was a captured Messerschmidt 109 on display in Fitzalan Square. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
peterw Posted August 13, 2006 Share Posted August 13, 2006 Shooting down enemy aircraft was a sore point during the two blitz nights. The city was surrounded by anti-aircraft guns — but the gunners were prevented from shooting because our own fighters were in the skies about them. The pilots didn’t shoot anything down, and the anti-aircraft gunners were peeved because they reckoned they could have brought down quite a few. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Plain Talker Posted August 13, 2006 Share Posted August 13, 2006 Hi, At the time of the blitz, we lived on a street off the Wicker. On the Saturday morning following the first raid , my Father took me to see some of the damage in town. We only got as far as the top of Haymarket before being stopped by the police. Fitzallan Square was a terrible mess but there was a piece of metal debris that caught my attention. It was on the south side of the square in front of the Electra cinema ( later the News Theatre) One end was on the ground and the other end was on the roof of the old stone tram shelter that used to be there. Was it part of a German plane, such as a wing section? I don't know. It was metal, slender and a mid grey colour. It could have been part of the metal roof or siding from a building that was carried into the square by the blast from some bomb. One thing I do know is that it had a smooth surface, not corrugated like most of the roof and wall sheeting at that time. Regards it may have been a piece of tram roof, as there was a helluva lot of damage to trams and buildings in that area at that time. PT Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cat631 Posted August 13, 2006 Author Share Posted August 13, 2006 Hello everyone and many thanks for your replies. Ive had another good look at the map and come to the conclusion that its a British Ordnance Survey Map, printed for the German market. The magnetic north is dated 1938. One of the previous owners on seeing the German writing may have thought up the blitz story and it stuck. I must admit, I wish it was true. Can anyone cast any light on the plane crash mentioned by Eyretile? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Falls Posted August 13, 2006 Share Posted August 13, 2006 it may have been a piece of tram roof, as there was a helluva lot of damage to trams and buildings in that area at that time. PT Hi, This is a very good suggestion. I don't recall any trams in the square itself; however, there were half a dozen tram wrecks along the main line, between the C&A building and the Marples Hotel. You will remember that both these buildings had been totally destroyed in the bombing. May be it was the roof from one of these wrecks. Regards Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Plain Talker Posted August 14, 2006 Share Posted August 14, 2006 Hi, This is a very good suggestion. I don't recall any trams in the square itself; however, there were half a dozen tram wrecks along the main line, between the C&A building and the Marples Hotel. You will remember that both these buildings had been totally destroyed in the bombing. May be it was the roof from one of these wrecks. Regards point taken, but the blast may well have blown the tram roof that far...? (dependent, of course, on the position of the bombs/ explosions, relative to the tram roof in question... it could have been blown off by one blast, then carried along the road by a second or subsequent blasts..) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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