Sheffield in 1939

[halevan]

I was a young boy in this great city during the blitz, one on Sunday night and one on the thursday, we were terrified, sat in our anderson shelter in the garden on the manor Estate.

 

I stocked it with chocolate and drinks after building a blast wall across the entrance to protect us. I built it by fetching grass sods from a mile away with a one handled barrow that we had at the time. We had four bunk beds in the shelter, two at either side with bedding for if we had to sleep in there.

 

When an air raid was on, the silence in our shelter was deafening, as one never knew if one might get a direct hit and that would have been the end for us. There were five in our family, as my father had died and my eldest brother was in the R.A.F.

 

One night during the air raid, we got a peice of shrapnel in our house wall as big as a dinner plate, if anyone had been standing there they would have been cut in half. During one night when the German bombers came over, dozens of revellers were killed in the old Marples public house in Fitzalan Square when it received a direct hit.

 

Looking back to that period in my life, I shudder to think what could have happened to us in those dark days. Two things I particularly remember, was, when the sirens sounded the warning of enemy planes approaching, it filled us with dread and the other when it was all over, the all clear and we were so relieved.

[Moon Maiden]

Something you could perhaps clarify or not Halevan??

 

My grandad was a courier during WWII. I thought it very cool at the time he told me as he had to ride a Harley.

Anyway, he told me about the time when he went through Sheffield city centre and the authorities were filling in the shelters with the people who had died still in them.

 

Now I figure that in common sense terms, it may have been futile given the circumstances and too dangerous to continue rescuing the bodies. But it shocked me at the time and obvisouly my grandad as I think he was a teenager at the time.

 

My nannan was a staff nurse in a Halifax hospital and remember Italian prisoners of war being treated there. "they knew little English but they swore and cussed well".

Like ciggarettes and young pretty nurses apparently.

 

Moon Maiden

[halevan]

Hi Moon Maiden,

I was very young at the time and my dear Mother was most protective of us all, particularley me as the youngest. so, I wasn't allowed to go very far as she was afraid that something might happen to me.

 

Consequently, in those days I never got to town but my elder brother and my brother in law, told us about seeing the devastation in the city centre when they went to work.

 

The wreckage of the buses and tramcars lying all over the streets, heaps of debris so that no traffic could get through, pieces of bodies in the streets, buildings totaly flattened

 

One man was standing at the door of his house and the blast from a bomb sheared his body from his legs just like a knife. We didn't know when the next strike would be so my Aunty who lived at Bradwell in Derbyshire came over to fetch us to live with her for a few weeks, where it was a lot safer.

[oldtimer]

Although I was born in 1939, my memories of the war include sitting in the air-raid shelter in the back garden, singing!!I was only a few years old, but I do remember seeing planes caught in the searchlights.

Here is a questiuon for any of you who know (or remember) the Manor estate. I had an uncle and aunt who lived on Stanground Road. We got off the tram at Ravencar road, then turned onto Stanground Road. There was one street we crossed, then the house was five or six on the right hand side. At the end of Stanground Road was, I think, Hastilar road. It went up the hill to Prince of Wales road, or down to a large pub, The Springvale, I think.

I have looked at a couple of 'on-line' maps, but don't seem to be able to see any streets in that area. Are the houses all demolished?

[upholder]

As you drive down the Wicker heading out of town going under the bridge, if you look up and to the left you can see a large repair.

I was told that this was caused by a german bomb dropped during the blitz, it didn't go off but looking at the size of the repair it made quite a hole.

 

There is a mention of it here,

 

http://www.burngreavemessenger.org.uk/32june03/wicker.htm

 

 

[Michael_W]

Here is an interesting link I found regarding the Marples bombing -

Death at the Marples

[BigD]

I hope that I get this right. I have memories about the war, most vividly about going outside our house at night to look up at the German bombers coming over to bomb Sheffield (we lived at Kiveton Park). One time, I had to be put through the pantry window to let us in as the sneck(is that a building term, or not?)

Five bombs were dropped on the village or around it, but none went off so we were lucky.

But my question is this - could I have remembered this happening, as I was only four when the war ended? Or, is me 'memory' actually of things I was told happened later in life?

[max]

Originally posted by BigD

But my question is this - could I have remembered this happening, as I was only four when the war ended? Or, is me 'memory' actually of things I was told happened later in life?

 

I think this one has puzzled philosophers and scientists alike for many years. I have memories of when I was 3, sitting on a swing in Singapore surrounded by wild pigs which had come into the garden from the surrounding forest. My (older) sisters are divided on this, one saying I must have dreamt it and the others saying it actually happened because my mother told them about it. Is it my memory or my family's? My recollections of my early years are divided between old cine film, memory and family discussion but they all seem 'real' to me.

[gales]

Hi I was born in Kiveton park 1937. I remember the war vividly. We used to listen for the doodle bugs whistling over, and watch the lights in the sky over sheffield. Can you remember the incendiary bomb dropping on Kiveton Pit yard.? My grandfather was in the homeguard, Sundays they would all meet in the back room of his brothers pub the Leeds Arms, opposite Wales Church. Their excuse to play a game of cards. I left kiveton 4o years ago but do go back occasionally. not like it used to be.

[Strix]

After lengthy discussion with my mum about first memories (of mine and my 3 siblings) we concluded that your first memory is always something which was traumatic at the time.

 

I was about 18 months when I had mine. It's actually a still picture, of the pictures on the wall of our stairs in the house we left shortly afterwards. I was half asleep, being carried by my dad, and I opened my eyes and saw the pics. The truama was that I didn't expect to see them there, as I thought I was somewhere else.

 

My little brother's first memory is a taxi ride. Again before he was two. On analysis, he was travelling with my gran to see our new brother in hospital who'd just been born. He had never been away from Mum before, and had never been in a taxi before.

 

In conclusion - pigs invading your garden is traumatic enough at that age for it to be a genuine memory, Max