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Bombing Brum

Welcome to the Forum, LooneyLin, and thanks for an interesting first contribution.

Chris
 
Hi Loonylin and welcome to the forum.
I bet your brother in law has some great stories to tell, you will find more like his all over the site, some under the headings like this one and some under street names.
Hope you enjoy the forum.
Sue
 
In discussion with my Dad yesterday he said he had a job as a kid as a messenger during the Blitz for a photographic company on New Street near the Corner of Corporation Street towards where the Brittania Hotel is now located. He lost his job when the place got bombed and i don't think they opened again, apparently they still owe him five Bob Wages which he never received:sorrow:.
Can anyone help him with the name of the photographers as it eludes him, they were some kind of Architectural concern and not portraits etc,
Thank's.
 
Lining up to Bomb Brum.
Which direction did the Bombers come from?
I have many times wondered about which direction(s) the German bombers took as they made their ' bombing runs ' to attack targets in Birmingham. I'm sure the raiders where ' briefed ' prior to the raids on the direction they should take in order to make their bombing runs.
Did they come in for their ' runs' over favoured outlying Birmingham district landmarks? In which case what landmarks might they have been?
What directions did they they come in from?
Anyone got any views or information on this?
 
Only just found this thread after all these years! And what a useful site is the swanshurst/Barra. In the early 1940s we moved from Aston to a bomb-damaged house in Knowle Road, Sparkhill. Five houses next to ours (number 215) had been demolished by a bomb, but we never knew the details. At some time in the 1960s, long after we'd left, the terraced houses were rebuilt. Here's the details from the Barra site:-

KnowleRoadCasualties.jpg

Maurice
 
Lining up to Bomb Brum. Which direction did the Bombers come from?
In the 1940/1941 raids the Luftwaffe generally followed the Knickerbein and 'X' Gerate beams so they came from south-easterly / easterly directions
In a raid on Birmingham on 19th November 1940 (5 days after Coventry) the 'X' Gerate beam was again used but our 'boffins' managed to jam it and the German bombing accuracy was poor, probably why 'jerry' managed to drop one on our house in Great Barr - you remember things like that !

There is another thread The Blitz click/here where most of my 'wartime' memories are posted.
oldmohawk
 
A bit more searching, this time on the Acocks Green site, and I discovered that the sirens went at 8:00pm and the all-clear at 11:30pm, and in the same raid, 20 people lost their lives when a bomb went through the roof of the Carlton Cinema in Taunton Road, Sparkbrook and exploded in the stalls. Ironically they were watching the Dorothy Lamour film "Typhoon" at the time.

Maurice
 
Talking to an old chap in Bewdley museum, he said that Bewdley had air raid shelter because the Luftwaffe would follow the river Severn, counting the bridges to Bewdley. they would then turn right and head for the industrial areas of Birmingham.
 
Lining up to Bomb Brum.
Which direction did the Bombers come from?.........I have many times wondered about which direction(s) the German bombers took as they made their ' bombing runs ' to attack targets in Birmingham.......Anyone got any views or information on this?

One Luftwaffe bomber pilot broadcast about his experiences of bombing Birmingham, Roy, but as it was right in the middle of the campaign he didn't reveal a lot! Quite interesting to read though; I have transcribed it here.

(Apologies if I've previously posted this link elsewhere).

Chris
 
ChrisM, that was very interesting, had not read that article before. I was aged 10 and 11 in 1940/1941 and we had just moved to Shirley (Cranmore Boulevard) from Sheldon and at night we could see the glow over Birmingham during the air raids. We felt for the people in Brum including our Gran and Grandad in Queens Rd Aston who refused to come and stay with us. Turned out to be a wise decision as a stray bomb fell on a house opposite us in Clinton Road completely destroying the house and the blast damaged our house and for the next 3 weeks we lived in a romany caravan at a farm in Earlswood whilst repairs were made to make our house habitable again mainly windows and roof damage. My sisters and I thought it was a great adventure, my parents no doubt thought different. Eric
 
it's been interesting to read the Forum members comments regarding which direction(s) the German bomber aircraft took
as they started their bombing runs on Brum.
 
I know as a kid living in Kingstanding I always thought that at least one of the regular bombing runs started from the North of Kingstanding and carried on into Aston and the City Centre. Just listening to the sound of the approaching aircraft gave me this impression.
 
A gentleman by the name of Mr. M. J. Butler who lived near The Parson & Clerk made a fascinating contribution to the BBC People's War Archive which included this passage:

"....When being taken to the shelter I remember the engine noise of the German bombers - quite different from those we would hear later when the RAF Wellingtons and Lancasters flew over on their way to Germany. We lived opposite Sutton Park and remember being told that, on moonlit nights, the German bombers could take a 'fix' from the pools in Sutton Park to reach their target, down Chester Road to the Spitfire factory. Am I right in believing that some of these pools were drained in an attempt to foil the bombers? It may have worked as we had both incendiaries and high explosives land just inside the Park with the 'Parson and Clerk' pub across the road from us losing their windows one night."

The whole memoir is very well worth reading and can be seen here: https://www.bbc.co.uk/history/ww2peopleswar/stories/73/a7271273.shtml

Chris
 
That's an interesting piece Chris. The included ' Link' by Mr Butler is very interesting.
Many people who heard the ' raiders ' approaching would make comment about the unusual noise made by the incoming bombers. I remember the sound as an ' on-off ' throbbing. Never found out why they produced this sound effect.
 
Roy,

I think it was a case of the Luftwaffe not making it a practice to synchronise an aircraft's engines in flight, i.e. ensuring that both were running at exactly the same rpm. Various opinions as to why this was, including doing away with the need for a flight engineer and helping to avoid detection by some defensive equipment.

Chris
 
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Lining up to Bomb Brum.
Which direction did the Bombers come from?
I have many times wondered about which direction(s) the German bombers took as they made their ' bombing runs ' to attack targets in Birmingham. I'm sure the raiders where ' briefed ' prior to the raids on the direction they should take in order to make their bombing runs.
Did they come in for their ' runs' over favoured outlying Birmingham district landmarks? In which case what landmarks might they have been?
What directions did they they come in from?
Anyone got any views or information on this?
A Birmingham Mail nostalgia page shows a list of dates and general areas of where the bombs fell.
On the 24th April 1943 the last bomb dropped on Birmingham landed in Bordesley Green.
https://www.birminghammail.co.uk/li...gham-in-the-blitz-where-the-bombs-fell-134700
 
OldMohawk:

Wow, and it includes a picture of the Knowle Road bombsite with the back of the Springfield Ballroom (Henry Goodall & His Orchestra) in the background. I've never seen that before and I used to play on that bombsite! Number 215 on the left - the last undamaged house. Thank you.

Maurice

knowle-road-sparkhill-287091716-114444.jpg
 
Has anybody got any info on the night bombings of November 19th 1940 in the Stirchley/Selly Oak area, particularly St Stephens Road? I have hit a brick wall on research. Thanks
 
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