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The Blitz

Thanks for that Stitcher, now I feel better. Is Acocks Green just up from Witton cemetary? I f it is there was a single house bombed on the road running from Aston passed the cemetary towards Kingstanding. If my mind map is wrong delete all reference to everything and get me put away. Regards, David.
 
No David, Acocks Green is on the Solihll side of Birmingham. Although there is/was evidence of a gerry fighter plane strafing a few houses on the border of A. Green and Olton, the only bomb damage very close to us was in the next road about 500 yards away from our shelter.
 
Thanks for that, Stitcher, see what fifty years living in Australia does for you? Mind you, I can still hear those bombs falling and telling my younger sister there was nothing to worry about but at the same time terrified at what was going to happen. Regards, David.
 
Your friend Gordon wasn't called Johnson or Jenkins by any chance was he?
 
Just as a matter of interest my mother was named Alice Jenkins, married dad Charles Weaver both of Aston.
David Weaver said:
Thanks for that, Stitcher, see what fifty years living in Australia does for you? Mind you, I can still hear those bombs falling and telling my younger sister there was nothing to worry about but at the same time terrified at what was going to happen. Regards, David.
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Did any of you watch the programme last night channel 4 Londons Firestorm it was very good, 29th December 1940,
 
I didn't see the programme Elizabeth as I'm in Australia, but I remember seeing the red glow when Coventry was burned. I was standing with my father in a place called Alrewas, the other side of Litchfield, and the fires could be seen in the night sky.
Elizabeth Redmond said:
Did any of you watch the programme last night channel 4 Londons Firestorm it was very good, 29th December 1940,
Click to expand...
 
Hello David,just looking at what i posted (it was good) probably could have worded that better,i meant interesting,to somebody who has heard about the war but never actually witnessed it,it was very moving there was a real sense of comradeship with the people,
 
Re: Film The Blitz

Photo of damage caused by a parachute mine in Lily Rd, Yardley, many dead & injured on the same night that Coventry was bombed it may have been dropped by mistake. Len.
 
David Weaver said:
..... I remember seeing the red glow when Coventry was burned. ........ and the fires could be seen in the night sky.
Click to expand...

A couple of other eye witness comments about that night:

A young boy from the Parson & Clerk area of Streetly:
"Dad took me onto the roof of our air raid shelter on one of the nights, the night that Coventry was bombed; it was something I had to see, he said. We lived well over 20 miles away and I remember clearly the sky being bright red from the flames......"​
And an 18-year-old Home Guard (my brother) a short distance away in Little Aston:
"....As August gave way to September, the night-time raids by enemy aircraft became a regular feature, becoming more intense with the advent of the shorter days. I remember a turn of guard duty on the night of 14th November, when the lurid red glow in the sky, coming from the direction of Coventry, made a lasting impression. The night raids continued throughout the winter and spring of 1941....."​
Chris
 
Does anyone remember a raid on Park Lane, Aston during the Blitz ?
I remember as a boy of 4 when we came out of the area because of a direct
hit on a shelter in the same street .
I think my father was afraid for the family that he packed all his bags in the car and
then we were transported to Tamworth.
I do remember this clearly because the family tried in vain to get the family cat in the car.
Infortunately we had no luck the cat would not go try as we may.

Roy :cry:
 
Hello Roy. I remember we lost our cat [millie] during the raid on Birmingham - never had a cat since. Off thread I have family with the name Allsopp. Miriam.
 
Elizabeth Redmond said:
Did any of you watch the programme last night channel 4 Londons Firestorm it was very good, 29th December 1940,
Click to expand...
There is another programme on channel 4 at 9pm on Monday 19th,the last one was very interesting,it is called Blitz Street
 
Does anybody know of a POW camp,somewhere on Bristol Road Birmingham,i'm not sure i have posted this in the right place,apologies if i haven't.
 
Elizabeth Redmond said:
Does anybody know of a POW camp,somewhere on Bristol Road Birmingham,i'm not sure i have posted this in the right place,apologies if i haven't.
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Elizabeth - Why do you ask? Bristol Road from the City centre to the City Boundary is almost completely built up and there would have been no room for a POW camp. Also such camps tended to be built away from residential property for fairly obvious reasons.

Old Boy
 
Old Boy said:
Elizabeth - Why do you ask? Bristol Road from the City centre to the City Boundary is almost completely built up and there would have been no room for a POW camp. Also such camps tended to be built away from residential property for fairly obvious reasons.

Old Boy
Click to expand...
Hello i was chatting to somebody and they said their Aunt had told them,they wondered if it could have been near the Lickey Hills
 
Chris and Elizabeth,
I remember German P.O.W.s working in Aston Park ( we made their lives hell ),I thought they were billeted at Villa park,There were some British infantry there.
 
So its possible that they could have been near Bristol Rd,there was a lot of farmland around that area i believe in the 40s
 
I don't think a camp in the Bristol Road appears on any of the POW camp lists. But I imagine there must have been many sub-camps, especially after the end of hostilities, and so there could have been something in the area. I remember a large gang of POWs hacking away the compacted ice on the Chester Road (A452) in Streetly during the winter of 1947. They must have slept somewhere and almost certainly not in a major camp surrounded by barbed wire, miles away.

Bristol Road certainly is and was very built-up, as Old Boy points out But surprising things happened at that time, even in crowded areas. An old church in Bristol Street and a great swathe of streets and buildings adjoining it, was the home of the Home Guard Street Fighting School which trained blokes from all over the country up to 1944. Information and images here.

Chris
 
Thank you Chris i lived in that area after the war,very interesting though to read about,
 
Hi Elizabeth
Could you be thinking of the American camp on the Bristol Road at Edgbaston - near Eastern Road. I always thought their wooden huts looked like a prison camp when i rode by on the tram.
 
Hello Snoker i don't remember any of it, just somebody i know said they had an aunt who told her it was near the Lickey Hills
 
I have read through this thread a few times, I can't say I have enjoyed it as it just seems the wrong word to use but its been a real eye opener!!
I have shown my parents some of the pics. My Grandparents lived in Hockley and my Dad would've been 2 years old when the worst night hit brum, i'd love to ask them what they did and what it was all like and when I told my Dad this he laughed and said my Grandad would love the opportunity to brag and exagerate to the extreme what happened, and said I would probably believe every word he said!! lol
But anyway, thanks for this thread =)
 
Some of the camps used by the army became vacant when the troops left for D Day and more became available when the war ended. Some were used to house Displaced Persons, some were taken over by Squatters who had been living in bad housing. I think it reasonable that POWs would use some of this excess accommodation. Many were used to clean up war damaged areas and there are very few reports of them causing any problems. In fact far from it. It would appear there was less friction between the British and German POWs than the American forces. But the Germans were not out on the town attracting the womenfolk. My Dad for a time was guarding Italian POWs in the Cannock area. The camp had more holes than a piece of Swiss cheese. Dad said that it was common for a prisoner or three to shout the morning guard to let them in for breakfast. Where they went I will leave it to your Imagination.When he had to guard German prisoners things were much different, you never knew if you could trust them. But this was early in the war when Germany was still in with a chance.Later he was transferred to the Royal Engineers and had little to do with enemy troops.

Just remembered this site which gives the names and locations of POW Camps in the UK

https://www.kg6gb.org/prisoner_of_war_mail.htm
 
Hello Arkrite,i seem to remember a film about prisoners of war sneaking out at night,and meeting with the local girls,it was fiction
but i think loosely based on reality,thank you for the link.
 
Liz,
Are you thinking of the film,"The Password Is Courage" with Dirk Bogard,he played the part of a real person,Sgt.Maj.Coward,who's exploits were legendary.He didn't sneak out though,he was far more brazen,on one occasion he drove a fire engine to freedom,another time he pretended to be a wounded german soldier,and was awarded the Iron Cross while in hospital,he did eventually make a succesfull escape,after several failed attempts.:):):).
 
Hello Ray no it was German prisoners of war, and the young man was sent to work on a farm,he made friends with the farmers daughter which you can imagine didn't go down well,they fell in love, in spite of all the prejudice,and he used to get through a hole in a fence and go and meet her.And they got married and lived happily ever after,it was a nice film
 
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