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The Blitz

Hi All,

Some years ago my wife and I wre enjoying a cruise. Main meals you had your own seat but lunch it was sit anywhere. We were at a table when we joined by a group of Germans. They jabbered away in Deutsch for a few minutes then the chap next to me asked "Are you Englander?! I confessed that I was and he said "Which town?" I replied "Birmingham" He then broke into a broad smile, thumped the table and said, "Boom,boom,boom. I bomber Birmingham" I know that he was only having a bit of fun but I was not best pleased as I had been bombed out. I hoped that my brother had bombered his town whilst in the RAF.

Old Boy
 
In the 1960s I flew to Nürnberg in a Lufthansa 737 and over Germany the aircraft started to weave from side to side. My english colleague made a rather loud remark about the ability of german pilots, and an elderly german gent sitting next to us smiled and said the pilot was probably dodging Spitfires. We found out later that the pilot was avoiding severe thunderstorms.
 
The bloke who was bragging about bombing Birmingham, Old Boy, just proves that even in old age a person can still be two bricks short of a barbecue. Sad in a way but true. Regards, David.
 
I remember the bombing of Birmingam - I was eight years. We had a bomb [oil bomb] enter the front window and split open on my mother settee. We were evacuated but never returned to that house. Next door to us was raised to the ground and there was a death of a young f ire man. It was very frightening. Miriam.
 
On the 17th September 70 years ago the wartime Blackout ended to be replaced by a 'Dim-out'. I vaguely remember the electric street lights in our road had light bulbs which were painted black with just a little small clear area allowing a very dim light to illuminate the pavement.
 
Hi old mowhawk
I can only recall the gas mantles and the guy on his bike riding around the. Courts and snuffing out the gas mantles
And we had electric installed in our house we was amazed and we as the kids kept flicking the electric switch on and off
The old man and lady went bar my at us to leave it alone we dashed down to white house street and told nan about our gas mantle removal
And having an electric she got her. Done about six months later best wishes Alan,, astonian,,,,,
 
In the early part of the war they painted the road kerbs black and white to help drivers during the black out. Only existing forum pic I could find with black and white kerbs is shown below. See them on the corner of Goodway Rd by the Nursery. I've seen other pics on the forum showing similarly painted kerbs. I wonder whether they were useful to drivers - maybe completely white painted kerbs would have been better.
Kingstanding_Rd.jpg
 
Hi mowhawk
The reason they was painted was because they was made of steel my uncle bill smart was on the corporation at the time
When he was young and after they was all
Singer they made him redundant best wishes astonian,,,,,
 
The blitz
The first enemy raid on Birmingham occurred on the night of August 8/9 1940 when a lone bomber, probably unsuccessfully searching
For fort Dunlop or the castle Bromwich aeroplane factory released its bombs over suburban erdington. Before heading home
The First attack was followed. For nearly three weeks. By a series of small raids again concentrating. On Targets on the east side of
The city
However ,on the night of 25/26 August 1940 The bombers changed their tactics and raided the city centre
Destroying the market hall and causing , twenty five civilian casual tries
This followed by another Attack on the city centre and then a respite of a month on the afternoon of 27 September 1940
The Luftwaffe began a series of day time raids against industrial targets
Fortdunlop was Attacked And a 1,000 kg bomb caused considerable damage but no casualties
On 13 the November the Austin aero factory was Attacked in day light with the loss of six lives and twenty six injured
Mean while Sporadic night Attacks Took place in September and October
During August 1940 a lot of back gardens and Anderson shelters was flattened and damaged in old know road small heath
Astonian,,,,,,
 
I'm slightly too young to remember the Blitz but I do know that several bombs during the war fell on Sarehole Road, Hall Green. My parents always said that the Germans had been trying to bomb the Aldis Factory at 109-139 Sarehole Road. Aldis was particularly associated with the manufacture of the Aldis Lamp, a signalling lamp used to send morse codes. They also made optical lenses. After the war they concentrated on making slide projectors. The Aldis Factory has long disappeared but there is now a small residential estate called Aldis Close, just off Sarehole Road. Dave
 
Hi farmer Dave
The Germans must have had some intelligence on that factory to bomb it considering it,s way off the city of brum knowing the area
And considering how they misjudged Coventry for Birmingham
Still its nice to hear it was named after the factory and not some .word mayor as they used to in those days
The factory done us all proud best wishes astonian,,,,,,,,
 
I think that through all the damage and terrible loss of life a great deal of humour shone through it all. That's a reason why the British are British if you see what I mean.
My Aunt and Uncle were bombed out of their home in Aston and came to live with my parents in Deykin Ave until they could find a new house. A month or two later they found a property in Electric Ave almost opposite the GEC.
Before they were called up, my Father and Uncle were employed at GEC repairing bomb damage and were also in the Home Guard there.

Anyway, before they moved in, my Uncle "found" some wallpaper from somewhere and while their ladies were at the house in Deykin, my Father and Uncle started to paper the downstairs rooms at the house in Electric Ave in the evenings after work. Of course, off went the air raid sirens and the pair dashed around the corner to be with the ladies. After the all clear, back they went to Electric Ave to continue with the decorating. What would have normally taken them a couple of evenings took them nearly a month, but they became pretty fit dashing backwards and forwards around the corner !
 
A lovely photograph. Vehicles, mainly official, also had their wheel arches painted white. The street lights shown would not be working in those days. Car headlights were covered and were of little use for seeing the road. We often had to carried a torch at night. I note that the trees are also painted white on the trunk area, and the lampposts are painted white around the base, also the bus stops. All of this would be to assist both motorists and pedestrians at night.

I note that in the centre reservation of the photo there is a "SHELTER" sign. Could the shelter be on the central where the white blocks are? The area is raised, and certainly looks as if it has been recently turned over. Eddie
 
christopher short said:
I think that through all the damage and terrible loss of life a great deal of humour shone through it all. That's a reason why the British are British if you see what I mean.

Britishness is slowly being eroded. We are now, whether we like it or not, a multicultural society, as are most European countries. Sad in my opinion.
Click to expand...
 
My mom and her parents were bombed out of their home in Brookvale Park Road during the war.It was said that the house was on the approach run towards Kynoch munitions works .I have not seen any other reports of the attack.




Dr
 
I think it was a matter of luck, or rather bad luck if your house was damaged or destroyed. Bomb aiming was rather hit or miss early in the war, we lived in Cranmore Boulevard, Shirley during the war which you would think was a safe place, yet a bomb landed opposite us on a house in Clinton Road, destroying the house and the blast damaging houses around us including ours, also flattened our chicken coop and killed all our chickens which my sisters and I were more upset about than the house damage, I think this was November 1940, I was 10. Yet my Gran and Grandad who lived in Queens Rd Aston had a land mine at the bottom of the road but no damage to their house at all (they were in Atkinsons Brewery shelter at the time. Eric
 
Hi All,

You are right, of course, Eric. During the war both the Luftwaffe and the Allies used area bombing tactics. That is they attacked heavily industrialised areas without a specific target in mind. The equipment the had would not allow the precision attacks that we hear of today.

As a matter of interest mkvillan my wife lived in Brookvale Park Road and may have known your parents. what were their names? My wife was Winifred White.

Chris Beresford.
 
You have to wonder why, when bombers used to drop their payload in `sticks` (i think) why there was sometimes a solitary house in a street that got hit, as was the case where i lived, Doidge road in Erdington. Surely they didn`t drop just one bomb. Maybe one got stuck after the main load was dropped & the bomb aimer had to kick it out!!
 
mkvillan said:
My mom and her parents were bombed out of their home in Brookvale Park Road during the war.It was said that the house was on the approach run towards Kynoch munitions works .I have not seen any other reports of the attack.Dr
Click to expand...


This is a description of just one of the attacks on Kynoch. The management had been instructed to keep the factories working twenty-four hours a day, and to ignore air raid warnings unless the site - a prime target for the Luftwaffe - was directly threatened. Only then could the thousands of workers be sent to their shelters.

To ascertain whether the works was in immediate danger was a matter of skill and judgement. This task was entrusted to Michael Clapham (later Sir Michael, and a Chairman of the Company), then in charge of the Kynoch Press, who operated from a tower at the top of the Research Department. He describes the first raid when the threat was direct:

I catch the throb of an isolated plane well east of the main attack. Ten seconds later I'm reporting to control that it is pretty near our line. Another twenty seconds and I've got the line exactly. 'Tower to Control. This one's right on line. I'm putting them down.' I press the button as I speak, and hear the klaxon blaring in the nearby factories as people drop their work and troop to the shelters. 'Control. The line of approach is east of the strip mill, about Holdford Road gate. And it's pretty near direct for here.' This is the gut-twisting moment of an attack: have I given them time enough? If I don't hear a bomb whistling down in the fifty-five seconds after I have pressed the button, everybody will have had a full minute to get to shelter before the explosion; and a minute is enough - on rehearsals. It was an immense relief when Longmore (in charge of the control centre) called up: 'Tower. Sixty seconds gone.' Ten seconds later I heard the familiar whine. 'Control. Bombs away.' But now there was a novel worry: for the first time in all our raids, the bombing line passed straight through me. One bomb exploded just outside our Holdford Road gate, then another. Then a menacing silence as the third was due...​

Between 1940 and 1943, Kynoch Works received forty-seven high explosive bombs and over four thousand incendiaries. Yet only two people were killed (in both cases because they did not follow the correct procedures) and the disruption to manufacturing was kept to a minimum.

(Source: a Kynoch history)

Chris
 
mkvillan said:
My grandparents were Ted and Florence Cookes who lived at 141 I think.
Click to expand...

Hi,

My wife remembers your geandparents. They had a daughter Mary who married David Woodhead who lived in George Road. Are these your parents?

Chris Bersford (Old Boy)
 
I often look at photos of houses which were bombed during WW2 and wonder if the people living in them today know ...

Pic 1 ... Some nice houses in Wheelers Lane Kings Heath. (the blue star is over No 100)
Pic1WheelersLanenow2.jpg

Pic 2 ... November 1940.
On the night of the 22nd, air raid sirens sounded at 6.41pm and by 7.20pm bombs were dropping indiscriminately across the city. Wheelers Lane in Kings Heath was unlucky and took direct hits damaging houses as shown and tragically some people were killed and others injured. Most people were probably in their garden shelters.
Pic2WheelersLane1940.jpg
shoothill

Pic 3 ... A 1950 aerial View of Wheelers Lane, 9 years after the bombing and all damage repaired.
Pic3WheelersLane1950.jpg
Information about the deaths and injuries in Wheelers Lane during that night can be seen on the website
https://database.birminghamairraids.co.uk/
 
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My husbands home was hit by an incendary bomb, it went straight through the bathroom on the corner of the upstairs, a bit of luck really or the house would have been on fire. It was in Amberley Grove in Witton. The people who own the house now will have no idea. What was part of our lives is now a bit of history to young people of today.
 
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