Hi Rod: If you are collecting some information on WW2 as it relates to Aston. I have found this information in a booklet which was handed out at this exhibition called “City of War” which took place in the summer of l985 at the Birmingham Art Gallery and Museum. I took my children to this event. They were eight and five years old at the time.
“LUCAS’S were involved in the making of more than 20,000 Boulton & Paul
Electro-hydraulically operated gun turrets- the entire supply at Great King
Street and Formans Road prior to l941 together with large numbers of hystraulically operated turrets for Lancaster and Wellington bombers. Before the war Lucas
Started making Spitfire wing sub-assemblies for Castle Bromwich and by VE Day produced l2,500 sets”.
ICI METAL GROUP- based primarily at Witton which with the other ammunition factories under it’s control produced a substantial proportion of the country’s ammunition requirements. It’s products covered at least 67 different kinds of cartridge, and ranged in scale from 20mm cartridges to large QF cases, from detanotrs to anti-tank devices. These latter included the PIAT anti-tank mortar an important innovation that was developed at Witton in 1942, and which was produced in association with four hundred forms and subcontractors
This piece from the same booklet gives some information on the
progression of the bombing of Birmingham in WW2. I haven't a scanner
so I copied it so please forgive any spelling errors.
THE BLITZ- Taken from the “City of War” publication issued for the exhibit
At the Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery-Summer l985
Between 8 August 1940 and 23 April, 1943(St. George’s Day) Birmingham experienced a total of seventy-seven enemy raids. Over 2000 people were killed and 3000 seriously injured: 12 houses were damaged- 4000 of them beyond repair and over 1000 shops, offices, factories and public buildings were destroyed.
These bald statistics of the Blitz do little to convey the countless individual tragedies- the death or injury of relatives and friends, the destruction of homes and the horror and fear caused by aerial attack.
The first enemy rain on Birmingham occurred on the night of 8/9 August 1940, when a lone bomber, probably unsuccessfully searching for Fort Dunlop or Castle Bromwich aeroplane factory released its bombs over suburban Erdington before heading for home.
( A friend of mine parent’s lived on Enstone Road where the bomb landed. There is a link on this Erdington site with a photo. This small street is a cul de sac and all the windows were blown out of the houses. My friends Grandma was blown from the front door, down the hall and into the kitchen without any injury, just shaken up)
https://www.geocities.com/goosemoorlane/history.htm)
The first attack was followed for nearly three weeks by a series of small raids, again concentrating on targets in the East 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 casualties. This was followed by another night 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 daytime raids Aimed against industrial targets. Fort Dunlop was attacked, and a 1,000kg. bomb caused considerable damage but no casualties. On 13 November the Austin aero factory was
attacked in daylight with the loss of six lives and twenty-six injured. Meanwhile, sporadic night attacks took place in September and October with the worst raid occurring on the night of 24/25 October. A heavy incendiary raid in the centre of the City caused inumerable fires and many tall buildings, including Marshall & Snelgrove’s store were completely burnt out. In the raid on the following night a single bomb killed nineteen people at the Carlton Cinema, Sparkhill.
Raids on Birmingham in the early part of November were light and infrequent but the struction of the centre of Coventry on the night of l4 November was the first sign that the main weight of the Luftwaffe attack had shifted from London to the Midlands. The apprehension of Birmingham people that their City would be the next target was realised five nights later and on the evening of 19/20 November the City was attacked by a force of 350 bombers. Few parts of the City escaped unscathed that night whilst the civilian casualties were higher than any other raid and 1,353 people were killed or injure. Among the numerous industrial premises damaged that night was the BSA works at Small Heath where the New Building was hit by high-explosive bombs and completely burnt out, killing fifty-three workers buried under tons of rubble and machinery. On the night of 22/23 November Birmingham was attacked by 200 bombers causing 600 serious fires and much loss of life, whilst the destruction of water mains in this raid and the one of 19 November left the City in a perilous position to sustain another attack. However, the Luftwaffe failed to follow up its advantage and on the following night its attack shifted to Southampton. Birmingham was again attacked in force on ¾ December whilst on the night of 11/12 it sustained it’s longest raid of the war lasting over l3 hours. Again the Luftwaffe failed to follow up its success, and switched its attack to the ports. Raids on Birmingham were resumed in March and April 1941 And on the night of 9/10 April the city experienced it’s last really heavy raid of the war. The City was showered with 650 high-explosive bombs and 170 sets of incendiaries by a force of 250 bombers and 1,121 people were killed or injured.
The most significant destruction was wrought on the City Centre, where a fire at the corner of High Street and New Street was soon completely out of control and many buildings were destroyed. Another conflagration destroyed numerous buildings on the east side of the Bull Ring and at the same time the Prince Of Wales Theatre in Broad Street was burnt out.
A few more raids followed in the Spring and early Summer of 1941 and then Birmingham was free of attack until July 1942, when in raids on 28 July and 30 July over nine hundred people were killed or injured mainly because they failed to take shelter. Apart from a single raid in April 1943, the City then remained undisturbed for the rest of the war. Unlike London and the south east, Birmingham escaped the horrors of the V1 and V2 rocket attacks, and in fact became a reception area for “Doodlebug” refugees. But there was no let up for the defenders of the City who had to be on the alert to the end of the war.”