Thanks Moss, you are welcome. What a nice bunch you are. I have been researching Brum History for yonks and only found this site from my Uncle Les Hutton last night. The Richmond bomb that killed the family at 76 Richmond Rd a year before I was born, also inadvertantly provided a unique playground for us local kids. One bomb also fell smack in the middle of the Bowling Green next door, and when the crater filled with rainwater as the years passed, it allowed us kids to play Pirates using knocked down fence panels as Rafts. Health & Safety..? Go figure.
I also found a link to the Air Raid site from lencops in another thread, and found the details and date of the tragedy, which had singularly evaded me all this time. What a find!
And talk about coincidence, happenstance and serendippity - the same Les Hutton, several years before marrying my Aunt Betty, was one of the first on the scene when the bomb dropped. He told me this tale only yesterday!
Yes I remember the Richmond House and the dead girl as if it were yesterday, Harry and I were returning from a night out. Starting from the Nottingham Herb Beer shop in Digbeth where we had a herb beer or two then a call at the Fish & Chip shop by the blues ground, then more chips from the fish shop by Victoria St, then more chips opposite the Era Picture house, then more chips at the Broadway shops then last of all our last chips for the night at the Stechford Tram sheds, We in those days considered that to be a good night out. We used to walk about during the raids as long as they were not too bad. We had eaten our chips when we heard the blast that hit the Richmond Rd house. Harry and I had our Gas masks and steel helmets, We always carried them whenever we went out to be on the safe side. We were just behold the old Tram sheds when the bomb hit the house, so harry and I dashed around and found the house surrounded in dust, the front of the house was blown apart and we both searched for the occupants . There was a Settee in the front room which was turned over, and harry lifted it up and found the body of a young girl underneath it dead, The girl looked around 12 to me.
https://forum.birminghamhistory.co.uk/images/attach/jpg.gif
https://forum.birminghamhistory.co.uk/images/attach/jpg.gif