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Gun Sites

bobbyb, Interesting that your Mother came to Brum from Grimsby, on N/S with the Royal Artillery 1947-48, i was stationed in the 92 HAA Reg, at RN Barracks, Immingham Dock near Grimsby, our 5.25in calibre Guns were at Stalinborough, did your Mother ever speak of this?.
 
Hi Len/
Thanks for info and photographs,can your brother recall how many Guns were on the site? I allways went upstairs on the 15 bus from the Yew Tree to town so I could get a view of the guns. also the whole site of the Oaklands was not the Gun site about half the site towards the Coventry Rd was down to allotments I remember it being ploughed up and pegged out,you could only get in from the Coventry rd side.
there were also Two allotments on the left hand side of the drive up to the guardroom,he used to have great rhubarb.
Regards wimbush Ken.
 
Morning wimbush, As an RA ex-gunfitter i can say there would be be four 3.7in calibre Anti-Aircraft static Guns plus Predictors which told the Gunners the hight & Position of the target, these would constitute a Battery, usualy there would be 2 or 3 Batterys in a regiment, the regiment i was in near Grimsby had 3, we don`t seem to have the regiment No that the Battery on Oaklands belonged to. Len.
 
Hi wimbush, Next to the entrance to the Rec was a Methodist? Church/Chapel and the caretaker used the garden to grow veggies etc, the Church has been demolished then there was the Cul-de-Sac with the Post & Mail Sportsground at the end if you carried on walking towards the Swan Island and turned right into the Coventry Rd past Robinsons Chemists/Post Office, past Tonks Bakery shop on past Hemmings the Builders past Vic Kents Shop, next road is Henry Rd at the bottom is the District Schools playing fields, next road is Howard Rd then the Coventry Rd entrance to Oaklands Rec, the Gunsite was fenced off from the Rec. Len.
 
Used to be AA site at Perry Hall playing fields off Perry avenue near where i lived. Most of the houses in the grove had cracked ceilings thanks to the guns. Still probably kept the bombs away.
 
Evening Len/
Thanks for all the info. you must of spent all the war years growing up in Yardley just like me.thanks for jogging the memory about Tonks the bakers great bread there,two more shops in that block were a wool shop and the leather shop was he called Davies? The post and Mail ground was that were the barrage ballon was stationed,next door but one to the Tivolli was a seed and corn merchant.I remember the bombing of about five houses in Lilly road. Len can you recall just after the war a shop opposite the tivolli selling furniture,I used to go down to the County ground with the son from this shop I recall hes name as Morton Sterry.
Regards Wimbush Ken.
 
wimbush, I do remember the furniture shop it was next to Fellows Electrical, he did electric wiring and sold fires, wireless sets (Now called radios) irons, light bulbs etc, on the corner of Gladstone Rd was Wathes, Cattell & Gurdens who sold milk & other dairy products they closed at the start of the war and the shop was used by the Home Guard as their HQ, i don`t think it re-opened after the war. Yes, wimbush i lived in Yardley from birth until 1953.
 
Re my post, page 35, i have been told the Guns on Oaklands Rec were a Battery belonging to 134 Regiment RA, who were given a barrel of beer by Yardley resident after they shot down an enemy bomber?, has to be a question mark, no hard evidence, any memories?. Len.
 
spooner said:
I was born after the war, but we lived in Wembley Grove off Hobmoor Road opposite the park where we used to play. At the bottom end of the park, the corner where Hobmoor Road meets Wash Lane and Deakins(?) Rd, there was a deep hollow we called 'the dell'. We used to play in the dell. Someone told my parents it was a bomb crater where an AA gun had been situated. I wonder whether that was true? The lady

Spooner
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Hi there

Lived in Wash Lane in the 1960s, and what we knew as the dell was
the little park between Bordesley Green East, Blakesley Road, Stuarts Road, and the end of Yardley Green Road, which continued through the park as a footpath. I believe ther were Barrage Balloons on the 'Bordesley
Green East ' half of the park, and there were certainly guns on that side, as i remember finding many anti aircraft ordnance components on the site

Kind regards

Dave
 
Have been reading past messages with interest but unfortunately no-one has mentioned the Home Guard in and around Bartley Green. Does anyone have any information, or where I can obtain, on the Home Guard at Stonehouse Lane and Genners Lane.

Maureen
 
Maureen,

Tracing the history of local Home Guard units, and their members, is difficult and more often than not boils down to sheer luck. One has to give luck a helping hand and this is what you are doing by asking the question here.

Most of the official records of the Home Guard have been lost; a small amount of material (relative to the original huge volume) has been published; some is in the hands of libraries and so is accessible if you can find out who holds what; and the rest is either in the hands of private individuals who collect such material and often keep it squirelled away or is in a box with other family records in someone's loft where it lies forgotten.

I believe you are trying to trace units rather than individuals but there is some information here which is partly relevant to units: https://www.staffshomeguard.co.uk/J9GeneralInformationSearchingforMembers.htm It might give you a few ideas. (There is also some Birmingham HG information on other pages but nothing as yet about Bartley Green).

Do let us know if you make progress.

Chris
 
lencops said:
Regarding whether one of the Guns on Oaklands Rec was hit by a bomb, my Brother has told me it was`nt one of the Guns that was hit by a bomb but one of the Gunners huts they lived by the entrance to the Rec in Church Rd and sadly several died in the hut who were off duty at the time.
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As you see my Brother confirms this info so no Gun emplacement was bombed. Len.
 
Many thanks Chris for your help. Staffs site is brilliant but was unable to leave a message as the 'underlined' numbers (to avoid spam) weren't there! Armed with all the new info., I will see what we can find. Hopefully when people get to hear of our interest they will come forward with some details. Will keep site informed.

Regards
Maureen
 
Local History said:
unable to leave a message as the 'underlined' numbers (to avoid spam) weren't there!
Click to expand...

Thanks v. much for pointing that out, Maureen - you are quite right! I'll try and get it corrected.

Chris

PS Seems OK now - probably a temporary server fault. Have another go, if you would.
 
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Hi Chris,

I followed your home guard link, from post 43, to see if I could find any photos of my husband's dad. When he was in the home guard, he was living in Yardley, but we don't know which unit he was with. When I looked at Stechford, I was so presently surprised to find the 39th Warks. 'Off Parade' Concert programme, showing the double act 'Volunteer Howell and Lilley. I have a thread on the forum 'Howell and Lilly' (I spelt Lilley wrong) about this double act, with photographs. I was so pleased to see the programme, and I'm sure Harry Howell's family will be pleased to see it too.

Ann
 
Hello Ann, My Brother Dennis Copsey was in the 39th Regiment HG in Barrows Lane circa 1946, not in the Barracks, there HQ was a big house near the Coventry Rd on right hand side of the Lane. Len.
 
Thanks Len. My husband's dad, Albert Bromfield, was living in Ollerton Rd. So I would think there was a good chance that he was in the same regiment. In WW1 his dad was in the Wilts.

Ann
 
Ann,

That's great news. It's so satisfying when a couple of jigsaw pieces interlock. As I said in my earlier post, tracking down HG blokes is largely a matter of luck and we have just had a bit of it!

We had better move this (off-topic) discussion to your dedicated thread. Perhaps you could make a mention of your discovery to set the ball rolling again.

Chris
 
Thanks Mike, a pity we couldn't download to help with our WW2 project with local schools!! Fascinating nevertheless and gives an understanding of how the AA battery operated.
 
The Gunsite is not the Oaklands Rec site because the Rec sloped down from Church Rd where the Gunners huts were to Hobmoor Rd and the 3.7in A.A. Gun enplacements could not seen from Church Rd, a Battery of 4, 3.7inch bore AA Guns were on Oaklands Rec see pic, bolted on to a concrete base. Len.
 
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I have a thread running about a H.A.A. unit in the Kings Heath area. As the subject is also relevant to this thread, I should like to ask the question again here.

Can anyone tell me anything about a H.A.A. battery operated by a Home Guard unit, the 71st Warwickshire (Birmingham) Battalion, please? It appears that it was somewhere in the Kings Heath area since there were associations with Brandwood House Barracks. I don't suppose it could have been one of the units mentioned previously in this thread, could it?

Thanks for any help.

Chris
 
I seem to remember gun sites on Billesley Common, and was it Swanhurst Park? most of them had searchlights as well, I think think the Germans were better at
AA defence than we were, the 88mm gun which was put on the Tiger Tank was developed for AA.
 
A belated thanks for those thoughts, Bernard67Arnold. I have now pulled together what is known about the Kings Heath troop and especially about one of its members - a German national - and uploaded it here.

Chris
 
Re: GUN SITE

Hi Geff,
Yes I remember it only too well, as I along with my Brother both served on this Site, before I volunteered for the Royal Navy. The site was at Garretts Green, Kent Moat Yardley, and it was a Rocket "Z" Battery and went into action several times. I also remember, that the late Gil Merrick, Birminghams famous Goalkeeper was in the same Nissen Hut as I, as was the Tay Brothers( Tays The Butcher chain) to name but a few. The site was manned mainly by the Home Guard, TA, and the RA, and there were also some ATS stationed there.My Brother Tom set up mhis Dance Band there and it was called the Rocketeers and they used to play at other Army bases during the war year. I remember one night a Projectile from the Swanhurst Park Z Battery landed on top of the ATS Nissen Huts, which killed some of the ATS inside. There were two men on each of the Guns and each fired a Rocket some 6ft long by 3" Dia, and it was onhly a 4 1/2 Volt Battery that used to fire them. Those who served on this site would also have received a special Thank you card from FC Pile CinC of Anti Aircraft Defense of Great Britain. I still have mine.

LeslieG
 
Re: GUN SITE

These are Edna Storr`s memories of WW2, a Brave Young Lady. Len.
[FONT=verdana,geneva]Edna Storr of Castle Bromwhich was 17yrs of age when she became a member of the ATS – Auxiliary Territorial Service (later became the WRACS) and she worked with the anti-aircraft units (ack-ack guns).[/FONT]
[FONT=verdana,geneva]Her unit was 460 Mixed Ack-Ack (AA) Battery 134 Regiment. Her job was height finder and plotter.[/FONT]
[FONT=verdana,geneva]Women like Edna had the job of tracking the German bombers and giving the co-ordinates to the men firing the ack-ack guns. [/FONT]
[FONT=verdana,geneva]They would often be in the thick of the bombing with no shelter as enemy aircraft flew overhead. [/FONT]
[FONT=verdana,geneva]Based on Oaklands Rec, Church Rd, South Yardley she was with the crews who helped defend Birmingham. [/FONT]
[FONT=verdana,geneva]Edna remembers when they brought one aircraft down the people of South Yardley brought her crew a barrel of beer.[/FONT]
[FONT=verdana,geneva]She also tells the story of being on duty the night of one of the longest bombing raids over Birmingham – 13 hours. [/FONT]
[FONT=verdana,geneva]Edna says: "We didn't know much longer it was going to go on for and we didn't know if we would survive."[/FONT]
[FONT=verdana,geneva]Edna is a member of the Royal Artillery Veterans Association and attends many events and memorials throughout the year. She now lives in Selby, Yorks. [/FONT]
[FONT=verdana,geneva]
[/FONT][FONT=verdana,geneva]
[/FONT]
 
Is that what shows up in Perry Hall Playing fields in the 1945 Google Earth photographs? By the way, no hard feelings over being shot!
 
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