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The Blitz

  • Thread starter Thread starter O.C.
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Re: The Blitz - the other angle

I don't really know if I should put this on this thread but here goes....
My father came from a true brum family - he died in 1965, and contact with his family was lost, so this thread, of which I've read all of it, has given me an insight to what his family's life was like.

I am trying to imagine how his family accepted his marriage....to a german girl while he was stationed in Germany.
There were many soldiers who married germans, so I wonder if anyone has stories as to what the wives lives were like when they were brought back to GB......my mom would never talk about her first years in england.

My mom had told me many stories about the blitz of Germany, and all that happened afterwards.
She was a child during WW2, and sent away......when the allies invaded, many of them literally walked out of where they had been billoted in Switzerland to try to get home to whatever family was left.
Many of her friends were raped while trying, but managed to get home...
to basically nothing.

I feel so sad for all the families that lost loved ones on both sides.....

Moderator comment: negritaspider has started a new, separate thread on this topic - https://forum.birminghamhistory.co.uk/showthread.php?t=21195. Any comments on this post should therefore be made there.
 
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cromwell said:
Part of a ARP map pinpointing all the bombs that fell in the Blitz on Birmingham
Centre of the map is town, Aston and Nechells top middle
The Black Dots High Explosive
Red Dots Incendery Bomb
+ Unexploded Bomb
Click to expand...

Can anyone comment on the bombing of Cox Street on October 1940?

Ladywood
 
Cromwell,
Where can I find an extension of the Bomb location map to include the Bournville area.
I would like to know the date the landmine fell in Cob Lane. It had a parachute and my friends 's father thinking it was an enemy agent rushed to capture him (with a garden fork!!). Luckily he was not too close when it exploded.
 
I have a small number of pictures under the Heading 'Preparing for Blackout' this is one of them, New St 1939
 
Birmingham Blitz.

Could I download your picture of New Street preparing for blackout in 1939?

ladywood
 
Cox Street 1940.

On the night of 24th October 1940 18 people sheltering from an air raid were killed. Any information on that night would be useful.

ladywood
 
Ladywood, feel free to download it. I have several pictures of Air Rad damage also. This one is Argyle Street nechells.
 
Sorry about that, the wife is talking to someone on the phone and keeps asking me questions. Here it is.
 
Stitcher said:
Ladywood, feel free to download it. I have several pictures of Air Rad damage also. This one is Argyle Street nechells.
Click to expand...

Thank you very much, I'm helping my brother research the Blitz in Birmingham. Our mother and father were bombed out of their house in Cox Street which joins Livery Street.
This raid was on the 24 October 1940. !8 people who were in a bomb shelter in Cox Street, lost their lives that night.
My parents had decided to watch a film at the Lyric cinema in Edward Street and my aunt [who lived in Edward Street] looked after my brother. Most nights my mother and brother went to this shelter if there was a raid, but on the 24th they didn't.
Amazing what can turn on a decision.

ladywood
 
The Blitz
MY mom Isabella Stacey(nee Adam) lived in Vicarge Road Handsworth, was at home on leave from the WAAF when the Blitz occured and drove an ambulance for ARP for some twenty hours, ferrying casualtys to Brum. I understand she may have got a medal from either Coventry or B,ham councils , don't know if any one can shed light on this .
 
Came on this photo in a book - the caption simply reads ''Birmingham in 1940. War Weapons Week''. The location is obviously by the Hall of Memory and there is a pile of scrap so did scrap collection raise the what was then a fantastic amount of money shown on the barrage balloon?
 
I've always thought the huge cash sums reportedly collected towards the war effort by many towns and cities was either wishful thinking, or propaganda to make people give more.
Whilst the scrap drive certainly did help, the much-advertised (and still noticeable today) tearing down of wrought iron railings was generally a waste of time. The metal was often old, corroded and covered in many layers of paint, and I read somewhere that much of it was dumped in fields until after the war. It was copper, brass and aluminium that was in very short supply.
 
l do remember the lorry coming around for any aluminium..l remember going out with my mother to give a saucepan l don't thinlk there was a house that did'nt donate something, all for the war effort, also remember Burlington school loosing the railings.....it never look the same after that...what a shame as it seems like it was all propoganda....but l know it keeped the people spirits up..and god knows we needed something....Brenda
 
Lloyd, you are right re the metal taken or donated during WW2. It was reported that apart from dumping a lot of it in fields outside city boundaries,
that a lot of the scrap metal collected was dumped into the North Sea. It was Lord Beaverbrook's idea which seemed to be a total failure. Shame because it has taken until now to replace many of the railings in parks and public places throughout Britain. Heritage Lottery funds footing the bill.
 
does any one remember the night that a german plane machined gunned down pedestrians in the lozells road, soho road handsworth, my mom was comming home from the pictures with my nan when it happened she also said it hit a newsagents and killed people inside.
paul stacey
 
Been reading this thread, most informative - thanks all. Will return to it as their is so much to take in - take it a chunk at a time.
My Mom told me so many stories (I'm 51) - we lived in Small Heath - what she mentioned all the time was the bombing of the picture houses on the Cov - she was a great picture watcher!
Attached a poem- I dedicate this to the Birmingham Blitz - those that perished and those who saw it through.

Also holes were made in the cellar walls in our entry houses, so everyone could get together! The one between ours and my Nan and Grandad's next door remained for years! I remember it being bricked up as a young child.

Jan Hedger
 
Any pictures of the Jewellery Quarter during WW2? I've discovered a cousin Esther Murray who was killed in the July 1942 raids in Vyse Street

Names searching for: Cook; Field; Murray; Hunt; Woolley; Thomas
 
If its the Vyse Street at the bottom of Gladstone Street where I lived my brother in England may have some ideas. I'll write and ask him. David
 
I know all about that - her name is on the Tree of Life memorial in the Bull Ring. According to her death certificate, she was found outside 100 Vyse Street (Lewis' Engravers). She lived at 217 Brearley Street in nearby Newtown. Have been to the area and having looked at the street numbering, 100 would have stood where the more up to date building is, opposite Warstone Lane Cemetary. As far as I know, shes interred at Witton but knowing my luck, the grave is unmarked (My paternal gran's parents and an uncle who died in infancy are all buried there in unmarked graves). I'm related through her mother Leah Murray. She was my grandfather's sister.
 
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Thanks for that, Alf.

It looks a very useful resource. There is quite a bit of a detail in it, here and there, which could be of use to those forum members who are trying to pin down particular incidents which they remember. For example, for October 31st 1940:

Castle Bromwich - At 1444 hours, five enemy aircraft machine-gunned many houses in the vicinity and some damage was done to roofs and glass from AA guns and blast.​

Unfortunately that is the date where it seems to end. I wonder if there is anything equivalent elsewhere which covers the following weeks and months.

Chris

PS I've probably mentioned this before: A Luftwaffe View of Birmingham (Words only, I'm afraid).
 
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jennyann said:
Similar to Sylvia, I remember my Mother telling me about a bomb killing a lot of
people in Johnson Street or Road during the war. Also, there were a few deaths in the Goosemoor Lane, Erdington area. Can you please confirm this Cromwell. Thanks.
Click to expand...

I've been looking into the raids here.
They occured on 10/4/41 which was a night of heavy losses as referenced by the BARRA data
I assume a single bomber dropped a "ripple" ie a continuous bomb drop along the length from Gravelly lane to the bend midway along the road.

https://www.geocities.com/goosemoorlane/erdingtonbomb.htm

I'd recommend taking a look round here
https://www.geocities.com/goosemoorlane/history.htm
as it contains a lot of excellent history and pictures.

Recently updated too, which is nice to know, as i know a lot of Geocities websites existed from the start of the internet, and the majority of links to them turn up frustrating 404 errors in the knowledge that something great might have been deleted.
 
Had a look on Carl Chinns site and found pic of my Grand Parents but it lists the pic as Alcocks Farm, but from my Rellis they say that the House was in Fellmeadow Road Lea Hall
 
Does anyone else remember singing these songs during the bombing or were they just family ditties we sang down the Anderson shelter.

Old Hitler is a funny one
got a face like a pickled onion
a nose like a squashed tomato
and legs like two sticks

Next one sang to us by mum and dad before the war but carried into the bombing raids for some light relief.

There was a man and he went mad and he ran up a steeple
he pulled off his big red nose and threw it at the people
there was a lady passing bye who thought it very funny
she picked it up and wiped it dry and sold it for some money

I sang these songs to my kids and now my grandkids and I'd love to know if anyone else has heard them. Pure Aston I think they are. Kinds regards, David Weaver, Australia, the boy from the gutters and proud of it.
 
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