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The Blitz

  • Thread starter Thread starter O.C.
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If Kynochs were to have had a direct hit I should imagine,most of Witton and Perry Barr,would have been one big hole.However,my gran chose to live there, in Franchise St 100 yards from Kynochs main entrance,she moved from Aston to get away from the bombing.:rolleyes:.
She knew what was made at Kynochs my aunt worked there.:rolleyes:.
 
During bomb raids on London, many people flooded to the underground for refuge. All they had to do was buy a penny halfpenny ticket which was the cheapest fare and they had access to an underground station platform where they could shelter for the duration of the raid. As early as 1130 am. would see the first ones going down to get the best pitches. By the evening rush hour, travellers had to step between and over the rows of people. At the height of the blitz, it is estimated that 177,000 were sheltering undergrond. In the warm cramped conditions mosquitoes and lice thrived. Balham Station took a direct hit and the rubble fell onto the shelterers, killing almost 700 of them in one go.
The picture shows tube dwellers as they were called sleeping at The Elephant and Castle Station.
 
I used to spend many hours on Whitton Wharfe on my father's coal lorry, it was my job to stack the coal bags as they were filled. A boy doing a mans job. The machine guns were always practising in the factory close bye. Lovely memories. Regards, David.
 
A parachute bomb crashed through the roof of The London Paladium and failed to explode. A Naval Officer defused it and was given free tickets for life.
 
Meals om wheels. This is a mobile canteen delivering food to a bomb damaged London suberb. Mobile laundries and baths were also out and about to offer relief when homes were destroyed or when gas, water and electricity were cut off.
 
Thinking back to my childhood in the Blitz, we didn't really understand everything apart from 'we had to win'. I remember an unexploded bomb in the street behind us. The ARP/Police covered the bomb with sandbags and evacuated the road. However, 'us kids' in our street, crept down the back gardens and pulled a sandbag aside so we could look at the bomb. Good job we didn't have Digi Cameras back then, I'd be posting a photo of it !!
 
oldMohawk, you must be a bit older than me, good god. I was born in 1940 and I do remember a bit of the hustle and bustle. I remember the smell inside the anderson and I remember the noise because we had a balloon and guns about 100 yards from the house. My earliest actual vivid memories are going into the city with mom and seeing the bomb damage on the way as well as in the city itself.
 
Hi, Stitcher, Yes I was just starting school, the year you were born. Thinking back, I remember going with an Aunt down to London towards the end of the war, but we heard a Doodlebug in the distance. I couldn't understand why we unexpectedly went back to Brum that night. I think the train took about 4 hours, had to stand in the corridor, and also had to wait in the city until the buses started early in the morning.
 
Here are the wartime instructions from Lever Bros. on how to make your tablet of soap last longer
 
Stitcher said:
Here are the wartime instructions from Lever Bros. on how to make your tablet of soap last longer
Click to expand...
Good tips, but I don't think the soap manufacturers of today would like it. Their sales would be reduced. I notice it says coupons are needed, so that soap was probably rationed ! I notice the price of 3 1/2 d (old pence) included Purchase Tax - the old version of VAT.
 
oldmowhawk, you mentioned Purcase Tax. I remember it well and that has bought back other memories. Buy British for one. How about the Balance of Payments. I was always encouraged by dad to listen to the news on the radio. It was so informative and interesting in those days.
 
I note it recommends putting the bits in a bag for the washing up. there used to be sold , probably in woolworths, a little plastic container which you could put the soap in . It had slats in each side so you could shake it in the washing up water to generate a foam.
mike
 
I am fascinated by all these blitz stories and I wouldn't try to comprehend the fear and emmotions that you all had to endure. I'm only glad that I wasn't around at the time.
My mother tells me that she came out of the shelter one morning to find the houses opposite hers had all been raised to the ground. I can't imagine how all the people felt, it must have been awful.
Someone told me once, It may have been Carl Chinn, that on the night that Coventry Cathederal was hit, Birmingham took more bombs and more damage than Coventry but a news blackout was enforced to prevent the Germans knowing the full extent of the raid.
 
A little memory recounted to me yesterday,by my dad.
During the war the gaffer of the Wellhead pub,in Perry Barr (adjacent to Kynochs) used to collect the pensioners of Franchise St.and lead them to the safety of the pub cellar during a raid...Another unsung hero...I'm betting someone on the forum knows how to find his name.
 
chocks2 said:
I am fascinated by all these blitz stories
Click to expand...
To us 'blitz kids' it was to some extent exciting, but for lots of people it was tragic. I lived in Great Barr and saw a complete block of houses demolished, and quite a few bombs fell in the our area. I remember standing just outside our shelter (the grown-ups had for reason gone back to the house) and I saw a brilliant flare float down and land on a roof. Sure enough, a few moments later I heard the whistle of a bomb coming down. I think Britain was one of the first countries to be hit by ballistic missiles, the V2's. It seems strange that they were designed by the man who helped design the Saturn Rocket which launched Apollo 11 to the Moon.
 
By the time I went into the junior school, I could make and use with quite a bit of accuracy a catapult and a bow and arrow. I could make a kite out of privet sticks and brown paper that would fly as good as one bought from a shop (if I could get some string) and I could make a cycle out of parts found outside the factories in Hay Mills/Acocks Green just off Stockwell Rd. We used to eat broken biscuits, Ox tail stew, suet dumplings, proper fish and chips fresh eggs off dads chickens along with a load of other foods that apparantly will kill you today. Most old people were bought up on all this deadly food. We could play for hours, day after day on a bomb peck and never get fed up. Best of all, our moms and dads loved us and cared about us.
While the actual war years were dreadful for those old enough to remember them, the following years were an exiting time for the youngsters.
 
Chocks 2. It is not not true that Birmingham took more bombs than Coventry on that night. Birmingham was given a little respite for a change. What is true that Birmingham took far more bombs throughout the war than did Coventry or, indeed, anywhere else other than London.

We were never told at the time which towns had been bombed. All the reports would say was a town in the West Midlands or a town in the North West etc. Word soon got around however and, in any case, the Germans invented a new word and threatened to 'Coventrate' every town in the country.

Old Boy
 
Old Boy. Thats probably what I was told but I either misheard or misunderstood the origanal satement. Thanks for the explanation. I find that this forum is an excellent way to learn the facts. Cheers
 
Chris,
Have to agree with you,on the night of the big raid on Coventry.I didn't want to disagree with chocks 2.But on that night I was at my grans house in Harborne and remember the sky in the distance was bright red,and the grown up's saying,"Coventry was getting it bad".They were probably thinking,thank god it's not us.
 
During the height of the bombing, if you had spare rooms in the house you were asked to take in bombed out families. My brother-in-law lived in Cavandale Rd Kingstanding, and they had a bombed out couple from Handsworth living in their front room and a bedroom for some months. It was just done in those far off days. We also had a 'Squander Bug' to remind us to buy National Savings.
 
Stitcher,

Re your Ministry of Food reciipes I remember Dr Carrot. We were told, quite seriously, that carrots improved your eyesight We were assured that night fighter pilots were given a special diet of carrots for this purpose.

There must have been a surplus of carrots at that time.

Old Boy.
 
I understood that the night fighter/carrot story was dreamed up as an amateurish attempt to hide the existence of a radar which was portable enought to be put in the night fighters
mike
 
I can honestly say before and during the war in the back streets of Aston I never once saw a rabbit wearing glasses so I'm inclined to believe the carrot story.;)
 
I remember Granny White and dad arguing about the number of German planes shot down after one raid. Dad said two, granny sad 22. After much debate garnny finally said, Ah but you have a 'Lectic radio and mine runs on a battery so they can't be the same.'' How we all loved her.
 
Col H,

Every now and again something comes along that lifts ones spirits and restores faith in humanity. This was such a story. Thank you for posting it.

Old Boy
 
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