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The Blitz

  • Thread starter Thread starter O.C.
  • Start date Start date
Cromwell. thanks for all this information. I was born on 22nd November 1940, a fire-watching neighbour fetched the midwife on his motorbike, but she wouldn't come with him unless she wore his tin hat. My mother told me she spent whole nights under the stairs with me, while my older sisters were in the damp Morrison shelter.
I am responding to a two year old post about the photos. I have a book: "How We Lived Then" by Norman Longmate, which contain some of your photos: "Collecting the mail", "Delivering the milk" and "Rescuing family treasures". This last is three ladies and a boy - one woman is pushing a barrow. There could be more from this book. I'll keep looking, and you keep up the good work. What is the health hazard with old photographs and documents? The originals wold be better in a museum than photocopies.
 
Dilly.....When you sit staring at an old air raid bomb location map it makes your brain work overtime to figure out how many people came through what they did on that dreadful night on the 22nd Nov.1940...........
Regarding old photo's etc...I was left a pile of rotting material from 1890 onwards books newspapers and photographs .....I have slowly recorded what I could ........sold some on E.bay .........given some to museums etc dumped a lot and kept some gems..........once newspaper starts to rot it just disintegrates so its hard to scan so I have to photograph it with a digital camera.........healthwise all as you can catch from it is Historyitis which is very hard to cure .............watch out for the Spitfire...St George poster..........
 
To Cromwell Map Bomb Alley

Thanks Cromwell.

Really appreciate it. Whenever you have time. Look forward to seeing it

Thanks again
 
Fantastic thread !

Don't suppose anybody has any wartime details/photos/bomb maps for the Hartopp Road/Raymond Road area where my family were ?
 
RobertS, Here is map of Bomb Alley...
And Raymond Rd..Paul33.... Note the unexploded bombs (Blue dots) that hit the Wolseley Works
Black...High Explosive
Red ...Incendiary
 
That's superb ..... many thanks.

One last request. I'd love to see a similar map for Metropolitan Road which used to be by Saltley Viaduct, hanging off Gate Street which is still there today.
 
Paul33 said:
That's superb ..... many thanks.

One last request. I'd love to see a similar map for Metropolitan Road which used to be by Saltley Viaduct, hanging off Gate Street which is still there today.
Click to expand...
Well as this area was special to me with Saltley Sheds, Canal Wharf and out entrance to the Rea via the fire door on the bridge and Crawford St were I got my Daily Mail Boots from here is the map you want .....
 
Hey Cromwell is it possible for me to keep a hard copy of your contributions. I went through the bombing of Aston, and before I take off on my last great adventure I'd like to leave a record, as well as my own memories's, for the kids to think about. Kindest regards, and thanks for the wonderful memories you keep bringing back, good and bad, to just an old bloke whose been around a bit. David Weaver, Australia.
cromwell said:
RobertS I will post the section of the map you want regarding Bomb Alley but you will have to wait a couple of weeks
rupertbri I have sent you a I.M. regarding what you wanted.........
Click to expand...
 
David....you can take what you want for your own use (all my poems are copyrighted as they have been published ) but other stuff feel free
My Parents lived in Gladstone Rd for a brief period when they were bombed out of Cromwell St
The map shows on the night of 19th Nov 1940 the railway at Aston Station got hit as well as the Canal Wharfs in Plume St
 
Thanks Son, but I lived in Gladston Street in front of Atkinsons Brewery
We had a bomb come into the shelter one night and we went to the community shelter under the brewery. Sorry to ask again but was there a Gladstone Road (note the different spelling) as I have someone reckons they were born in the same house as me but the roads are spelt differently. I understand copyright as I write too so don't worry, that's why I checked. Kind regards,and thanks David.
cromwell said:
David....you can take what you want for your own use (all my poems are copyrighted as they have been published ) but other stuff feel free
My Parents lived in Gladstone Rd for a brief period when they were bombed out of Cromwell St
The map shows on the night of 19th Nov 1940 the railway at Aston Station got hit as well as the Canal Wharfs in Plume St
Click to expand...
 
David,

A 1938 Glossary I have lists Gladstone Roads in Erdington, South Yardley and Sparkbrook, a Terrace in Handsworth and a single Street in Aston (as well as one in West Bromwich).

It doesn't list a "Gladston" of any type.

Chris
 
David ..we always pronounced it as Gladston.. but it was Gladstone Rd by the Brewery
 
Thanks young Cromwell, seventy five years old and didn't know how to spell my own address. The only saving grace is neither does any of my family. Kindest thoughts, redfaced as the parrots in my trees :D, David.
cromwell said:
David ..we always pronounced it as Gladston.. but it was Gladstone Rd by the Brewery
Click to expand...
 
Hello, new person here. I am looking for information on 28 Gladstone road, Sparkbrook. MaryAnne Suckling lived there 1916. Is there a photo anywhere of the area or the house? Thank you
 
Jocelyn, If you post the request in Neighbors & Streets or Information Wanted you will have a better response ...as this is the Blitz Pages
I wish you all the best in what you are looking for ...
 
Film The Blitz

Found some German film of November 1/2 1940 to celibrate the raid. The illumination of the Bombs matches the map, previous in this thread. (Stop and enlarge then overlay.)

Can't manage to post directly (my incompetence I suspect) go to link with

([ame="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aYTXePJtv2Y&feature=related"]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aYTXePJtv2Y&feature=related[/ame])

"My parents were married on November 2nd 1940 at St Pauls Balsall Heath (on the Moseley Road). On on the night of the 1st both the Church and the Moseley Road and Balsall Heath was hit. They were married in rubble, the power and water were off "
 
Cromwell I've been going through your magnificent site and I can only say thanks and well done. Brought a tear to my eye I can tell you. Seventy five and still remembering. On the night that the pub was land mined in Aston with all those people killed I was lying in bed in the 'Front Room' with my flaminh ead stuck through the bars in the bed. Couldn't get out but like a kid with his headthrough the school railings. Mom stayed with me, I told her to go with the rest of my family but she wouldn't leave me (was I glad I can tell you) She rubbed a week's ration of margarine on my head to get it out but to no avail. My family still tell the tale of woe but when the land mine dropped either the terror of it shrunk my head or the bars opened up because my head came out. Mom complained for weeks about that margarine. True story anyway triggered off by your site. Kindest regards and thanks once again. David.
cromwell said:
David....you can take what you want for your own use (all my poems are copyrighted as they have been published ) but other stuff feel free
My Parents lived in Gladstone Rd for a brief period when they were bombed out of Cromwell St
The map shows on the night of 19th Nov 1940 the railway at Aston Station got hit as well as the Canal Wharfs in Plume St
Click to expand...
 
Can you imagine what it would be like to have to depend on todays society like our moms and dads had to.
I was born in Jan 1940 so I must have been very young but I can remember the smell of the damp Anderson Shelter and the noise. One night we were in the shelter and there was an enormous bang. I learned later in life that it was a bomb dropped on a house in Oakhurst Rd Acocks Green. We lived in Oakhill Crescent and at the back was a large playing field. It was where Severne Road and Pitmaston Road schools played their sports. I remember there was an anti aircraft gun emplacement not many yards from the fence. There was also a barrage balloon. This meant of course that if any German aircraft were near, we had the added noise of the guns.
 
I have an eighty seven year old woman in my writing group whom I interviewed a few months back for a profile. She was on the guns in Perry Barr and we often talk about her role in those days. I'd been teaching her for over a year when I found out she was one of those people making all the noise while I was cowering in the Anderson shelter. She told me there is a lake there but I don't know if her memory is correct or not. Perhaps someone can tell me. Kindest thoughts from Australia, david.
 
Last edited by a moderator:
Is there any chance, David, that your bombardier/pupil might be persuaded to write up her gunnery experiences for the benefit of this forum?

Chris
 
In the process Chris but she wnt into Changi POW Camp as a telephonist when it was full of Japanese just after the war. It's quite a story really and very sad but when I sit down to question her about the Birmingham Blitz we invariable end up in the Malayan Jungle dodging terrorists during the problems there. Doing my best Son, doing my best. You may have to have the whole package and then cut it. Regards David.
ChrisM said:
Is there any chance, David, that your bombardier/pupil might be persuaded to write up her gunnery experiences for the benefit of this forum?

Chris
Click to expand...
 
November 21st 1940
My grandad John William Clarke was a soldier on leave from the pioneer corps . He was in the house only a few hours , he had bathed the kids and put them to bed . Tommy 11 , my mum Rosalind 9 , Joice , Reg , margy 3 year old and the newborn Kathy . Bam direct hit . They were in the lower floor of a masionetts . He was killed and little tommy .. well they didnt find all of little Tommy not enough to have his own grave . My mum and the rest of the kids were buried for 9 hours . My mum singing her heart out so the rescuers could find them . The kids were then sent to an orphanage . Mom and Margy to Isle of man Dalmeny Wesleyan church orphanage where the sisters were incredibly cruel and harsh and sadistic to those poor little children that had been through so much .. this was enough to scar her mentally for life and she has never recovered . Her Brother Reg and sister Joice were sent to an orphanage in bolton lancs. These were indeed terrible times and very cruel times for children . I as the next geneartion can only feel very sad for the hardships of those days and what people went through and can only standby and think what a wicked world we live in today .
Godbless you all that lived through the war .
Jean
 
Jean, those were indeed sad times and it takes so long to get over the worst parts but get over them we must. We all learn to live, love and never forget what happened to us, but then we must move on with what is left of our lives. There are indeed evil things happening in the world today, but there is much to be happy about as well but above all there must be hope for the future. Tomorrow I will spend another day with my best friend up the bush as we have done for many years. He was bombed too, when a little boy like me, and we often sit down and discuss the fear. I came from Birmingham and he was in Berlin. Kindest thoughts, David Weaver.
 
Hi David
Yes there was a lot of good and bad come out of the war. Sadly my mum went on to suffer many breakdowns and brought us kids up with the same regime that she learnt in the orphanage so times were hard for us kids too in the 60s and 70s . She is still suffering and she is 76 . She tells this same story over and over again every day of her life and we try hard to sit and listen to her as we cant imagine how painful it must have been .
Yes there is hope and many good things to be said about these days . I teach 11 to 18 year old and have some smashing bright young things , many who have kind hearts , But there is also a lot of thoughtlessness and selfishness about .
Gladf to hear you have a drinking partner from Germany , you know I bet many of them were in the same boat but couldnt moan about it .. or they would be carted off to a concentration camp . :(
Thanks for your reply . OO Im going to Spain tommorrow for a month I shall miss this site .
Kind regards jean xx
 
Give your Mom a big hug for me, wished I could hug mine. I hitch hiked through Spain in the fifties on the way to North Africa. Memories, memories. Enjoy yourself and write down all your stories even if it is only for our history. Kindest regards again, David. Australia.
 
Thank you Jean and David for sharing your stories with us. This is what this site is all about, and I do so love reading the threads.
 
Cromwell can u give me any more infro on bridge @ bournville lane please.
 
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