morgan1970
New Member
There is no supporting historical evidence, but it seems a unusual story not to have some truth in it. I was told this story a number of years ago by an old friend of mine.
In the 1960's he was working for a large civil engineering company and he was sent to look at costings for work at Snowhill Station. Whilst looking at the job he noticed what appeared to be several old bullet chips on one of the walls fairly close together, in a hidden away bit of the station infrastructure. Now this gentleman was a very proficient competitive target shooter and recognised bullet impacts, so he mentioned it to the gentleman from the railway who was with him, who said it was probably from the second world war bombing.
Now his interest was piqued, because if the impacts had come from an aeroplane, there is no way the bullet marks would have been so close together, plus it would have been an impossible angle for them to have hit the wall from the air anyway. So made a few enquiries during the job which eventually led him to an old railwayman, the longest serving worker.
Who quietly told him there had been a disturbance on a troop train in WW1, the army or military police had intervened, regained order, issued a drumhead court martial and shot those involved on the spot and the train had left.
There is no historical evidence on the internet and it might be entirely incorrect, but seems an odd story to be be completely without some truth, especially from over 60 years ago, when Birmingham's losses in WW1 must have still have touched many peoples lives. Of course there could be many other explanations.
Was wondering if anyone else had heard of this.
In the 1960's he was working for a large civil engineering company and he was sent to look at costings for work at Snowhill Station. Whilst looking at the job he noticed what appeared to be several old bullet chips on one of the walls fairly close together, in a hidden away bit of the station infrastructure. Now this gentleman was a very proficient competitive target shooter and recognised bullet impacts, so he mentioned it to the gentleman from the railway who was with him, who said it was probably from the second world war bombing.
Now his interest was piqued, because if the impacts had come from an aeroplane, there is no way the bullet marks would have been so close together, plus it would have been an impossible angle for them to have hit the wall from the air anyway. So made a few enquiries during the job which eventually led him to an old railwayman, the longest serving worker.
Who quietly told him there had been a disturbance on a troop train in WW1, the army or military police had intervened, regained order, issued a drumhead court martial and shot those involved on the spot and the train had left.
There is no historical evidence on the internet and it might be entirely incorrect, but seems an odd story to be be completely without some truth, especially from over 60 years ago, when Birmingham's losses in WW1 must have still have touched many peoples lives. Of course there could be many other explanations.
Was wondering if anyone else had heard of this.
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