Heads up, Sheffield the Forgotten Blitz

Ah Sheffiels post the blitz. I also remember the bomb sites, including Marples corner and the wasteland down rhe Moor, being a feature of the landscape during the 50s.

Throughout the war my grandfather was a drop stamper at Cravens steelworks in Darnall on the east side of Sheffield. My memory is that he said he was working on merlin crankshafts.

As was usual in those days the family lived near the factory in Bramham Road and I can remember in the early 50s playing in the shelter dug in the back yard .

My uncle, who would have been about 13 in 1940, had a collection of bits of shrapnel and incediary/bomb fragments that he collected over the period. That colllection survived until sometime in the 50s.

I’ve got somewhere a map of Sheffield (publiished in the 60s?) that shows where the bombs fell. It was indeed far from precision bombing of the steel industry.

Regards

Chris

Still got an (deactivated) incendiary bomb from that night – dropped on my grandparent’s house in Springfield Road, Millhouses but didn’t go off and rolled into the guttering.

Made safe by Bomb Disposal and kept in a draw for the next 20 years (!) before given to number 1 grandson as an item of interest.

The story was that they were aiming for a works in the Archer Road area that machined up the forged Merlin crankshaft blanks. (Edit) As Ambrose Shardlows were in the east end, it would probably have been Laycock Engineering they were aiming for.

Hard to believe that as I grew up in the sixties, there were still bombsites on the Moor – particularly at the bottom on the left hand side – where they always had a big Santa’s grotto and forest at Christmastime.

This is what it says if you follow the link and click on “More programme information”:-

Available until 7:59PM Fri, 24 Dec 2010

It’s available on the BBC iplayer for a while if you missed it:-

http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b00wmc3n/Sheffield_The_Forgotten_Blitz

Besides Andy’s contribution, it was nice to see Dr. Mike Diprose demonstrating X-Gerät, the target locating device in use by the Luftwaffe at that time.

Mike is a regular at the Newark aerojumbles and organises the annual Military and Radio Electrojumbles at Aeroventure, Doncaster, also presenting the lectures afterwards, usually on some radar/battle of the beams type topic.

Quite a short but interesting programme nonetheless.

Those who enjoy picking holes in this sort of programme will spot the Italian Air Force, as well as a large part of RAF Bomber Command 😮 apparently supporting the Blitz on Sheffield. And a Kittyhawk to illustrate the vital role Sheffield played in producing crankshafts for Spitfire engines. :rolleyes:

Does anyone know how long it wil be on I-player for please?

My mum and dad were in sheffield during the blitz,mum can recount using the Morrison Shelter.

I’ll try and post some pics later. They are reprints of British 1930’s OS maps and then the points of interest are outlined in either Red, Blue or Purple. The Legend at the side is in English from the original British version and then printed next to it is the German translation with a suitable symbol like a train, a hammer for steel works, a chimmney etc

Is the annotation/key on the target map? Or a seperate sheet? Do you know??

Are there any Ziel Nummern (target numbers) quoted anywhere?

They are dated 1942 and have highlighted areas that include football grounds and work houses as well as steel works, train stations etc.

Yes, that part of the programme jarred with me a little too.

I seriously doubt that the Germans were more interested in a pure terror raid in 1940, rather than one designed to destroy vital war industries.

Otherwise, why bother struggling all that way to Sheffield when they could have easily executed a terror raid on, say, Brighton or many other such convenient places, and been home in time for last orders?

Still, it’s amazing how quickly such stuff becomes internet fact. It’s already being used as part of a (not very inspired) debate about the Dresden bombing here! (see post 45):-

http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=589621

Since I was not party to the filming of the maps, I cannot really comment.

However, I do have nagging doubts about how the historian who contributed explained the markings on the map and, also, about how they were interpreted. I’d like to see the originals and the anotations.

I’ve got a couple of these maps and i think your right, they don’t seem to be marked as targets but more like points of interest. Most likely to be used for the planning process and not the actual target maps issued to the aircrew.

Watched last night; a fine show, that. The ‘as was/as is now’ shots were very clever and informative. Andy– well done on your bit. You came across as very professional and articulate.

However, one part left me wondering… The presenter examined some German maps in the collection of the City Library. These were target maps for the Sheffield raids. The ‘expert’ assisting the presenter described the red highlighted areas as primary targets, and the purple highlighted areas as secondary targets. This was a bit dramatic, as things such as churches and hospitals were inked in red.

Not at all to suggest that targeting civilian areas was beyond the Luftwaffe, but these targets were laid out in an extremely haphazard and illogical manner on this map. I cannot fathom that a German targeting bloke (of all people!) would have created such a non-grouping of ‘primary targets’. Is anyone familiar with such Luftwaffe targeting maps? I wonder if the red areas were in fact ‘cautionary’ indicators (or such), and not primary objectives? These just seemed a bit too scattered to have any primary significance to my eye.

On the other hand, if the nature of the raid was to be “punitive”, it would not surprise me in the least….

Well worth watching. The ‘then and now’ images being merged really is a great technique to help visualise the history. I’ve started doing it with target photographs on google earth, sad i know but very satisfying to find the target area…….

The Luftwaffe maps that the library holds are dated 1942 so my only picky point is that the targets probably weren’t the churches and hospitals as depicted.

It’s available on the BBC iplayer for a while if you missed it:-

http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b00wmc3n/Sheffield_The_Forgotten_Blitz

Besides Andy’s contribution, it was nice to see Dr. Mike Diprose demonstrating X-Gerät, the target locating device in use by the Luftwaffe at that time.

Mike is a regular at the Newark aerojumbles and organises the annual Military and Radio Electrojumbles at Aeroventure, Doncaster, also presenting the lectures afterwards, usually on some radar/battle of the beams type topic.

Quite a short but interesting programme nonetheless.

Those who enjoy picking holes in this sort of programme will spot the Italian Air Force, as well as a large part of RAF Bomber Command 😮 apparently supporting the Blitz on Sheffield. And a Kittyhawk to illustrate the vital role Sheffield played in producing crankshafts for Spitfire engines. :rolleyes:

I think that Terry Deary (of “Horrible Histories” fame) will do a more than creditable job with this programme, produced for the BBC by ‘True North’ productions.

I got involved with a bit of the filming for this programme when we used the RAFM He.111 as back-drop. Something that will strike a chord with many here will be when the film crew asked if the lights in the Battle of Britain Hall call be turned on. The response? “They are on!” Oh well….it helped to set the nightime Blitz mood!!

(The prog was originally scheduled to go out at 7.30 on 15th, but was deffered as it had to make way, of course, for “Dig 1940”)

Harry Graves’s farm, down Lockoford Lane, took a few bombs in the field there. Maybe long gone craters now ? No doubt built on ? I was in our air raid shelter that night, in Brimington Road. Also sat in the cockpit of a captured Me 109 in the Drill Hall close to Queens park. Happy childhood days 🙂

There’s a few craters out towards Grangewood Farm, and Tupton lost a few houses. No idea about Lockoford Lane but I’ll ask about.

Which Drill hall? The one on Boythorpe Road?

Regards,

Ric

I was there !

Harry Graves’s farm, down Lockoford Lane, took a few bombs in the field there. Maybe long gone craters now ? No doubt built on ? I was in our air raid shelter that night, in Brimington Road. Also sat in the cockpit of a captured Me 109 in the Drill Hall close to Queens park. Happy childhood days 🙂

I’ll be watching that then! I’m just slightly outside Sheffield, and theres several bits of evidence of raids here (missing hoses in rows of terraces, and a couple of good craters.)

There’s rumoured to be the wreck of a german bomber close by, but I’ve never managed to track it down.

Regards,

Ric