Im doing history at school and i want to know about the

sheffield blitz as anyone got any imformation about it.:help:

PLEASE!!

Try the library, there are a number of books on the subject. And do a search on here, there are several quite lengthy threads full of information.

There's also a video about the blitz too

I think Sheffield's blitz occured mainly on two nights. I don't have the dates now, but found them out when researching this area myself. Enter Sheffield Blitz on Google and you should find it. A relation of mine had a big street map issued afterwards, showing the location of every bomb fall. She remembers a mine suspended my its parachute at one of the steel works and another story is about some lady (who may have lived in the Brocco Bank area) going to the kitchen to put the kettle on and returning to find her living room gone.

Kenny

Read an earlier post 'Bomb Sites'.


Happy Days!

My parents were children at the time. According to them the Blitz was from 7 PM Thursday 12 December 1940 until 4 AM Friday morning in which the city centre and some surrounding areas were bombed and then again on Sunday 15 December 1940 in which mainly the East End (around the steelworks) of Sheffield was bombed.

The bombing of Hillsborough Barracks is interesting, though I will have to check the dates. My old house in Walkley, and many others, still had remnants of shrapnell embedded in the gable ends from bombing raids.

My mother lived on West Bar during the war years, where my grandfather owned a drinks shop. She has very vivid memories of the Blitz and of the war in general and can talk for hours about bombing raids, rationing, gas masks, having to eat bread and lard for breakfast etc etc. If you pm me, I can arrange for you to meet her and hear it all for yourself and take notes etc.

PopT
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There is a book entitled 'It's A Bit Lively Outside' by Joyce Holliday which contains a map of where the bombs landed in Sheffield.

The book was published in 1987 by yorkshire art circus in castleford.

If you can get a copy you will find it's a good read illustrated with pictures of the bomb damage and the living conditions of the time.


Hope this helps you.


Happy days!



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PopT
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Location: new zealand/UK
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By coincidence I was reading a cutting from an old copy the 'Sheffield Star' newspaper last night and it reported the following.

Sheffield Blitz December 12th 1940
6 Parachute Mines, 450 High Explosives and thousands of Incendaries were dropped during the night.

On December 15th 1940 5 Parachute Mines, 100 High explosives and thousands of incendaries were dropped.

This reort if true makes the 'Bomb Maps' a little wanting in numbers.

I believe the one in the book 'It's A Bit Lively Outside' only numbers 88 bombs.


Happy Days! but bloody awful nights!

my mum has just taken part in a bbc online project on ww2 and the blitz....not sure if its been finished and is now available to view online, but you could try the bbc site.
also, go to the national archives website....there is tons of info and links on ww2 in there.

Pop T mentions that the bomb map is a little wanting, I have the same map and would like to add that it only shows high explosive bombs and land mines, it would be almost impossible to register where all the incendiary bombs dropped as these were dropped in their thousands.
Our side did exactly the same of course, for every HE bomb carried there would be a dozen or so of incendiary bombs.
It was these little blighters which caused most of the fires in Sheffield, they were impossible to put out by water, the only thing that could be done was to attempt to cover them with sand.

My older brother and I were in the heeley Picture palace on the thursday night and sat through quite a bit of the bombing and didn't know until we got into the foyer and saw people stood around crying. We stayed in the air raod shelter under the railway arches until morning. My Gran lived on Broadfield road and had an incendiary bomb come through the roof,through the bed she had just got out of to go to the toilet and into the cellar,it just fizzled out.

She was old and suffered from dementia and told us how wonderful it was to see the stars while she was lying in bed.She died shortly afterwards.

[QUOTE=Floridablade]My older brother and I were in the heeley Picture palace on the thursday night and sat through quite a bit of the bombing and didn't know until we got into the foyer and saw people stood around crying. W

Which Heeley Picture Palace would that be Floridablade ??.
My husband and his mother were in the Heeley Green Cinema, the Manager went on to the stage and said that bombs had fallen in lower Heeley, some of the people left then the movie continued, the Manager came on later and said that bombs had fallen on Upper Heeley and that he would have to close down as it wasn't safe, reluctantly my husband and his mother had to go home and miss the end of the picture. A little later a bomb dropped on a house that was about 8o ft. from their house, they were in the cellar and did not get hurt. My husband was about 10 years old.

I lived at Shiregreen and we had a land mine drop about 100ft. from our house, we had to live in St. Hida's Church basement for three months until a new roof was fixed on our house, then on Sunday night another land mine dropped bur fortunately it did not explode.


Happy Days!!!!!!!!. Cheers, Cynthia, Ontario, Canada.

Hi Kenny
I have a video of the sheffield blitz, it will probabley tell you all you want to know

Give me a pm if its any good mate
Cheers

Although the blitz only lasted two days I'm thinking there must have been many bombing raids on Sheffield .Running away fm Fullwood Cottage Homes a lot of times in the raids I remember the fire-man clearing us off fm a hill that ran fm Penistone rd to cinema at the top(Langsett)?lots of shops with all the goods scattered over the rd I'm sure I remember them aiming for the steel mills at different times, but its been 65yrs and memory fades a tad.

Cynthia,

It was the picture palace on chesterfield road opposite the railway station,we were taken to the air raid shelter under the railway arches. There was a burnt out tram outside the pictures with a carbonised body hanging onto the rail,it was very surreal. My brother and I went down town the next morning and picked up a pile of shilling pieces which had been in one of the banks on the Moor, A copper saw us pick them up but said nothing. The city was still burning,with firemen almost dead on their feet,some just lying in the road where they had fallen exhausted.

Out of all the emergency services only one operated that morning,the Womens Volunteer Service,they operated a small van dishing out tea and buns.

We saw a german come down by parachute,he dropped into a burning building and a big cheer went up,not one person thought of helping him I was glad to say at the time. I think that was on Pinstone St. top of the Moor area.

My father and oldest brother built a sahelter second to none,we lived in it for weeks on end,it was on Millmount Rd. and the council tried to take away the Wrought iron railings but my old man told them to bugger off,and they did.

Cynthia,

It was the picture palace on chesterfield road opposite the railway station,we were taken to the air raid shelter under the railway arches. There was a burnt out tram outside the pictures with a carbonised body hanging onto the rail,it was very surreal. My brother and I went down town the next morning and picked up a pile of shilling pieces which had been in one of the banks on the Moor, A copper saw us pick them up but said nothing. The city was still burning,with firemen almost dead on their feet,some just lying in the road where they had fallen exhausted.

Out of all the emergency services only one operated that morning,the Womens Volunteer Service,they operated a small van dishing out tea and buns.

We saw a german come down by parachute,he dropped into a burning building and a big cheer went up,not one person thought of helping him I was glad to say at the time. I think that was on Pinstone St. top of the Moor area.

My father and oldest brother built a shelter second to none,we lived in it for weeks on end,it was on Millmount Rd. and the council tried to take away the Wrought iron railings but my old man told them to bugger off,and they did.


That was the Heeley Palace, the first time I went out with my husband it was to that Cinema, the second date was to Bramall Lane to see United.

Did you say on one of your messages that you had family with the last name KAy ???. If so would be interested to know your connection.

Cynthia, Ontario.

My brother was born on the 14 th December 1940, my father took mom to her parents at Sth. Anston away from the bombing, and the chapel choir sang to her while he was being born in the livingroom so she wouldn,t be frightend from the overhead aircraft flying into Sheffield. My grandparents were called Arthur and Lucy Forman and they lived in the High St.Sth. Anston.

I think Sheffield's blitz occured mainly on two nights. I don't have the dates now, but found them out when researching this area myself. Enter Sheffield Blitz on Google and you should find it. A relation of mine had a big street map issued afterwards, showing the location of every bomb fall. She remembers a mine suspended my its parachute at one of the steel works and another story is about some lady (who may have lived in the Brocco Bank area) going to the kitchen to put the kettle on and returning to find her living room gone.

I wonder if it was St Cecilia House (top of Brocco Bank on the corner between Westbourne Road and Clarkehouse Road). The house next door took a direct hit killing all in residence and blew up the coach house at St Cecilia's throwing it into the main house killing even more folk.

Im doing history at school and i want to know about the

sheffield blitz as anyone got any imformation about it.:help:

PLEASE!!

Go to your local library and and get the book --"SHEFFIELD BLITZ" by paul License
it is in both words and pictures. and worth reading also can be bought from the sheffield star £8.95

I think Sheffield's blitz occured mainly on two nights. I don't have the dates now, but found them out when researching this area myself. Enter Sheffield Blitz on Google and you should find it. A relation of mine had a big street map issued afterwards, showing the location of every bomb fall. She remembers a mine suspended my its parachute at one of the steel works and another story is about some lady (who may have lived in the Brocco Bank area) going to the kitchen to put the kettle on and returning to find her living room gone.

Kenny, the dates the blitz occurred was the 12th and 15th december 1940
i have the book in question kenny if you want , you can email me and i will answer any questions for you.

Although the blitz only lasted two days I'm thinking there must have been many bombing raids on Sheffield .Running away fm Fullwood Cottage Homes a lot of times in the raids I remember the fire-man clearing us off fm a hill that ran fm Penistone rd to cinema at the top(Langsett)?lots of shops with all the goods scattered over the rd I'm sure I remember them aiming for the steel mills at different times, but its been 65yrs and memory fades a tad.

Hi

The Lufwaffe tried to bomb Sheffield a number of times before they finally did it, Dec. 12 & 15, 1940. It was low cloud and atmospheric polution that saved us on other occasions. You could hear them up there (Heinkel bombers had a distinct sound: one engine ran clockwise and the other counterclockwise.) but because of the cloud and smog, they didn't know exactly where they were. We lived near to downtown and spent quite a few nights, or parts of nights, in the shelter before the nights of the big raids.

On the night of the first blitz raid, it was a clear and cold with a wind that moved enough of the usual smog for the bombers to get their bearings.

Regards

That was the Heeley Palace, the first time I went out with my husband it was to that Cinema, the second date was to Bramall Lane to see United.

Did you say on one of your messages that you had family with the last name KAy ???. If so would be interested to know your connection.

Cynthia, Ontario.
Cynthia,

My surname is Kay but it is a very common name in Yorkshire and Lancashire. My brother told me it had an "E" on the end at one time but it was changed because of the great influx of Jews using Kay instead of their origonal east European name at the turn of the 19/20th century.

Hi

The Lufwaffe tried to bomb Sheffield a number of times before they finally did it, Dec. 12 & 15, 1940. It was low cloud and atmospheric polution that saved us on other occasions. You could hear them up there (Heinkel bombers had a distinct sound: one engine ran clockwise and the other counterclockwise.) but because of the cloud and smog, they didn't know exactly where they were. We lived near to downtown and spent quite a few nights, or parts of nights, in the shelter before the nights of the big raids.

On the night of the first blitz raid, it was a clear and cold with a wind that moved enough of the usual smog for the bombers to get their bearings.

Regards


Yes on both nights,Thursday and Sunday it was a clear crisp fullish moon.

One of my grandfathers was in the Auxiliary Fire Service during the Sheffield Blitz, and he used to tell my grandmother how horrific it was, seeing the bodies of victims, especially children. She told me he was called out to a hotel where there had been a function on, and the guests had been sent into the basement during an air raid to shelter, but the hotel was bombed and caught fire. The people were trapped and they all died. Does anyone know which hotel this might have been?

One of my grandfathers was in the Auxiliary Fire Service during the Sheffield Blitz, and he used to tell my grandmother how horrific it was, seeing the bodies of victims, especially children. She told me he was called out to a hotel where there had been a function on, and the guests had been sent into the basement during an air raid to shelter, but the hotel was bombed and caught fire. The people were trapped and they all died. Does anyone know which hotel this might have been?

Marple Hotel, Fitzalan Square.

Hi,

We lived on a street off the Wicker and on the Friday and Saturday morning after the first Blitz raid, we had a lot of family and friends coming to the house to see if we were alright. To get to our street, they must have seen some of the damage and told my parents about it all. This must have got my interest so I begged my Dad to take me to see it all. This he did on the Saturday afternoon.

We first walked down our street into the Wicker. I'm sure you have all seen the famouse picture of the Wicker on the morning after the first raid with the bomb hole and the tram split in two. I don't remember seeing the tram but it might have been moved the time I was there. Don't remember the hole either.

I can't remember much about crossing Lady's Bridge but I do remember the mess in doorways of the shops at the bottom of Waingate - where Hindley's tool shop and Friend sweet shop used to be. Every shop doorway seemed to have bundles in them. Some with feet or a hand sticking out from under the the covers that had been placed over them. I suppose these were victims still waiting to be picked-up.

There was lots of activity in Haymarket and King Street didn't exist any more. When seen from the Haymarket end of the street, everything was either rubble or a burnt-out shell. Many of the buidings had fallen into the street. We got to the corner of Fitzallan Square and must have been stopped by the police from going any further. This saved me from seeing the mess at Marples.

Some of you may remember the old stone-built tram shelter on the bottom side of the square, opposite what was then the Electra cinema (later the News Theatre, etc.). Laying partly across the roof of the shelter and down onto the tram tracks/road was what looked to me like the wing from a plane. It could also have been the part of the roof from a building that was blown there by the blast from a bomb. I have read most ot the books on Sheffield Blitz and seen many of the photographs but nowhere have I seen any reference to parts of a downed-plane landing in the square.

At that point, I think my dad had seen enough, and I'm sure he thought I had seen too much already, so we turned around and went home.

Regards

Just remembered that the other building in which a lot of people lost their lives was the former Brightside and Carbrook Co-operative Society’s Store.
Cannot remember the road it was on, but I do remember that Rotherham’s trams, which were only capable of being driven from the front rather than at both ends like Sheffield trams, used to a the loop outside the Co-op to return to Rotherham. There was an air-raid shelter underneath the building, and if my memory serves me correctly, only the facade was left standing. I think, not sure, that it was demolished some time later because it was in a dangerous condition.

Marple Hotel, Fitzalan Square.


Yes,it was Marples in Fitzalan Square which suffered a direct hit and almost everyone was killed,it was the talk of Sheffield for years whenever the Blitz was mentioned.

Thanks for information...must have been horrific.

I am bringing this thread forward as there is a further thread - 'Sheffield Blitz' asking the same questions.

Cynthia,

It was the picture palace on chesterfield road opposite the railway station,we were taken to the air raid shelter under the railway arches. There was a burnt out tram outside the pictures with a carbonised body hanging onto the rail,it was very surreal. My brother and I went down town the next morning and picked up a pile of shilling pieces which had been in one of the banks on the Moor, A copper saw us pick them up but said nothing. The city was still burning,with firemen almost dead on their feet,some just lying in the road where they had fallen exhausted.

Out of all the emergency services only one operated that morning,the Womens Volunteer Service,they operated a small van dishing out tea and buns.

We saw a german come down by parachute,he dropped into a burning building and a big cheer went up,not one person thought of helping him I was glad to say at the time. I think that was on Pinstone St. top of the Moor area.

My father and oldest brother built a sahelter second to none,we lived in it for weeks on end,it was on Millmount Rd. and the council tried to take away the Wrought iron railings but my old man told them to bugger off,and they did.

------------------------------------------------------------------

Hate to say so, but the bit about a German in a parachute stretches the imagination a bit. Don't believe there were any reports of German A/c being shot down over Sheffield. There were parachutes, these were attached to mines which didn't penetrate the ground on impact & caused blast damage much as our later blockbusters did. Understand there was a "parachutist" seen coming down in the Southey area (I think). Those who ran out to confront "him" were blown about a bit by the mine when it exploded. Equally I've not seen any railings still in place anywhere. Bags of old stumps, but that's all. Some people might have been irritated at losing part of the front garden, but they were public spirited enough to give up their fences to help the war effort. The same with aluminium saucepans & kettles. Nobody complained or asked for recompense, they just handed them over to the Boy Scouts who ran collection drives.

<snippitty>Equally I've not seen any railings still in place anywhere. Bags of old stumps, but that's all. Some people might have been irritated at losing part of the front garden, but they were public spirited enough to give up their fences to help the war effort. The same with aluminium saucepans & kettles. Nobody complained or asked for recompense, they just handed them over to the Boy Scouts who ran collection drives.

Just to slightly correct you there.

The Victorian house that I lived in, and the house next door, certainly kept the railings to the side of the steps, as a safety issue, (the drop was too deep, and dangerous to take the railings away) although the railings to the front wall were "taken" as part of the "drive" to collect metal.

I lived on Montgomery Terrace Road across from the Royal infirmary. I was a babe in arms at the time so dont remember any of the actual events except what was told to me years later. The wrought iron railings, as has been mentioned already were removed leaving only the stumps. Dad was away in the army and grandad was employed as a porter at the hospital across the road. On one night of the blitz he was on duty and helped evacuate some of the patients to shelters while the bombs were falling around. Apparently he received a commendation for doing this. I was sleeping in a cot up in the attic of the house when a fire bomb came through the roof and set some washing alight that was hanging near the cot. My mom tore up the stairs extinguished the fire which hadn't got out of hand and hauled me out of there. We still had the steel casing for that bomb many years later.

There were rumours that the scrap metal collected was for propaganda purposes only, to give everyone a feeling they were doing their bit. Don't know if there is any truth to this. As with you PT., the railings around our house, which was at the top of Bloor St., in Walkley, were left because the front door opened onto a flat raised area, about six feet above the pavement. All the others in that area had theirs removed.

Just to slightly correct you there.

The Victorian house that I lived in, and the house next door, certainly kept the railings to the side of the steps, as a safety issue, (the drop was too deep, and dangerous to take the railings away) although the railings to the front wall were "taken" as part of the "drive" to collect metal.

Hate to say so, but the bit about a German in a parachute stretches the imagination a bit. Don't believe there were any reports of German A/c being shot down over Sheffield. There were parachutes, these were attached to mines which didn't penetrate the ground on impact & caused blast damage much as our later blockbusters did.

This is correct.
Luftwaffe loss records confirm that no aircraft were lost anywhere near Sheffield let alone over the city itself either during the "Blitz" or later in the war.
The nearest German aircraft shot down was a Ju 88 brought down near Bradford in 1941 as far as I know.

There were rumours that the scrap metal collected was for propaganda purposes only, to give everyone a feeling they were doing their bit. Don't know if there is any truth to this. As with you PT., the railings around our house, which was at the top of Bloor St., in Walkley, were left because the front door opened onto a flat raised area, about six feet above the pavement. All the others in that area had theirs removed.

I had heard rumours identical to that, JMDee, that the railings, pots, pans etc, were collected, to be melted down and turned into ammunition, and planes etc for the war effort.

The problem was, the metal was of such poor quality, it ended up being dumped in the North Sea, and left to rust on the sea bed.

My bungalow in Wadsley still has its 1930s railings. I have no idea why they were left - they certainly are original, as they appear on a watercolour of the house dated 1942 (see here for a "then and now" view:

http://i169.photobucket.com/albums/u219/twigmore/bungalow.jpg

so why they were not removed I can only guess. Of the 33 houses on the street it's apparently the only one that ever had railings, and so maybe the street wasn't on the list of those to be dealt with. Otherwise maybe the owner removed the railings and hid them until after the war - the six- and eight-foot lengths could have been unbolted from each other, and the lead seatings melted with a blowlamp.

The Barracks on Langsett Road has retained its railings for part of their length. The railings are on top of a wall that varies in height with the slope of the road. Only at the upper end where the wall is less than a foot or so in height did the railings survive - you can still see them. Maybe if the wall was below a certain height the railings could be kept?

An article in the Star many years ago stated firmly that some of the metal collected was used for munitions, though not all.

Hi

The Lufwaffe tried to bomb Sheffield a number of times before they finally did it, Dec. 12 & 15, 1940. It was low cloud and atmospheric polution that saved us on other occasions. You could hear them up there (Heinkel bombers had a distinct sound: one engine ran clockwise and the other counterclockwise.) but because of the cloud and smog, they didn't know exactly where they were. We lived near to downtown and spent quite a few nights, or parts of nights, in the shelter before the nights of the big raids.

On the night of the first blitz raid, it was a clear and cold with a wind that moved enough of the usual smog for the bombers to get their bearings.

Regards

.................................................. ............................................

Sure, there were other raids on Sheffield apart from the big ones, but these were minor attacks & more likely to be some Kraut having a spare bomb or maybe an attempt to test their navigation systems. From childhood memory, or recalling the talk of elders, the first bomb fell on Seniors' works about where the Ponds Forge baths are now. For certain German aircraft did make a different sound...... more of a throb than a constant beat. I'd not heard it was because their engines rotated clockwise & anti clockwise..... we used that system on some multi-engined a/c but that was to minimise the swinging off centre caused by torque when taking off with all engines turning in the same direction. That didn't seem to vary the sound. I always understood that the engines on enemy planes were de-synchronised to confuse the sound detection system which preceded radar. Probably that's an intelligent guess too, but inevitably some one would announce "It's alright! It's one of ours" & then look foolish when the bomb exploded..

There were 15 or 16 actual "raids" by the Luftwaffe on the city in the course of the war.
How many times other than that an off course bomber dropped it's load I don't know.

There were 15 or 16 actual "raids" by the Luftwaffe on the city in the course of the war.
How many times other than that an off course bomber dropped it's load I don't know.
---------------------------------------------
Think you might find that off -course bombers dropping the odd bomb were counted in the total of 15 or 16. For sure we were got out of bed when any activity was just something passing over, on the way to somewhere else, but raids which entailed dropping more than one or two bombs in the city boundaries were seldom much of a disturbance unless you were in the vicinity.

Cartav, the railings could not be taken away without the owners permission, almost everybody gave their permission because they wanted to help the war effort, in fact the workers in most cases never asked the occupants because they rented but individual owners should by law have been asked. Most railings were never used, in fact many steel workers in Sheffield at the time thought it was a joke to take them in the first place, but who would bother asking a lowly steel worker his opinion.

I must admit I was only told the story of the Parachutist so I take your word that it was a tall story.

... I've not seen any railings still in place anywhere. Bags of old stumps, but that's all.

See my post (#39) on this thread about my own 1930s railings that survive, and and those at Hillsborough Barracks, some of which were allowed to remain in place, though not others.

If Floridablade is correct about householders having to give their permission, then maybe the owner of my bungalow was a gurmudgeonly old b*gger (the neighbours might think he’s still there…) who wanted to keep his railings. If they never used the iron for munitions, then he would have had the last laugh.

The council workers came round and never asked so if you were not there to stop them they would be taken. Also most people at the time just did what they were told by authority and never questioned it. EE by gum thi tekin mi railins, way that's nowt thi took mine tother day.

------------------------------------------------------------------

Hate to say so, but the bit about a German in a parachute stretches the imagination a bit. Don't believe there were any reports of German A/c being shot down over Sheffield.

The other version that did the rounds was a parachutist dropping into a furnace at one of the steelworks!

The other version that did the rounds was a parachutist dropping into a furnace at one of the steelworks!

The wind must have carried him a fair way then ;).As has been said,no German aircraft came down anywhere near Sheffield.

The wind must have carried him a fair way then ;).As has been said,no German aircraft came down anywhere near Sheffield.

Good for civilian morale though!

Well we all cheared on Friday morning when it was announced that a german had dropped into his own flames, probably not true but very little is in wartime.