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Sheffield Blitz

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Marks left by shrapnel can still be seen on the pillars outside the City Hall.

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A row of shops on Chesterfield Rd was bombed out where the police house is up as far as Goodrich the butchers. Also I heard tell of one down Arthington St.

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A bomb fell on house in Frecheville during one night of the blitz I don't remember on which night. A Special constable Frank WIlliams was one of the rescuers, he was awarded the George Medal for his part in the rescue.

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Bit of thread necromancy.

 

Apart from KG-100, does anyone know which Luftwaffe units took part in the December raids please?

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No, I don't I'm afraid but someone is giving a talk about the Sheffield Blitz, I think at The Bishop's House, in a week or two. Your question may be answered there.

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Bit of thread necromancy.

 

Apart from KG-100, does anyone know which Luftwaffe units took part in the December raids please?

 

WIKPEDIA lists various flights and airfields in Northern France ,

where they flew from to carry out the 12 December raid.

 

 

Quotes below from wikipedia

 

"On the afternoon of 12 December British monitoring stations detected X Verfahren (sometimes called X-Gerät) radio beams being laid across northern England and calculated that the likely target of the coming raid would be Sheffield.[1]

 

 

Patchwork on the Wicker Arches covering an unexploded bomb hole.

The yellow alert was received at 6:15 pm followed by the purple alert at 6:45 pm. The red alert was sounded at 7 pm.[1] The attack was made by three main groups of aircraft flying from airfields in northern France, including Cambrai. 13 Heinkel 111s from Kampfgruppe 100, the German Pathfinder unit arrived over the city at 7:41 pm and dropped 16 SC50 high-explosive bombs, 1,009 B1 E1 ZA incendiaries and 10,080 B1 E1 incendiaries. The first incendiaries were dropped over the suburbs of Norton Lees and Gleadless.[1]

 

The first main group was made up of three waves of 36 Junkers 88s and 29 Heinkel 111s. The second group was made up of 23 Junkers 88s, 74 Heinkel 111s and 7 Dornier 17s. The last group was made up of 63 Junkers 88s and 35 Heinkel 111s, a total of 280 aircraft.[3] At about 9:30 pm a stick of bombs fell on Campo Lane and Vicar Lane, demolishing the West end of the Cathedral. At about 10:50 pm a 500 kg bomb fell on and destroyed the C&A and Burtons buildings opposite the Marples Hotel in Fitzalan Square.[4] At 11:44 pm, The Marples Hotel itself received a direct hit. It is not known exactly how many people were killed but approximately 70 bodies were recovered from the rubble. This was the single biggest loss of life in the attacks.[1] The majority of the bombs on this night fell on the City Centre or on residential districts with the last bombs falling at 4 am.[1]

 

15 December raid

The second night of the Blitz saw the first use of a new German policy for their pathfinders. High-explosive bombs were no longer carried and were replaced by incendiaries. On this night the pathfinder force was made up of 16 Heinkel 111s that dropped 11,520 B1 E1 incendiaries between 7 pm and 7:50 pm. The 15 large and numerous small fires started were visible from 150 km away.[3]

 

The main raid was carried out by 50 Heinkel 111s and 11 Dornier 17s. The raid finished at 10:15 pm. Many steelworks received hits, including Hadfields, Brown Bayleys and Steel, Peech and Tozer Ltd, although the damage was not serious enough to affect production.[1]

 

Aftermath

In total over 660 people were killed, 1,500 injured and 40,000 made homeless. 3,000 homes were demolished with a further 3,000 badly damaged. A total of 78,000 homes received damage. Six George Medals were awarded to citizens of Sheffield for their bravery during the raids. 134 victims of the raids were buried in a communal grave in City Road Cemetery.[1]"

Edited by bazjea

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Bit of thread necromancy.

 

Apart from KG-100, does anyone know which Luftwaffe units took part in the December raids please?

 

KG 53 and KG 54 for a start. KG 76 also bombed Sheffield but that was in 1941 I think.

KG 55 also bombed the city in 1941.

 

There were certainly other units involved but I'll have to search my archives for the info.

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A slight diversion from the current topic but I thought I'd exploit the resurrection of the thread.

A few years ago I twice bumped into a Sheffield man in different archives (Sheffield and the Imperial War Museum) who was researching the Sheffield Blitz. He was particularly interested in the pattern of the bomb fall and what he said was a high ratio of single or individual bombs that fell that weren't part of a stick or pattern of bombs. At the time I met him he was focussing on two explosions, one that destroyed a house on the Manor estate and another that was an air burst (exploded before it hit the ground) also on the Manor Estate. In reports he had found on both of these incidents there were indications that both may have been caused by unexploded anti-aircraft shells returning to earth. I have often wondered what the outcome of his research was. I know it was intended for publication but I've never found or heard of it since.

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Hi, I was a little boy during the Blitz. I can remember standing in our backyard at the top of Kent Road (Hill) Heeley, and watching "Stokes" ( I think that was the factories name) Paint factory Blazing on fire after it got hit by a bomb.

On one occasion we had to stay in our Air Raid shelter all night, and part of the next day at the bottom of the garden. It had got hit by an Incendiary bomb, and we had to wait for it to burn out all it's Phosphor.

On several occasions we spent the nights in the shelter, so that we were not disturbed, and have to trek to the bottom of the garden at all hours of the night.

My dad used to carry me on his shoulders from the house to the shelter, and I would put his Steel Air Raid Warden Helmet on my head. One night there was a loud explosion, and the helmet got knocked off my head due to it being hit by shrapnel (too big and sloppy) for me. It put quiet a dent in the steel. If I had not been wearing the Helmet the top of my head would have been sliced off.

My dad was a Voluntary Air Raid Warden, and spent many hours away from home looking out for fires etc. He was in a "reserved occupation" ,and did not get called up for the armed forces. He worked at English Steel Corp. as a Press tool fitter. They stamped out large Steel parts for military vehicles etc.

 

---------- Post added 06-06-2018 at 15:36 ----------

Edited by Peter Tottle

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My memory may be playing tricks but does anyone else remember the bombed out buildings of C & A and Burtons. They were destroyed on 12th December 1940 together with the Marples Hotel.

I seem to remember seeing them still in their sorry state as late as 1945 when I was a toddler, but maybe I'm wrong. Does anyone know when the ruins were finally demolished?

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I wasn’t born until 1948 and remember seeing the bombed out, boarded up buildings towards the top of Snig Hill and going right round the corner there when we travelled up Snig Hill on the bus or tram from Malin Bridge; I would say that was sometime up to 1953, when I started school. One of the bombed out businesses towards the top of Snig Hill was Symington & Croft.

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