Memories and Stories of Sheffield During WWII

[Janner 10]

I was 8yrs old when Sheffield was blitzed. On the thursday night, I think was the first, we had an incendury bomb fall into our privet hedge on Hatfield house lane.My uncle was in the army and had been at Dunkirque. When he heard of the first raid he came home to see how we all were. On the second blitz, we all took shelter in my Grandma's Anderson shelter, I sat very close to my uncle, I could feel him tensing up and shaking at the sound of the aircraft, bombs and the guns. One bomb fell close to the wall of the Sheffield Lane Top working mans club. Where it landed was wet and mostly clay, the bomb went deep into the clay, exploded, not even a window was broken.

[john1889 10]

Rare and Racy bookshop on division Street had a poster on wall showing locations where all bombs dropped. Worth calling in and asking if they have copies for sale.

[hodkin 10]

My folks & sister lived on beeley st., the opposite side of the st., was bombed & totally destroyed. Our house was damaged & they lived with my dads father at parson cross.

After i was born we went back to beeley st.,

[chrishall 10]

My late father told me he was in the yard of the post office next to Fitzalan Square when a bomb dropped nearby and sent a piece of shrapnel richochetting around the yard where it settled in a white hot state, same as my father and his mates. Another incident was my mother nursing my older baby brother just outside the back door on the Manor Estate when she heard what she thought was a kid running a stick along some railings. My mum thought that was very irresponsible letting a child out in the evening. Turned out to be an enemy plane strafing the houses nearby on Harborough Avenue! I recall looking at the marks left by the bullet holes many years later, a bit awesome to a young boy then.

[RobertDSmith 10]

In 1939 my father was just too old to be called up so he was put in charge of fire precautions at the Telegraph building in High Street. He had a post on the roof and had a grandstand view of Walshes as it burned out, and the rest !

He had a unique escape device in the form of a 200 ft. length of rope. After his shift he would go down it hand over hand ! His 7 years in the navy must have had something to do with it. Come to think of I never saw him afraid of anything ! I wonder if that generation were a different breed.

Bob.

[andy16v 10]

few videos of sheffield at war.

 

 

[Kidorry 189]

I've still got that book.

 

I do not know about the book but I have a DVD called Sheffield at War,the Blitz.

[harmston 10]

I lived on stubbin lane firth park in 1940 and i can remember a police man coming to tell us we had to move due to a land mine on hucklow road .I dont where he got it from but in a short while a car was brought on to the pavement and my father was lifted in to it due to been ill and where taken up to a mrs ellises house on hereward road

I was later told that the mine was defused by a passing sailor home on leave but no one ever found who he was ?

[Floridablade 11]

I was 12 years old and went to Heeley pictures to see a Micket Rooney film when the sign came up telling us the sirens had sounded. my brother and I stayed behind and watched the film through. When we got to the Foyer women and kids were crying, I wondered what was wrong but didn't take much notice. We got as far as the bottom step when we heard this whistle screaming sound, get your heads down you daft buggers a policeman shouted, we ran like rabbits and dived under a truck parked nearby. I felt myself being lifted and realised this huge copper was carrying me to the air raid shelter under the railway arches but no sign of my brother. He it turned out had knocked himself out with the girder under the truck and the policeman never saw him, he staggered in half an hour later.

 

There was a tram stopped just in front of the entrance to the station and a carbonosed body was stuck to the upright rail obviously as soon as a foot touched the ground the person just roasted. There were many sights like that. The Womens Institute did a marvelous job dishing out tea and cakes to the exhausted firemen.

[mylee 10]

My late father Jim Hulley was a part time fireman in Sheffield in ww11 he was stationed at Rotherham I still have his firemans gas mask. I would like to donate it to the Sheffield Museum if it is still open

Edited December 29, 2009 by mylee
adding text

[Plain Talker 11]

Good to see these touching stories re-surfacing.

 

My father told the tale of he and my grandparents being bombed out of their city-centre home on Eldon Street, (where the old Gas-lamp still stands by the car park behind Tesco.)

 

My grandpa carried my father (who was about three years old) all the way up to my great-grandparents' home at the very top of Arbourthorne, which must have been three miles from their home.

 

My dad recalled seeing the flames and the burnt-out buildings of places like the Marples as they passed by on their way.

[Texas 10]

Remember the morning after? No water, no electricity, gas, nothing. I remember standing on the corner of Fox St, Schoolboard Hill, clutching a saucepan, all the grownups with buckets and bowls, to get water from a truck that came around. I can remember looking up Fox St, all the street covered in broken slate and glass and brick. All the houses opposite ours were burnt out. Nowadays, everytime I see the fashion for covering areas of front gardens with slate, I'm reminded of that. Someone in our family had a shop, and because they had no water that morning after the bombing, they got washed in Tizer and lemonade.