Memories and Stories of Sheffield During WWII

[Kidorry]

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]

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]

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]

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

[Plain Talker]

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]

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.

[mylee]

My relatives grandma Fanny Hague her brother Harry Haycock and granddad Charles Hulley worked on ammunitions at Hatfields? in number 5 shop

[mylee]

In the census my dads family lived in Eldon Street

[libertarian]

My grandma worked on ammunitions in the war .my mum worked for the gas board checking peoples gas meters . A doodlebug came down in mum and dads back garden but failed to explode, I think they lived at Musgrave Crescent at the time. I was born in 1946 but remember rationing .

 

Hello, not wanting to be nasty or anything and knowing that oral history can (and usually does) get distorted over time I seriously doubt it was a 'doodlebug' (a V1) as Sheffield was thankfully beyond their range. It was probably something equally horrific like an aerial mine. I guess that the word (doodlebug) seemed appropriate (and it was an oft used term) which was why you heard it was that.

 

Scary enough even so and I'm glad I am far too young to remember the war.

 

If you want to talk more about what it could have been PM me and i'll try and help.

[libertarian]

Hello, not wanting to be nasty or anything and knowing that oral history can (and usually does) get distorted over time I seriously doubt it was a 'doodlebug' (a V1) as Sheffield was thankfully beyond their range. It was probably something equally horrific like an aerial mine. I guess that the word (doodlebug) seemed appropriate (and it was an oft used term) which was why you heard it was that.

 

Scary enough even so and I'm glad I am far too young to remember the war.

 

If you want to talk more about what it could have been PM me and i'll try and help.

 

I wish to apologise for my statement. I was unaware that a VERY small number of air launched V1's were launched that were capable of hitting Sheffield. However it is still unlikely that the weapon involved was a V1 as the only report I can find (in relation to Sheffield) is of a single raid in which Sheffield wasnt the target but which resulted in a hedge being destroyed in Beighton by one and of another crashing in the Ringinglow area. Thought I would set the record straight there.