Memories and Stories of Sheffield During WWII

[hazel]

hi moon maiden and others thanks for your replies

what was a courier, was it a telegram boy on his bike.

that brought the dreaded news that someone was missing.

hazel

[Moon Maiden]

Hi Hazel

 

I know he rode a harley davidson which I was jealous of when he told me. I think he did take messages round and it is possible he did the telegraph thing, althought it wasn't something he mentioned specifically.

 

My nan went to work in a hospital in Halifax. She said they kept Italian Prisoners of war in one of the wards. She didn't understand them but they would lear and shout things at her in Italian and offer her cigarettes to come and talk to them.

 

Thanks for these Hazel!!

 

Moon

[hazel]

hi

 

not sure whether i am in the right thread, but unsure on starting new.

so continuing with the theme of " what my dad said "

he came thro town in the blitz and saw a couple leaning in the doorway of C & A quite dead. but untouched it was also said that a man ran along the roof of walshes, which was in flames, without a head on! not sure whether possible but just quoting.

 

when i was first went to school, u could not attend if u did not have your gas mask. this was hung round your neckand kept in a cardboard box at least mine was cardboard, if u were better off u had a canvas one. my brother who was a baby at the time was supposed to be put entirely inside what looked to be a spaceship. he screamed on sight of it so my mom said if we were going to go, we would all go together, so she stopped going to the air raid shelter which was at the bottom of the garden and usually full of water, and we all stayed in bed, all in the same one when the sirens went and the fire warden banged on our front door.

 

after school we stayed for teas--- one and a half old pennies, and then for play centtre , cos a lot of the moms worked in the steelworks, the days seemed endless cos i think we had double summer time or 2 hrs change instead of one.

bye

[timo]

My father [deceased] used to tell me of how he and a group of young pals were amongst the first to find a crashed German aircraft on Concord Park [Woolley Woods, Wincobank side of park]. Apparently, the pilot had perished.

My Grandmother used to tell a tale of how, early one Sunday morning, she heard what she thought was the sound of a low-flying, damaged aircraft making its juddery way down Fife Street in Wincobank. As she sat up in bed she said a prayer for the safety of what she thought was "one of our lads". Minutes later there was a terrible explosion as the aircraft hit a hillside in nearby Blackburn [Rotherham]. It was with a mixture of relief and anger that she later discovered the true origin of the low-flying, droning aircraft. It was a lethal German flying bomb, or "Doodlebug". Luckily, it didn't touch either row of houses on Fife Street or harm anyone in Rotherham.

[Moon Maiden]

I hope people don't mind but I thought considering the fantastic submissions we are getting on this thread - that it deserves a better title more suitable for it's content!

 

Moon

[timo]

Just remembered an almost certainly untrue horror story about Sheffield at war that circulated in the 70's and early 80's. The macabre story has it that an injured German pilot was hurled into a blast furnace by enraged steelworkers. In some versions, it is claimed that female workers connected to the cutlery industry [the legendary, "Buffing Women"] committed the atrocity. My Grandfather and Father both worked in the steel industry, as a roll turner and a fitter respectively, and they considered the tale ludicrous. My Father always insisted that only ONE German plane crashed in Sheffield, and it was the one on Concord Park I mentioned in my previous posting. However, I have met people who do believe the tale, which resurfaces every now and then. I sincerely hope that it is merely an "urban myth". It is more likely to be the fragments of a tale whispered by Germans about the fate of some poor Allied Airman, as it is on record that Allied pilots WERE on occasion handed over to the populace. Makes one shudder does it not?

[hazel]

hi

what an experience for your dad as a boy and of course it follows thro to you and prob to your children. i have told my children and my son in oz wants me to tell his daughter and so on.

 

i have never heard the one about the buffer girls, and i would hate to think that it was true. mind u they were pretty fierce.

 

as children we used to go up to lodgemoor and wymingbrook, and roam about looking for bilberrriees. we passed the prison of war camp on the way and often saw the prisoners of war wandering around on the crags. can't put a date to this, but they must of been allowed out. i was frightened to death of them and kept a safe distance i suppose because of the horror stories i had heard, but they never did us any harm

[timo]

I must make it clear that I personally believe the German pilot tale to be untrue, or as I previously suggested, actually something that MAY have happened to some poor RAF lad at the hands of Germans. It is, however, part of Sheffield post-war folklore.

Re Axis POWs in Sheffield; my Grandparents used to tell of Italians put to work in the Wincobank area. Apparently, my Grandfather [Charles Owen] got rather hot under the collar when they whistled lustfully at local women, including my then youthful and sultry Grandma.

Another tale passed on from my Grandfather is of Sheffield POWs of the Japanese. My Grandfather was too old to be conscripted in WW2, and worked as a Roll Turner for Hadfields [making the bombs that enabled the RAF to defeat Hitler, and doubling as an Air-Raid Warden]. However, a younger pal of his served in the Royal Engineers [i think], and was unfortunate enough to become a prisoner of the Japanese. Quite obviously, he and his pals suffered appalling privations that we cannot imagine, but there were brief moments of hilarity too, according to Grandad's pal. The young man had been taken to Japan alongside other young Sheffield men to work [like slaves, we must remember...] on building Japanese military ships. Apparently, the Sheffield lads would deliberately [and very bravely] misinterpret instructions bellowed at them by their captors.For example, instead of making four portholes, they would make eight etc. My Grandad's pal said that after weeks of this [and we must remember that they would have suffered beatings for these "errors"] the Japanese Officer in charge became so beside himself with anger and frustration that he assaulted HIMSELF, smashing his stick in the process on his own skull!

[hazel]

these are some of my sisters memories,

 

going down the slide into the shelters under arbourthorne central playing fields. the older children went down steps, teacher/catcher top and bottomm. the entrance was covered by big trap doors. i wonder if the shelter is stiill there.

 

static water tanks which were in the middle of housing estates, taking over most of someones garden, ready for use when the fires came and the mainspipes were unusable. these were big round tanks full of water.

 

the morning bus making sudden and interesting detours thru the estate as this 5 yr old made her way to school after a raid and the sound that glass and brick particles made as u crunched your way thru town centre on these mornings.

 

sitting on benches in the half dark of the crtpt under st vincents church singing the 1st ww songs.

 

the landmine bump on the corner of arbourthorne rd. the pavement there had a funny bump and we made a point of jumping on it to show we weren't afraid. it had alresdy been defused by a sailor.

 

begging strips of paper from the printers at the back of the telegragh and star building. the shortage of paper meant these 1 inch strips were very precious ot us children.

[Plain Talker]

Timo, you are right about POWs being put to work...

 

The council housing estate where I lived, for a time, in Stocksbridge, was part-built by italian POWs. (as I understand it from the tales my elderly neighbours told me)

 

It could even have been the Lodge Moor or High Green contingent that were the workers there.

 

PT