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I can't imagine how life must have been for the people of Liverpool between 39-45. I can still recall playing in the bombdies in the early 60s.
Picture scanned from "Bombers over Merseyside - The Authoritative Record of the Blitz 1940-41" Liverpool Daily Post And Echo Ltd. 1943
http://www.liverpoolpictorial.co.uk/ww2a.jpg
My Mum was evacuated to N. Wales in WW2, but my Dad stayed in Liverpool. He told me he had the time of his life. After the bombings, him and his mates used to looking for shrapnel:eek:
Kids eh?:rolleyes:
My mother could imitate the sound of a German bomber dropping its load. The engines raced as the plane became lighter. When the engines raced you ducked and prayed.Quote:
Originally Posted by scouserdave
Early in the war, my Dad saw the occasional dog fight over the Mersey. Liverpool had more homes destroyed in percentage than London. Bootle was the most bombed town in WW2. Canada Dock the most bombed square mile.
Liverpool was poorly defended with a few night fighters while London had most. London was a less important target as it was a propaganda target while Liverpool was a strategic target - the Atlantic convoys. London Docks closed down and the London dockers and their families taken to Clydeside. Half the Liverpool Docks were out of action in the May Blitz 1941. The Germans never knew this.
Great picture, Dave. My grandparents in Mossley Hill had that very book but I fear it went the way of all flesh and it is lost to me now. Pity.Quote:
Originally Posted by scouserdave
Also, thanks, Waterways, for your information on the Blitz.
Chris
Here's some images:
....and some more.....
Widnes Home Guard
They would frighten anyone :)
My Grandad, George T. Matchett, served as a Sergeant in the Home Guard in Liverpool. He had been in the Lancashire Hussars and the Lancashire Fusiliers in World War I. Between the wars he obtained work with the GPO telephones, a position from which he retired as a manager in the 1950's.Quote:
Originally Posted by john
Chris
...and some more.........worth a read
Hi Kev
Wonderful material, Kev. You had better tell us where exactly you are getting this stuff though... :snf (41):
Chris
Germans mate, nar joking really, Records Office at Liverpool City Library :PDT_Piratz_26::PDT_Aliboronz_24:Quote:
Originally Posted by ChrisGeorge
Thanks, Kev, the typescript pages look like an official wartime diary of the Blitz.
Chris
Merseyside's Secret Blitz Diary: Liverpool at WarQuote:
Originally Posted by ChrisGeorge
Another good book on the Blitz is "Port in a Storm" by John Hughes. I picked up a copy at the Albert Dock book store last year.
It is a blow-by blow account of the May 1941 raids on the docks, and ships in the river. After reading this I wonder how we survived.
Even though I was only 6, I have some vivid memories of the time.
Thank you, Cissie and EdF for those good leads!
Chris
Here's pictures of the mass grave in Anfield Cemetery of 554 unknown victims of the Blitz.
Kev - move this to the Graveyards thread if you think its more appropriate there.
http://www.militaryimages.net/photop..._liverpool.jpg
A P51 Mustang being towed from the Pier Head to Speke passing the bottom of Water Street, Liverpool, 1944
This was posted on Military images.
Military images
It's a great photo, but is it being towed to the Pier Head, rather than from it?
Where's the towing vehicle?
I ask because I wonder if they were made at Speke, and then shipped by river?
(Having said that, why not use Garston Docks?)
That's a Pearsons job if ever I saw one. The truck in front of the aircraft is the one doing the towing. Recognise it from the pictures I have that are going in the Pearsons book.Quote:
Originally Posted by PhilipG
I thought it was turning left into Water Street.
I can see now it's not, and I can see the truck, part hidden by the tram.
That was a familiar scene when I was a kid living in the Tennie's (Speke Rd Gdns) there used to be convoys of them being towed to Speke Airport.
That would make sense if the planes where made in the U.S. shipped here in convoys, then made flight ready at speke, then flown to there dispersal air field's.Quote:
Originally Posted by Ebby1954
I think that's the most likely theory. As far as I know they weren't produced in England so it's very likely they were brought over part-assembled and finished off at Speke.
Fantastic photo...
'Correct' both of you! they were 'finished off' at the Rootes Aircraft Factory ,which was situated close to Speke airport, (Rootes later became the Dunlop Factory) then once completed they were 'wheeled' across Speke Hall Avenue into the airport where they were then flown off to various other bases. As Ebby, I too remember them all being towed down Mather Ave., then Speke Road to the Rootes Factory. Guess that they could'nt be 'shipped' to Garston Docks because of tidal conditions.:PDT11
There were also a lot of planes assembled at Burtonwood. My father used to work there, and the planes would arrive in pieces or crates from the docks. I recall him telling me that most of the workers were unskilled in aircraft work and his job was correcting the errors in the assembly process.
I can just make out:
EWS 50 Yards -->
(EWS= Emergency Water Station)
Edge Lane/ Needham Road
http://i229.photobucket.com/albums/e...Rd_Edge_La.jpg
Norm, Here's a photo pf the planes on Allerton Rd just about to enter Mather Avenue.Quote:
Originally Posted by Norm NZ
Photo from Liverpool Echo
Anyone know the aircraft type.Quote:
Originally Posted by taffy
No, but that's the Plaza cinema they're passing. :)Quote:
Originally Posted by Waterways
Yates's Wine Lodge (formerly Tesco) is now on the site of the cinema.
Ill ask my resedent aircraft expert.Quote:
Originally Posted by Waterways
MUSTANGS I think ??
phredd
In Allerton Rd, no. It looks like carrier plane as it has a wide undercarriage. Wildcat? Hellcat?Quote:
Originally Posted by phredd
"Thanks for posting the photo Taffy! Brings back a lot of fond memories, especially the view of the Plaza Cinema" That pic showed some of the smaller planes. there were larger one's, minus wings, so that they could make the journey along the dual carriageways. Can't say what type but not Mustangs, they had a different nose arrangement, look like 'Defiants' or 'Skua's' to me.
I've got a 10 x 8 print of this photo, and the caption says: "2/15 American Mustangs going down Allerton Road".
The 2/15 could refer to the number of the photo. (I think it was in a book, but don't know what).
BTW. I don't know one plane from another.
They look like Grumman Hellcats but I could be wrong...
definitely Mustangs. Hellcats and Wildcats had radial engines and no
bubble canopy. I built and flew all these planes albeit as models when I
was a lad
gregs dad
Sent a copy of this picture to my Uncle who used to work at the Dunlops factory - this was his reply:
This leaves me confused! The Dunlop Speke factory was built as I understood it, as an aircraft factory. When I workrd there it still had the huge sliding doors for getting planes out and was tall with cranes running the length of the factory so that they could lift planes over each other. It was facing the old main runway so that finished planes could be taken across the road and onto the runway.
I do not know which aircraft company had their name over the door but I always assumed that it did not become a Dunlop tyre factory untill after the war. But this is clearly wrong in view of this picture unless that dates from after the war.
Its a bit of a suprise that the roads were wide enough without lamp posts or trees or post holding tram wires, to be able to bring planes along them
Incidently did you realise that the trees along Allerton Road were planted there as mature trees after the roads had been modified, presumably after the tram tracks were taken up, say 1951.
The planes being towed down Allerton Rd are P51 Mustangs with the props and spinners taken off. The same as the plane being towed past Water St.
The planes once assembled at Speke would be delivered to their destinations by teams of girl pilots.
Great reading everyones memories about these planes.
The last trams to run along allerton Road did so on 6 June 1953.
The road was widened and made into a dual carriageway in 1966.
http://i194.photobucket.com/albums/z...0.40bombed.jpg
Louisa Street off Heyworth and St Domingo Road after bomb damage