Forums
Posted By: Erainn Blitz Maps? - 5th Feb 2011 2:13pm
Anyone know of existing maps showing locations in Birkenhead of bombing during German blitz?
Posted By: MissGuided Re: Blitz Maps? - 5th Feb 2011 3:02pm
Doctor Frick's site has maps:

http://www.oldwirral.com/ww2_bombs.html
Posted By: Erainn Re: Blitz Maps? - 5th Feb 2011 3:08pm
Thanks for kindly sharing that link, it's a wonderful site, alas the map does not seem to cover the docks area and nearby streets, which I read were struck by bombing.
Posted By: chriskay Re: Blitz Maps? - 5th Feb 2011 3:08pm
I don't know of any maps, but the book "Birkenhead at War" has some good descriptions & photographs. It's one of Ian Boumphrey's books.
www.yesterdayswirral.co.uk
Posted By: bert1 Re: Blitz Maps? - 5th Feb 2011 3:15pm
look here
https://www.wikiwirral.co.uk/forums/ubbthreads.php/topics/273517/Bombed_Birkenhead.html#Post273517
Posted By: Erainn Re: Blitz Maps? - 5th Feb 2011 3:27pm
Thanks Bert. a very sobering set of images, we can never truly grasp the suffering and trauma of those dark days for the town,
Posted By: BandyCoot Re: Blitz Maps? - 5th Feb 2011 3:40pm
Docks area was deffo hit, Vine Steet, Brook Street, Livingstone Street/Price Street, Payson Street and the flour mills over Dukey bridge. Some were the ones we knew as "bombdies" after the war, old bombed houses that we played in. Some were cleared away, leaving fields which could also be skylarked on. The Price Street prefabs were built on one site, just opposite Marchbanks woodyard.
Posted By: arsenal Re: Blitz Maps? - 5th Feb 2011 3:44pm
a book called bombers over merseyside has many pictures of birkenhead wallasey available from w h smith cost about £4 i have the original not areproduction
Posted By: Erainn Re: Blitz Maps? - 5th Feb 2011 3:59pm
Thanks for the reference, will check that out.
Posted By: Erainn Re: Blitz Maps? - 5th Feb 2011 4:01pm
Had a feeling that was the case, guess many smaller streets would have been hit in that area too, and no doubt cleared away post War.
Posted By: marty99fred Re: Blitz Maps? - 6th Feb 2011 10:08pm
Originally Posted by Erainn
Anyone know of existing maps showing locations in Birkenhead of bombing during German blitz?


Wirral Archives at the Cheshire Lines Building has a map that shows the approximate location of every bomb that fell on Birkenhead during the Blitz.
Posted By: Erainn Re: Blitz Maps? - 6th Feb 2011 10:14pm
Great info, many thanks.
Posted By: bert1 Merseyside Blitz - 8th Feb 2011 4:13pm
A question was asked, if there was a map available that showed all the bombed properties, i doubt if there is, some facts and figures i have found in one of my books, also some snippets about subjects already discussed on the forum.

Attached picture ff1.jpg
Attached picture ff2.jpg
Attached picture ff3.jpg
Attached picture ff4.jpg
Attached picture ff5.jpg
Posted By: chriskay Re: Merseyside Blitz - 8th Feb 2011 4:23pm
Thanks, Bert; interesting stuff. The nearest bomb fall to us was at the Ben Nevis Rd./Everest Rd. junction. You can see that the first couple of houses in Ben Nevis Rd. are different from the rest.
Posted By: Erainn Re: Merseyside Blitz - 8th Feb 2011 5:17pm
Bert, thank you for taking the time to share that very helpful and interesting information
Posted By: dingle Re: Merseyside Blitz - 9th Feb 2011 8:26am
Apart from the bombing maps, Beech and Milton Rds(down near Christchurch Claughton School)were extensively damaged. Right up to the 60's there were still "prefabs" in those roads. We lived at 12 Dingle Rd which is at the bottom of Beech Rd, opposite Brattan Rd, alongside said school, Brattan Rd at Borough Intersection was severley damaged and also was the said school. When the school got hit, my mum said the house next door, No. 10, just fell down and the block was empty up until I left Birkenhead in 1969. Bit of luck for us as there was a Service Station at the bottom of our garden on Borough Rd,beats fairies, one bomb there and you wouldn't be reading this.
Posted By: chriskay Re: Merseyside Blitz - 9th Feb 2011 11:04am
This picture from "Birkenhead at War" by Ian Boumphrey will interest you, mindplayer. Looking down Brattan Rd. after the raid of 12/13 March 1941. You can see the petrol station you mention & could that be your house in the background?

Attached picture 2011-02-09 10-55-38_0154.jpg
Posted By: bert1 Re: Merseyside Blitz - 9th Feb 2011 11:20am
Originally Posted by mindplayer
Bit of luck for us as there was a Service Station at the bottom of our garden on Borough Rd,beats fairies, one bomb there and you wouldn't be reading this.


We would still be reading it, its just, you wouldn't be writing it.
Posted By: masterbun Re: Merseyside Blitz - 9th Feb 2011 12:02pm
St Saviour's church in Oxton got damaged when the Carvarvon Castle got hit by an aerial mine 14 March 1941. That was a bomb site till 1957 when it was rebuit, lost a playground !! Other properties in Silverdale Road also got damaged. Also I think a property on the corner of Shrewbury Road & Gerald Road got it. Looked like it.
The Hermitage on Mill Hill got it I think, certainly a bit of a wreck in the 50's
Posted By: derekdwc Re: Merseyside Blitz - 9th Feb 2011 12:38pm
without me having to trawl through the topics can anyone tell me how much warning folks had of bombers coming and what
shelters/ protection people had who lived in the back to back houses in the streets off Grange Rd - thinking of bomb hits nearby on the Adelhi, Savoy and by the Waterloo pub (there's a pic on a wall in there saying how the main electricity line to Camell Lairds was cut off and pub rebuilt)
Posted By: Stranger Re: Merseyside Blitz - 9th Feb 2011 1:20pm
During the war my Mum lived in Beckwith St, almost at the junction with Livingstone St. Their house was bombed out and they moved a couple of doors up, to the second house along (with the white door). The land where her original house was was never built on again and throughout the sixties was just mud and rubble. Now, it's a patch of green with a few trees.

[Linked Image]

She told me some stories about air raids but never mentioned how much warning they had.
Apparently St James' Church was the landmark that German pilots flying in from the Irish Sea would look for.
From there they had a straight run down Laird/Conway St to Cammel Lairds.
Mum told me how the bombers would fly at rooftop height down Conway St, sometimes with machine guns peppering the shops.
On one occasion she was late getting to a shelter and was running up Conway St, a bomber must have let his bombs go early and the explosion blew my Mum through the air. She woke up in a shop doorway, shaken but otherwise unharmed.
Another time she was walking home from a dance at the Kingsland on Borough Rd when the air raid sirens started.
They both ran into Birkenhead Park and took cover with a few other people in one of the shelters there.
They all remarked on how loud and near the bombing seemed.
When the all clear sounded she looked up to see the roof of the shelter was gone crazy
Posted By: bert1 Re: Merseyside Blitz - 9th Feb 2011 1:26pm
The warning times of air raids were variable, but normally within a decent time, planes were picked up on radar and also visual and sound detection, a relay system would have been in place between Police and civil defence forces. At the start of night time bombing the government expected people to sleep in their air raid shelters, then they would already be protected before the raids started.

https://www.wikiwirral.co.uk/forums/ubbthreads.php/topics/305221/Air_Raid_Protection.html#Post305221
Posted By: dingle Re: Merseyside Blitz - 11th Feb 2011 8:35am
That is my old house attached to number 14 on the right. Great photo Chris Kay.
Posted By: MissGuided Re: Blitz Maps? - 23rd Sep 2016 1:30pm
Does anyone know if Doctor Frick still posts on here?

He had a website with links to a blitz map of Wirral that was a work in progress back in 2008. I went to find the page it was on and the site is no more.

TIA
Posted By: diggingdeeper Re: Blitz Maps? - 23rd Sep 2016 5:03pm
Originally Posted by MissGuided
Does anyone know if Doctor Frick still posts on here?

He had a website with links to a blitz map of Wirral that was a work in progress back in 2008. I went to find the page it was on and the site is no more.

TIA


Your PM's are full, PM me and I will reply.
© Wirral-Wikiwirral