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Merseyside War Years



Without a shadow of a doubt, the streets of Britain suffered their most terrible hardships during the terrors of World War Two. No road was safe from destruction, no avenue free from fear. The streets of Merseyside in particular would exhibit some of the most awful examples of wartime obliteration to ever take place. Proud Victorian houses were easily rendered to dust, whole neighbourhoods totally blemished with craters. The residents of these streets lived alongside the constant threat of invasion by land, sea and most catastrophically, by air.

With its strategic shipping ports and factories, the towns and cities dotted along the Mersey became some of Hitler's most heavily targeted sites during the conflict. In August 1940 the German Luftwaffe attacked Birkenhead in what was to be the first of over 300 such bombing raids Merseyside sustained that year. Almost 4,000 people perished and many more were seriously injured as the streets and buildings of Liverpool and Wirral were destroyed and their residents left in turmoil.

To show the transition from those deadly dark days, I've put together a new book. Merseyside War Years Then and Now features 45 vistas of bomb-damaged suburbia and city centre carnage alongside photographs of the area how it is today. The book sensitively documents the changes and developments that have taken place since wartime, demonstrating both architectural progress and Britain's resilience in the face of adversity.

The Derby Pool at New Brighton




The amazing community here at WikiWirral gets an acknowledgement as many of you, several months back now, actually helped with the research which put this book together . I'm very grateful for your assistance with it and I hope you like it. It's out in most book shops and available to pick up online now, fresh from the printers.

dan, i know there were many who posted info to you, but me and my dad were very excited at the time to help pin point certain buildings in birkenhead , as he grew up just off hamilton square. iam thrilled to see this dan,my parents are away till friday and i will look forward to show my dad this post. well done dan you have just secured my dads christmas presant. delighted for you and all your hard work. mark

Thanks Mark. Very kind. My main hope is that these will be looked at in years to come by future generations. Today is tomorrow's history afterall, and we all love it

The Derby Pool was in Wallasey, not New Brighton!

I was 4 during the bombing of Birkenhead. I Googled my address and plotted where bombs had fallen around my location. Three bombs fell and formed a triangle around our house. One landed about 70yards away to the North, one landed 150yards to the South and the third to the West which destroyed the primary school where I was due to start in September. The bombs fell during different nights. The lady next door used to bring her daughter into our air raid shelter with my mother and myself for company. My dad worked nights on "war work" and her husband was serving in the navy. Ironically, many years later, the daughter moved to Germany and married a very nice German. Funny old world, isn't it?

greybeard, you can say that again its a funny small world, cant wait to get my hands on this book and tatey i think you are being very nit picky about wallasey and new brighton. mark

Looks fab Dan!! Will deffo be getting this! Xxx

Hi Greybeard fantastic info, but could you tell us where you lived so we can orientate your info. My family lived in Dingle Rd. Claughton school across Borough Rd was destroyed along with most of the bottom of Brattan Rd I think in 1941(there are some pictures on here and you can see my house as it is very high up behind the Service Station) and the house next door(number 10 Dingle Rd) totally collapsed.

Looks like a great book Dan can't wait to get a copy.

tatey i think you are being very nit picky about wallasey and new brighton. mark [/quote]

As this is a history site, we should try to keep it as factual as possible I think.

tatey someone has worked very hard on something fantastic, credit were credits due.

The Derby Pool was not in New Brighton. I agree with Tatey the correction was entirely warranted.

I know you have a personal interest, having helped with the book, however, if a fact is wrong, surely it's right to correct it.
I have a book "A Century of Birkenhead & Wirral" by Cliff Hayes which contains some great photographs but the text is littered with errors. The trouble with this is that the errors will be perpetuated: that's why it's right to correct errors in a factual book.

Your use of the epithet "stupid" is what has caused the reaction.

Everyone...let it drop please.


wikiopinion

Admin Notice: As admin i have removed Several Posts due to a personal dispute. Please keep this topic on topic, thank you

I don't know much about Wallasey (am born and bred in Birkenhead) so what part of Wallasey was it in?
Don't you have
Moreton
Leasowe
Wallasey Village
Liscard
Poulton
Seacombe
Egremont
New Brighton
what others?

is wimbledon street, liscard mentioned?
i only ask because i was talking to a lady who was rescued from the rubble as a small girl.

Found this on one of the Wallasey Sites:
One of the strangest episodes of all blitzed Britain occurred when Lancaster Avenue and Wimbledon Street were bombed in the early hours of March 13th and thirty people were killed, most of them in a communal shelter. On Sunday morning, March 16th three and a half days later, a rescue party ‘heard what they thought was a kitten’s faint mew below them in the debris. Listening in silence they heard it again, it was a baby’s cry.

Getting feverishly to work, the three men made their way towards where a child of a few months was lying buried and half choked with dust. Moving like cats themselves, lest one ill judged gesture should loose a pile of debris on to the child, they finally reached it, gave it first aid, wiped the dust from its mouth and released it. The child had lain there three and a half days, from the time the bomb exploded in the early morning of the fateful March 13th to the moment of its rescue—almost incredible, but true.’ The baby’s parents had both been killed, their bodies protecting the child from harm. The baby was taken to the Victoria Central Hospital where she responded to treatment and is alive and well today.

thanks, raven, i can confirm she is still going strong

Wallasey.

An oversight with the New Brighton mix up. Apologies