Blitz Special Edition - Regional Press Awards

Weather outlook: Cloudy & cold
1 MAI-E01-S2
A city in ruins: Pages 4 & 5
BLITZ SPECIAL EDITION
TEL: 15100 (15 Lines)
FRIDAY, MAY 9, 1941
LIGHTING-UP: 9.44 to 5.21
Registered for transmission
as a newspaper
1 12 d
TERROR RAINS FROM THE SKY
HUNDREDS KILLED AND A CITY DEVASTATED AFTER TWO NIGHTS OF INTENSE GERMAN BOMBING
HEY will be listed in wartime records
as Raids 45 and 46.
T simply
But the devastation inflicted on Hull and its people these past two
nights will live forever in the memories of those enduring the bombs
and their aftermath.
As the last of the smoke clears over our ruined city this morning,
families are coming to terms with the death of 424 loved ones, from
newborn babies to people approaching their 90th birthday.
Another 30 people are currently in hospitals across Hull and the East
Riding and are not expected to survive their appalling injuries.
Hundreds of men, women and children have been maimed, blinded
and seriously hurt after more than 300 high-explosives and parachute
mines bombed almost every part of the city and tens of thousands of
incendiary bombs left fires and mayhem in their wake.
Thousands more have been
injured by falling masonry and explosive bomb falling on Clevshrapnel or choked by the fumes eland Street at 12.35am.
of fire.
Bomb after bomb fell on Hull
Today, virtually no street in the and its people until “raiders
city remains untouched by the passed” sounded at 5.08am on
past two nights.
Thursday morning.
We do not know if more bombs
Water mains were destroyed in
will fall this evening and we, the the early stages, leaving fire
people of Hull, shall steel crews to work with only reserve
ourselves for that eventuality. All supplies and extra crews were
we can be certain of is the events drafted in from all over Yorkof May 7/8 and May 8/9, 1941, will shire.
come to be regarded as the
Rubble and masonry blocked
darkest in the city’s history.
entire streets, making it almost
impossible for fire pumps to
A CITY ON FIRE
make their way through. In other
British pilots leaving the coast streets, giant bomb craters held
of Denmark witnessed the glow of up crews rescuing casualties
Hull on fire with blazes reported trapped in collapsed buildings.
In all, 464 fires broke out in the
in almost every part of the city.
According to Scheme for the city, with the first starting
Care of the Homeless records, around midnight.
By 08.36 yesterday morning, the
seen by the Mail, 41 reception
centres were in operation regional officer in Leeds received
throughout the city on Wednes- the message “All fires under conday night and 7,350 people were trol.”
Around 2,600 wardens on duty THE AFTERMATH — The clean-up operation begins in Hull’s Queen Victoria Square after the German raids.
left homeless, helpless or destisent messages to the city control
tute by the bombing.
which made 50 roads impassStaff at the municipal kitchens centres as fires broke out across
dished up 17,000 meals to fam- the city, trapping people inside able.
Every man and woman volunilies, rescue workers, police and burning buildings and air raid
shelters.
teering for the Civil Defence Serfire crews.
Bomb disposal squads were vice reported for duty when they
Last night, 42 reception centres
dealt with another 6,841 and forced to deal with dozens of realised the severity of the raids,
25,000 hot meals were prepared unexploded devices, landing in making their way to their HQs to
streets and gardens all over receive their orders despite the
for the hungry and destitute.
In the Corporation’s report to Hull.
bombs and shrapnel raining
the Government, city engineer
down on the city.
HORROR
TACTIC
William Morris has listed 447
As the extent of the damage
houses, 18 factories and wareSome had delayed timers, a became known, 2,000 soldiers
houses and 315 offices and busi- cruel ploy by Hitler’s killing were drafted in to Hull to help
nesses as totally destroyed.
machine to slaughter as many rescue work, direct traffic, demolHowever, a further 968 homes, innocent civilians as possible.
ish dangerous buildings and
50 factories and warehouses, 302
Around 70 rescue operations
offices and businesses and 15 pub- were mounted by 130 teams made organise transport to keep the
lic buildings including schools up of 1,500 rescue workers and 700 city running.
HE heart of Hull has been destroyed by the
have been so badly damaged, they people were pulled from the
400 FIRES
will need to be demolished.
rubble, including 279 of the
intensity
of two nights of German
Another 3.057 houses, 71 indus- dead.
Last night, Hull was targeted by
bombing.
trial establishments, 326 offices
More than 2,000 runners, volun- 120 enemy aircraft, many of them
and 19 public buildings have been teering for the Hull Civil Defence diverted, this time, from their
The Prudential, shops, stores, hotels, restaurants and numerous
seriously damaged but can be Service, carried messages to the original target of Sheffield.
smaller shops in Jameson Street, King Edward Street and Prospect
repaired.
city’s control centre, summoning
With the raid lasting from Street have been reduced to rubble.
Hammonds department store was hit by a bomb and secondary
ambulances or fire engines to 12.05am to 5.55am, 157 tons of
WEDNESDAY TERROR
help emergency services on the high explosives and 19, 467 incen- incendiary devices. The Guildhall and City Hall are also damaged.
Surveying a city centre reduced to rubble, Tom Arksey, a senior
Official records reveal 72 Ger- scene.
diary bombs were dropped on the counter bank clerk at the Yorkshire Penny Bank, told the Mail: “There
Hundreds of first-aid staff were
man aircraft dropped 311 bombs
city causing almost 400 separate have been raids before, and others will come, but none will reach the
and 9,648 incendiary bombs on on duty to ferry more than 550
fires.
horror and ferocity of these past two nights.”
the city after enemy aircraft were casualties to first aid posts and
This time, the areas most
Mr Arksey, 32, and other workdiverted from their original tar- hospitals.
in the bank the Luftwaffe had not
get of Liverpool on Wednesday
Women ambulance drivers affected were King George, Alex- ers left the bank around 5.30pm opened for us – and were ready to
on
Wednesday
evening.
andra
and
Victoria
Docks
as
well
night.
drove through walls of flames and
Living alone at the family home do business in a city ‘bloody but
The sounding of the first siren edged their way past the fero- as east and north Hull.
At one stage, 150 fires were 73 Dewsbury Street, west Hull, unbowed’.
at 11.16pm marked the start of six cious heat of buildings on fire,
hours of terror, with the first high dodging craters at 160 spots raging at the same time, the while his wife Jessie and daughDEVIL’S ORCHESTRA
fiercest close to the Albert and ter Gillian stay with relatives to
Cumberworth,
West
Yorkshire,
It was half–day closing that day
William Wright Docks and among
Mr Arksay said: “Just before mid- so staff returned home.
factories along the river.
night came the wailing of the
Mr Arksey said: “We left all
All fires were under control by sirens and, almost simultansecure to try to make up some
06.55 this morning.
eously, the bang of the anti-air- much needed sleep, but with a
As well as the tidal wave of craft guns. Mingled with it was
human suffering, around 700 the scream of bombs as they came conviction – fatalistic or intuitive
– that we should have a repeat
cats, dogs and pets had to be hurtling down and the dull
performance that same night.
rescued by officials from Hull crump as they made contact with
“Sure enough, about midnight,
Dog Home and the RSPCA.
the earth.
the sirens went and almost imme“It became evident this was no diately the same devil's orchestra
Today, the bodies of husbands,
wives, sons, daughters and broth- ordinary raid.
was in full swing again.
“As the night wore on, the battle
ers and sisters lie in mortuaries
“This time, the fires were not so
increased
in
violence
–
the
roar
of
at Albert Avenue, Hedon Road,
extensively
lurid,
perhaps
planes
overhead,
the
thump
of
because there was less to burn,
Beverley Road and Sutton.
bombs
as
they
fell
and
the
ceasebut again there were the pitiable
On May 12, families of the
less firing of the guns. By 2 am, streams of homeless.
people missing, presumed dead,
the whole horizon was a brilliant
“As dawn was breaking, we saw
will take part in a communal red glare as fires raged
the magnificent City Hall, domfuneral for victims whose bodies unchecked throughout the city.”
inating the square, with its roof
RAGING FIRES — No street remained untouched by the bombing as
are too badly burned or mutilated
well alight, but our eyes were
firemen struggled to battle the 464 fires that broke out in the city.
by bomb blasts to be identified.
TANGLED MASS
mainly for the bank.”
Once again, to his amazement,
The bank manager and the chief
cashier turned up at his home the bank was still standing and
shortly after 4am and they staff once more busied themheaded into the city centre to selves sweeping out the rubble.
inspect possible damage.
Mr Arksey said: “After a
never-to-be-forgotten ride, turning back several times because of
craters, fires or streams of now
homeless people, we left the car
half a mile away from the bank
EWS has reached Britain
and made our way on foot. As we
that the Greek capital of
got nearer, we abandoned all hope
Athens fell to German forces
for the building.
OP
secret
files
have
12 days ago.
“The whole Prudential building
revealed the past two
Italy
presented
Greek
in City Square, with its five nights
of
bombing
have
Premier Ioannis Metaxas with
storeys and a frontage of 150 ft, claimed 424 lives.
an ultimatum to surrender last
had nothing but its tower left.
Confidential files, seen by the
October.
The Price's Tailors building Mail, show another 30 people
When he refused Italy’s Musacross the road was a tangled are fighting for their lives in
solini ordered his forces, based
mass of steelwork and stone, with hospital.
in Italian-occupied Albania, to DESTROYED — Ranks Flour Mill near Drypool Bridge.
“Shorty” grotesquely arranged
From Wednesday night into
attack just three hours later.
in his 50/- suit, lying in the street Thursday morning, 77 men, 80
But the Greek Army fought
like a dead man.”
women and 46 children lost
hard against the Italian
their lives.
invaders, holding back the
STILL
STANDING
By this morning, another 112
advance.
The Yorkshire Penny Bank was men, 66 women and 43 children
However, Germany has now
still standing, although its win- were dead.
come to the aid of the Italians
The casualty files were predows and frames had been blown
to shore up the Axis advances
pared for the Health Departout.
in southern Europe.
“We were welcomed by the ment, based at the Guildhall.
On April 6, Germany invaded
They show 327 people – 188
Greece through Bulgaria and
ORSES traumatised by the dropping of high explosives and porter who lived in the top flat. He
incendiary bombs on Hull had to be rescued from a blazing told us how an incendiary bomb men, 114 woman and 25 chilYugoslavia and has marched to
stable.
had come in through the dren – were seriously injured
the capital.
Rescuers were forced to place bags over the heads of horses after the shattered window and how he during the two nights of bombSources from the frontline
had, with his bare hands, thrown ing and were rushed to hoshave revealed British Com- stable near Ranks flour mill caught fire.
An initial fire at the mill had been quelled and fire crews were just it back into the square. When Mr pital. Of those, 30 are not expecmonwealth troops, moved
Binns, head office manager in ted to survive.
from Libya on the orders of Mr leaving when oil bombs and high
past an unexploded bomb (UXB).
Another 446 people - 243 men,
Leeds, heard his story, he
Winston Churchill, staged a explosives fell on the mill.
An eye witness said: “They promptly, and characteristically, 149 women and 54 children Walls fell and floors crashed in,
brave resistance but have now
were treated for injuries at
with clouds of flour blinding the kicked and screamed in terror, gave him a £5 note.”
been beaten back.
Told by Head Office in Leeds first aid posts.
Fifteen of the 21 Greek divi- firemen, making it impossible to but could not be moved until the
rescuers placed bags over the that Nicholsons, contracted to do
According to the files, 36
sions had been deployed assess the damage.
Hundreds of tons of grain cas- heads of the horses.
all the bank’s repairs, were on people are missing and will be
against the Italians, leaving
“Even when led, they insisted their way with two lorry loads of presumed dead after inquiries
just six divisions to face the caded into the River Hull when
might of the German attack in part of a wall collapsed on the on walking over ground where a equipment, the bank’s doors were by the coroner.
The final death toll is expecthe Metaxas Line near the bor- riverside before the rescue crews UXB had landed, rather than face opened for business at 10am.
Mr Arksey said: “At 10 am, we ted to be 454 – 207 men, 157
der between Greece and attempted to save the horses from the glare coming from a row of
the stable and lead them to safety burning shops.”
opened the door – the only thing women and 90 children.
Yugoslavia/Bulgaria.
ADMIRATION — General
Sir William Bartholemew.
THE BRAVERY
OF HULL
CITIZENS
ENERAL
Sir
William
G
Bartholemew,
regional
commissioner for the North
HEART OF CITY REDUCED TO
RUBBLE BY ‘FEROCIOUS RAIDS’
WAILING OF SIRENS, BANG OF ANTI-AIRCRAFT
GUNS AND SCREAM OF HURTLING BOMBS
T
GREECE FALLS
TO GERMAN
INVASION
DEATH TOLL
REVEALED
N
T
HORSES RESCUED
IN STABLE BLAZE
ANIMALS ‘KICKED AND SCREAMED’
H
Eastern Region, has paid tribute
to the people of Hull.
He said: “Hull stands today terribly scarred but with the knowledge that great services have
been performed for the nation.
“I have been filled with admiration for the tenacity, the patience
and the bravery of the citizens of
Hull.
“Never once did the citizens
waver in their determination to
see it through.
“It must not be forgotten that
many of the worst bomb attacks
were
concentrated
on
the
crowded portions of the city and
on the dock area.
“I have seen the city with great
fires raging in many places and
devastation widespread but the
idea of its people throughout was
defiance, often expressed in best
Yorkshire amid scenes of ruin
and fire.”
HUNGARY UNDER NAZI CONTROL
ondon has severed all ties with Budapest as Hungary falls
LHungarian
under the control of Nazi Germany.
Prime Minister Pál Teleki has committed suicide
after German troops begun their march into Hungary on April 3.
Mr Teleki had earlier been warned by the Hungarian minister
in London of the consequences of not resisting German advances
across her territory.
However, General Werth, chief of the Hungarian General Staff,
is understood to have held secret talks with German High
Command to allow the transportation of German troops across
Hungary.
Britain’s Minster for Foreign Affairs, Mr Anthony Eden, has
now followed up his threat to break off diplomatic relations.
2– The Daily Mail, Friday, May 9, 1941
17 SHELTERS
DESTROYED
APPEAL
TO LOCK
UP CYCLES
HOUSANDS
of
parents
T
thought they would keep
their families safe but Hull’s
T a special sitting of the
A
Market Weighton Police
Court on Thursday week,
councillor
G
W
Rayson
presided,
and
was
accompanied on the bench by
Mrs J. E. Dalgliesh.
Only five days previously the
same presiding magistrate
advised the superintendent of
an approved school to use the
cane when they bound a boy
over and ordered his return to
the school for the theft of two
bicycles and a cycle lamp at
Holme-on-Spalding-Moor.
The boy has again turned his
attention to Holme-on-Spalding-Moor, and took a cycle, the
property of Stanley King-Hall.
PC Wright spoke to receiving
the boy and the cycle from West
Riding police at Snaith.
The chairman, after severely
reproving the lad, made a
strong appeal through the
press
to
people
in
Holme-on-Spalding-Moor and
Market Weighton to take
greater care of their cycles, and
either place them in a locked
up place or at least lock up the
cycle.
The boy was bound over and
again ordered to return to the
approved school, the superintendent being strongly advised
to mete out the punishment he
thought would serve the case.
SURVIVOR SEARCH — A rescue team searches through rubble to try to find survivors. Nurse in white
waiting with the team to offer medical attention.
SERVICES PAY THE ULTIMATE
SACRIFICE FOR THEIR BRAVERY
WARDENS, FIREMEN AND VOLUNTEERS AMONG CASUALTIES
HEY have paid the ultimate sacrifice by
dedicating their lives to helping victims of
T
the Blitz.
Air raid wardens, firemen and volunteers who braved walls of fire
and skies blackened with bombs to rescue others are among hundreds
of men, women and children to lose their lives in Hull and the East
Riding over the past two nights.
Around one in ten of the victims, 45 members of essential services,
have been killed by bombs, shrapnel, fallen masonry and fire.
One police fireman and nine part-time firemen serving with the
Auxiliary Fire Service (AFS), creLilian Omer, 32, died at Naylors
ated by the Government in 1938 to
Row along with WVS colleague
support the fire brigade in warLouisa Puckering, 64.
time, paid with their lives as hunRachael Newell, 40, also lost her
dreds of fire crews battled 845 life at 2 Foston Grove, Preston
blazes engulfing the city over Road.
both nights.
Air raid wardens, part of BriWHITE CROSS — Businessman
Mr Tom Hudson J.P.
MOTORISTS
WILLING TO
GIVE A LIFT
OME months ago, Hull
S
businessman Mr Tom Hudson
J.P., who for years before the war
has lived on the far side of Hessle,
instituted the League of the
White Cross for motorists.
Now he says that motorists,
willing to give a lift to pedestrians
left stranded, should have on
their windscreen a symbol in the
form of a cross indicating that
they are willing to be pulled up.
The scheme met with a fair
response and much good work
has been done, but what will suffice in normal times will not
answer present day problems.
There is a definite shortage of
public service vehicles in Hull.
Some have been loaned, some
destroyed, others just worn out.
Consequently the carrying power
of those remaining is overtaxed
at certain peak times-after breakfast and before tea.
There may be a few scroungers
willing to save the bus fares, and a
few ungracious souls who reject
the offers of lifts because they are
soured or suspicious, but taken
by and large the man who offers a
ride to someone stranded will be
more than repaid by the gratitude, both expressed and felt, by
the passenger to whom he has
rendered a service costing nothing except a momentary pulling
up and setting down.
DIRECT HIT
Police fireman Herbert Best, 46,
John Andrews, 47, and Leonard
Cressey, 48, were killed when
Central Fire Station took a direct
hit in the bombing raid which
started on Wednesday night.
George Cottam, 31, George
Fowler, 33, and Leslie Arton, 34,
were all killed at 163 Anlaby Road
in the early hours of Thursday
morning.
Joseph Lowrey, 29, died at Cornelius Parish Garage on Anlaby
Road.
George Waller, 38, lost his life in
Cleveland Street, where the first
bomb landed on Wednesday
night.
Walter King, 40, died in Chapel
Lane, Hull, and Alexander
Schooler, 42, was killed at Albert
Dock.
WRVS LOST
The Women’s Voluntary Service, set up by the Dowager Marchioness of Reading Stella Issacs
in 1938 and now with one million
women members to assist with
the war effort, also suffered casualties.
While Hull’s WVS has worked
tirelessly over the past two days,
assisting the thousands of families made homeless and providing the walking wounded and survivors with comfort at rest
centres throughout the city, today
its members are coming to terms
with the loss of five of their own.
Mabel Isa Deltour, 43, was killed
in Myton Street.
Jane Borill, 58, was killed when
the Regent Street Shelter took a
direct hit in the early hours of
Thursday.
tain’s army of 1.4m unpaid volunteers who enforce the black–out
and patrol the streets during air
BLAZE BATTLES — Auxiliary Fire
raids to put out incendiary
Service attend a water pump.
devices with sandbags, suffered a
heavy loss of life, with 11 members killed over both nights.
Harold Fisher, 32, died in Beverley Road, Clifford Foley, 33, died
in Ellerby Grove, Cyril Omer, 41,
died in Naylor Row, George Halliday, 63, died in 80 Walcott Street
and Arthur Revell, 60, was killed
at 294 Beverley Road with wife
Ada, 62.
Louis Black, 49, who also volunteered as a fire watcher, was
killed at 78 Regent Street and
Edward Shepherdson, 43, was
killed at 240 Newland Avenue,
Hull.
Warden Thomas Maguire, 45,
was among the people who lost TERRIFYING — Destroyed homes, numbers 164-170 on Porter Street.
their lives after taking shelter in
the basement of the Prudential
building at Hull City Centre.
INFERNO
The building was hit by a
high-explosive bomb which destroyed the basement boiler house
and gas mains, causing an
inferno.
Mr Maguire, his wife Matilda,
43, and daughters Mary, 15, and
Therese, 12, are believed to have
been killed instantly.
Ernest Spicer, 45 and a member
of Air Raid Precautions, died
with five other members of his
family when their home – Ashley
Villas in Hedon – took a direct
hit.
His wife Vida, 44, daughters
Joan, 22 and also a member of Air
Raid Precautions and Delma, 14,
and sons Geoffrey, 10, and
six–year–old Edward also lost
their lives.
One of the city’s female air raid
wardens – Annie Morriss, 56 –
lost her life along with her sister
Mary, 62, at 29 Barnsley Street.
TEENAGER KILLED
WHITE-HOT INFERNO — Remains of the Prudential Tower in Queen
Victoria Square, Hull. Firemen dampen down the fires.
PRUDENTIAL BUILDING
BLAST KILLS SIXTEEN
DIRECT HIT FROM PARACHUTE MINE
IXTEEN people were killed when the Prudential building in
S
King Edward Street took a direct hit on May 7. Many people
had rushed into the building when the air raid sirens sounded,
taking shelter in the basement.
However, the building was hit by a parachute mine destroying
the boiler house in the basement and gas mains, causing a
white-hot inferno which killed
during Wednesday night’s
everyone instantly.
The only part of the building onslaught.
Catherine Bristow, 19, and
still standing is the Prudential
tower but it will have to be Vincent Bristow, 26, died with
demolished for safety once the air raid warden Thomas
bodies have been recovered Maguire, 45, his wife Matilda,
from
the
basement
and 43, and their daughters Mary,
removed
to
mortuaries 15, and 12–year–old Therese
Firewatcher Harold Hildred,
throughout the city.
William Boase, 35, his wife 17, and Frederick Rees, 45, also
Agnes Rita, 33, and their died along with Frederick Walfour–year–old daughter Eliza- lis, 54, his wife Catherine, 48,
beth were sheltering in the and their children Frederick,
basement when the Prudential 15, and Barbara, 11.
became one of the first buildThe sixteenth victim has not
ings in the city centre to be hit yet been identified.
public shelters have proved no
match for Hitler’s air force.
Rescue teams confirmed this
morning that 17 public shelters,
made of concrete and brick and
designed to hold upwards of 50
people who do not have Anderson
shelters in their gardens, have
been destroyed over the past two
nights, killing dozens of men,
women and children.
The youngest victim of Hull’s
Blitz – three-week-old infant
Philip Wilson – was among nine
people, including his five-year-old
sister Eunice, to lose their lives
when the Kimberley Street Shelter was destroyed by a bomb.
The Regent Street Shelter was
the first of nine shelters to be hit
shortly after the sirens sounds
just after 11pm on Wednesday,
killing six people including William Greenley, 57, his daughter-in-law Amy, 27, and grandson
William, just 23 months old.
Toddler Brenda Carter, just 18
months old, was killed in La
Trobe Terrace Shelter along with
her parents Olive, 27, and William, 35.
Six people lost their lives when
the Airlie Street Shelter took a
direct hit shortly afterwards and
Leonard Sargeant, 67, was killed
at the Naylors Row Shelter.
In the Jordan Avenue Shelter,
Harriet Charles, 44, died with her
four children Harold, 16, Stanley,
13, Ronald, 9, and 18-month-old
daughter Carol.
Three children from the Moorhouse family – Nellie, 21, Fanny,
18, and eight-year-old George –
were killed in the Osborne Street
Shelter. It is not known what has
become of their parents.
Last night, a further eight shelters were targeted as families
throughout the city took cover
from a second night of terror.
At Frederick’s Terrace Shelter,
five members of the Fitchett family – Thomas, 67, Mary, 60, Mary,
23, Raymond, 4, and 17-month-old
Maureen, died alongside Elsie
Hooper, 30.
Three children of the Moss family – Lilian, 12, Joseph, 10, and
Leonard, 4 – were killed when the
shelter in South Parade suffered a
direct hit. Once again, the fate of
their parents or guardians is
unknown.
And at Nornabell Street, Janet
Rustill, 46, died alongside her two
daughters Brenda, 11, and 18
month-old Patricia.
Firewatchers – given the duty of
extinguishing incendiary bombs
before a fire takes hold – were
among casualties.
Charles Harvey, 65, Frederick
Hemingway, 53, George Hill, 50,
John Kelly, 55, George Marshall,
33, Samuel Garbutt, 69, Thomas
Jameson, 59, John Epton, 61, all
lost their lives at various
addresses throughout the city.
Teenage firewatcher Harold
Hildred, 17, lost his life in the
Prudential
building,
Robert
Brown, 53, was killed at High
Street
Shelter
and
Albert
Porteous, 48, was killed at Gilyott
and Co Ltd on High Street.
TWO OF ITS OWN
The Home Guard lost two of its
own. Reginald Coates, 43, was
killed in Linnaeus Street and William Pratt, 33, was killed along
with his four year-old daughter
Hilary at their home, 83 Albany
Street.
Railway policemen George
Barker, 65, and John Woods, 42,
were both killed at King George’s
Dock and PC Roy Needley, 27, was
killed at Trinity House, Carr
Lane.
Arthur Bolton, 41, who relayed
messages to emergency service
crews as part of the cyclist messenger service, was killed at district HQ on Beverley Road on
Wednesday night.
Robert Gray, 33, was working at
Osbourne St first aid post, tending casualties from earlier
attacks, when he was killed.
And the vicar of York Minster,
Francis Sedgwick, 68, died while
visiting St Philip’s vicarage at
Charlotte Street.
FAMILY RUNS INTO
A WALL OF FLAMES
MOTHER SAVES HER THREE CHILDREN
MOTHER saved her three children by
A
making them run through a wall of fire to
escape the bombs falling on Hull city centre.
Annie Ellis was attempting to comfort her terrified children George,
11, Patricia, 5, and two-year-old Albert as mines and incendiary
devices were dropped close to
crete and brick public shelter in
their home in Oxford Terrace off
the terrace.
Porter Street.
Bernard told the Mail: “My dad
When family friend Pat Carty
doesn’t bother to come out of the
arrived at their home to check on
house during an air raid so it was
their safety, he realised the family just my Mam, sister and brother
was in grave danger and decided and me in the shelter.
to take the woman and three
“We heard these whistling
young children back to his home bombs coming down and you just
in Derwent Avenue.
know your name’s on one of them
Mrs Ellis said: “The bombs as you hear them coming down.
were dropping all over and Pat
Carty came to the door and told
FIZZ AND CRACKLE
us we couldn’t stay there.
“There was such a crash and the
“We decided to try to make it
back to his home, away from the whole shelter shook and jumped
city centre, so we took the chil- and the roof lifted off.
“All the oil lamps started to fizz
dren and started running.
“At one point, we came to a wall and crackle and one end of the
of flames and thought that was shelter was blown off and we were
trapped inside, with the rubble
the end of it.”
piling up at the door so we
couldn’t get out for ages.
DON’T STOP
“Eventually, they passed me
With scenes from Hell all through the hole to the rescuers
around them, Mr Carty and Mrs and got my brother out.
Ellis made their children run for
“There was such a lot of panic in
their lives.
the street and we wandered off
Mrs Ellis said: “Pat took off his down Waterloo Street when all
coat, put it over my daughter these incendiary bombs were fallPat’s head and said to her: ‘You ing.
will run and don’t stop running.’
“We stood in a doorway and one
“George had his baby brother of the air raid wardens was darton his back and the three of them ing out of the next doorway, pickheld hands and we made them ing up sandbags piled at
run through this wall of flames lamp-posts and throwing them on
until they got through the other the incendiaries to put them
side.
out.”
“We followed them and we ran
Meanwhile, at their home in
the full length of Hessle Road Frederick’s Terrace, rescuers
until we got to Pat’s house in were digging the children’s father
out of the rubble after their house
Derwent Avenue.”
took a direct hit on Wednesday
night.
LUCKY ESCAPE
Mr Raddings is believed to have
Another couple and their three been running to the front door
children are counting their lucky when the bomb hit the house,
stars after escaping death twice blowing the door off its hinges
in two days.
and trapping him between the
Ted and Lily Raddings were wood and an old oak sideboard.
bombed out with their three chil- He was rescued with barely a few
dren Ted, 11, Bernard, eight, and cuts and bruises despite being
five-year-old Shirley after their trapped under the wreckage of
home at 10 Frederick’s Terrace his house for hours.
suffered a direct hit on WednesIn an incredible feat of survival,
day.
the family’s pet rabbit was also
However, last night, five of their found alive, sitting on top of the
neighbours were killed when the rubble, with only a broken leg.
public shelter was flattened by a
The family was reunited at
parachute mine.
Kings Hall reception centre in
Mr Raddings said: “If we hadn’t Fountain Road before going to
have been bombed out, we’d have stay with relatives.
been in the shelter and would
However, the following night,
have died with the rest of them.”
the public shelter in Frederick’s
Mrs Raddings had woken her Terrace suffered a direct hit,
children from their beds and killing five of their neighbours.
taken them into the shelter when
Mr Raddings said: “I suppose
the air raid siren sounded just we’re lucky, in a way, that our
before midnight on Wednesday house took a direct hit when it
night and took them into the con- did.”
CHURCHILL’S
MESSAGE
N February this year, Mr
Imessage
Winston Churchill broadcast a
from London.
FIRE RAGES — Huge blaze at Hull Royal Infirmary after it was hit by a bomb.
INFIRMARY TARGETED
BY HITLER’S BOMBS
COURAGE AND DEVOTION
OF NURSES AND DOCTORS
ICK and dying hospital patients have
become Hitler’s latest targets as Hull Royal
S
Infirmary takes the brunt of the worst bombing during Hull’s Blitz.
For two nights running, Hull Royal Infirmary has been targeted by
German bombers as they offloaded their deadly cargo over the city.
However, thanks to the courage and devotion of nurses, doctors and
support staff, none of the 60 patients and no members of staff have been
hurt.
This morning, for the first time in its history, Hull Royal Infirmary
has no patients, with the sick and wounded evacuated to safety in
medical centres outside the city centre.
Surveying the damage to the hospital on Prospect Street, Assistant
House Governor Bernard Sylvester told the Mail: “The blasting and
the transfixing ‘fluttering’ sound of the land mines being dropped – the
noise will never be forgotten.
“Staff went through the naus- equipment but of the risk from
eating experience of being further conflagration as bedding
and mattresses were in danger of
bombed and dive bombed.
“Little did we think we would being set alight by the sparks and
flying pieces of burning wood
see the light of day again.
“It seems miraculous no-one which were blowing through the
received injury other than a few windows damaged by blast.”
minor cuts and scratches.”
WELL ABLAZE
The first bomb fell on Hull
Royal Infirmary shortly after
Wednesday night’s first air raid
warning was sounded.
Patients, many already seriously wounded in previous bombing raids, were rushed from
upper floors of the building to
lower wards before being moved
into air raid shelters as bombing
intensified.
Blazes engulfed the labs, staff
quarters, bread larder and coal
store, with flames igniting the
coal, and every member of the
12–strong team of five doctors,
porters, engineers and lab staff
battled to put out the flames.
With no water pressure rendering the fire hoses unusable, the
roof of the Duchess Ward was well
ablaze although staff used buckets of water and stirrup pumps to
stop it spreading.
Hospital workers also threw
blazing pieces of furniture from
windows to prevent fires spreading throughout the hospital.
When every patient had been
moved to safety, nurses, doctors,
porters and other hospital staff
tried to salvage hospital equipment in danger of catching fire.
Mr Sylvester said: “The hospital was encircled by fire and
smouldering embers blew into
the hospital and were a great
source of danger throughout.
“During the whole of this time,
the nursing staff went on calmly
tending to the patients and helping when necessary to salvage
equipment.
“Salvage work was necessary
not only because of the value of
DOCK-MASTER
MOURNS LOSS
HE Dock-Master at King
T
George Dock is grieving
today after two of his children
were killed in Wednesday night’s
raid.
Kenneth Eastwood, 18, and his
sister Muriel, 23, were killed
instantly when the Dock–Master’s house was hit by a parachute
mine.
Two railway police attempting
to help the family extinguish
incendiary bombs seconds before
the blast were also killed.
Dock-Master Albert Eastwood
and his wife Ethel survived but
their other children Roy and
Winifred suffered serious injuries and are recovering at Driffield
Hospital.
King George Dock is a prime
target for the German Luftwaffe
as they attempt to grind the port
to a halt but so far, their attempts
are in vain as the docks have not
missed a single day’s work.
Kenneth and his brother Roy, 17,
had just returned to their home
from Home Guard training and
were standing outside their home
when they spotted incendiary
devices falling from the sky close
to their home, next to the main
gate entrance opposite the Railway Police Office.
Two railway policemen John
Woods, 52, and George Barker, 65,
were on duty and raced to help
the young men when a parachute
mine floated down from the sky
and became snagged on a poplar
tree next to the family’s house.
Although Kenneth was able to
shout a warning to the others to
run after realising it was a bomb,
he and the two policemen were
killed instantly along with
Kenneth’s sister Muriel.
TEA SAVED
Hospitals bedsteads were piled
high with bedding, mattresses
and valuable equipment from
Reckitt, Walker and Duchess
Wards and pushed away from the
fires to central corridors and
ante-rooms.
All of the Red Cross stock, gifted
by America to help Hull’s homeless and destitute, was saved
along with 400 lbs of tea and four
cars rescued from hospital garages.
Mr Sylvester said: “The whole
time, high explosive bombs were
crashing down in the near vicinity of the hospital.
“Frequent patrols were being
made round the building to spot
fresh fires.”
As the first night’s raid died
down at 4.30am and before the
all–clear at 6am, Mr Sylvester
said he was amazed to see nurses
giving out food and drink to
patients.
“I am still at a loss to understand how they managed this,” he
said, praising staff ’s “undaunted
courage, great initiative and
untiring energy.”
Ambulances were arranged to
transfer patients through the
rubble of what remains of Hull
city centre with the last patient
evacuated at 8am on Thursday
morning.
As darkness fell last night, the
hospital was once again ready to
take casualties as staff used the
salvaged equipment to set up an
out-patients department, a fracture clinic and a casualty department with temporary structural
repair carried out on the damage.
Dock-master Eastwood and his
wife were sheltering in a cupboard under the stairs and it was
the only part of the house left
standing.
The
Dock–Master’s
two
wounded children Roy and Winifred were placed in an ambulance
trailer as the ambulance was full
with casualties.
Forced to wind its way through
rubble–strewn streets and passed
the terrible heat of burning buildings, they were taken to the Children’s Hospital in Park Street.
They are now recovering at
Driffield Hospital although there
are plans to transfer Roy, who
suffered facial injuries and a
broken elbow to Pinderfield’s
Military Hospital as he was
injured while in the uniform of
the Home Guard.
FISH FRYER CHARGED
WITH BUTTER THEFT
A 51-year-old fish fryer, Albert Edward Loftis,
Walton-street, Hull, was charged at Hull Police Court
today with the theft of ten packets of margarine and
two packets of butter, the property of the Home and
County Tea Company Ltd.
The Bench (Councillor D.C. Lister presiding and
Miss M. Anderson) granted a remand until May 19.
Inspector J. E. Huxley prosecuted and
Detective-Constable Trott gave evidence of arrest.
However, last night’s raid was
even more terrifying than Wednesday night, with landmines
exploding close to the first aid
post where staff were treating
casualties.
Mr Sylvester said: “The hospital again suffered damage from
the blast of the high explosive
bombs dropped in the vicinity,
some on the nearby buildings
that had been burned out the
previous night, but we received
no direct hit. Providence was
with us again.”
NO SLEEP FOR DAYS
Today, staff are still working,
many going without a wink of
sleep for close to three days, to get
the hospital ready to receive more
casualties. Other staff, at home
while the raids took place, have
battled through the rubble to
reach work, knowing every hand
is required.
Some support staff have been
ordered to Sutton, where an operating theatre has been working
for three days non–stop to save
lives while a team of eight men
remains at Hull Royal Infirmary.
Nursing staff, with the exception of the matron, night sister
and staff nurse, have been taken
to safe addresses to “sleep out”
and eight men working in various
hospital departments remain on
duty today.
While the hospital continues to
treat casualties, broken bones
and general out–patients during
the day and air raid casualties at
night, it is likely temporary
accommodation will be required
on another site to treat hospital
in–patients.
Mr Sylvester said: “But for the
prompt action of the staff in fighting the fires, it is certain the
hospital would not be standing
today and many valuable lives,
both patients and staff, may have
been lost.”
Cyril Gelder, 19 years old, of
Kent-street, Hull, was fined one
guinea for absenting himself
without leave from the ship in
which he had been engaged to
serve.
A fine of four guineas was
imposed in the case of John Wallace, of Prince’s Dock Side, Hull,
who pleaded guilty to absenting
himself from duty on May 7.
Terence O’Neill, of no fixed
abode, a seaman gunner, was
fined £5 for refusing to proceed to
sea.
He denied the offence, saying
that he was the impression that
he could leave the ship when he
desired to do so.
SEVEN FAMILY
SEAMEN IN MEMBERS LOST
POLICE COURT S
EVERAL seamen who disS
obeyed orders appeared
before the Bench (Mr J. G. Hewett,
presiding, and Councillor H.
Fairbotham) at Hull Police Court
yesterday.
Four of the men were engaged to
serve on the same ship. Mr C. H.
Ashburn prosecuted.
Antony Smith, ship’s boy, and
William Edwards, seaman, of
Dundee, were fined 10s 6d and 21s
respectively.
Smith, who was stated to have
been a troublesome boy on the
ship, was found guilty of absenting himself from duty on May 7.
It was alleged that although he
was on board the ship, he lay in
his bunk.
Edwards denied committing a
similar offence on February 13,
contending that he was ill and
unable to rise from his bunk.
Today, as Hull deals with the
aftermath of one of the worst
attacks of the war so far, we repeat
the Prime Minister’s words to
give us strength.
“After the heavy defeats of the
German air force by our fighters
in August and September, Herr
Hitler did not dare attempt the
invasion of this island, although
he had every need to do so and
although he had made vast preparations.
“Baffled in this mighty project,
he sought to break the spirit of the
British nation by the bombing,
first of London, and afterwards of
our great cities.
“It has now been proved, to the
admiration of the world, and of
our friends in the United States,
that this form of blackmail by
murder and terrorism, so far
from weakening the spirit of the
British nation, has only roused it
to a more intense and universal
flame than was ever seen before
in any modern community.
“The enemy has had the power
to drop three or four tons of
bombs upon us for every ton we
could send to Germany in
return.
“We are arranging so that
presently this will be rather the
other way round; but, meanwhile.
London and our big cities have
had to stand their pounding.
“They remind me of the British
squares at Waterloo.
“They are not squares of soldiers; they do not wear scarlet
coats. They are just ordinary English Scottish and Welsh folk men,
women and children-standing
steadfastly together.
“But their spirit is the same,
their glory is the same; and, in the
end, their victory will be greater
than far-famed Waterloo.
“So, if our first victory was the
repulse of the invader, our second
was the frustration of his acts of
terror and torture against our
people at home.
We shall not fail or falter; we
shall not weaken or tire. Neither
the sudden shock of battle, nor the
long-drawn trials of vigilance and
exertion will wear us down.”
EVEN members of the same
family are among the 18 victims killed when bombs rained
down on their street.
Albert Dove 52, died with six
children Beatrice, 16, Albert, 13,
Adelaide, 11, Ronald, 7, Amelia, 5,
and four-year-old Brian when
Lister Street was hit on Wednesday night.
Their home at no 37 was destroyed and they were killed alongside Florence Davis, 31, and
George Fox, 47.
Next-door neighbours William
Chambers, 60, John Flanagan, 50,
Samuel Murray, 62 and George
Eccles, 62, were also killed when
number 35 Lister Street was
reduced to rubble.
Joseph Bartle, 54, was killed
across the road at Number 34 and
William Eden, 60, Richard Lyons,
70 and Herbert Mays all died at
Number 25. Alfred Grinsdale, 61,
was also killed.
STILL SMILING — This Hull family are still in good spirits despite
suffering bomb damage by German raiders.
INCREDIBLE COURAGE
OF HULL RESIDENTS
TOP SECRET DOCUMENTS REVEAL
CITY’S ‘EXCELLENT SPIRIT’
ULL’S people stood up to Hitler’s ferocity
H
without a hint of panic, surprising even
the most experienced police officers.
Top secret documents record the admiration by some of the city’s
most senior policemen for the courage shown by residents over the
past two nights.
Although they have endured the worst nights of bombing since the
war began, members of the public remained calm throughout the
almost-constant bombardment of the city.
Inspector Robinson, sending a message to Superintendent Leppington, said: “The entire population showed no signs of panic and
marked their ordeal in excellent spirit.”
In his report to the Chief Constable, Superintendent Armitage the city’s main shopping centre,
of eastern division, said: “At no practically every shop and store
time did I see any evidence of was gutted by fire or damaged by
panic among the members of the high explosives.”
The report also reveals the Old
public and they followed out the
instructions of the police calmly Town suffered “very extensive
damage,” nearly every road in the
and well.
“Despite the terrific bombard- city was blocked and the British
ment and heavy showers of Gas Light Company’s works were
shrapnel from anti-aircraft guns, damaged by high explosives,
all members of my division car- knocking out around half of the
ried out their duties with no city’s gas supply.
The telephone network was
thought for personal safety, going
out to reported incidents and “completely disorganised”, fordealing with incidents and fires cing police to rely on Hull’s volunwhich were found on the way teer army of teenage boys and
with courage and efficiency girls, acting as cyclist messengers.
which is beyond praise.”
SERIOUS FIRES
DAMAGE
The Mail has seen confidential
reports from Hull City Police’s
war department, detailing the
full extent of the past two nights
of bombing.
In the report sent to police HQ, a
single, sterile typed page contains an overview of Hull’s ruin.
“Thousands
of
incendiary
bombs and a great weight of parachute mines and high explosive
bombs were dropped on the city,”
it states.
“Although the main weight of
these attacks appeared to be directed against the centre of the
city and the docks, the bombing
was widespread and all police
areas in the city suffered damage.
“Many serious fires resulted
and very extensive damage was
done to business premises, shops,
stores, warehouses and house
property.
“In King Edward Street, Prospect Street, Jameson Street and
the intermediate streets, which is
The Guildhall suffered a direct
hit and the City Hall was badly
damaged by fire. Central Fire Station took a direct hit, killing one
police fireman and two auxiliary
firemen and Hull Corporation
Transport Department’s garage
was also hit, with several buses
destroyed.
The report states: “Considerable damage was done to the
docks in the Eastern and Central
Divisions and buildings on both
sides of the Old Harbour were
destroyed by fire and high explosives.
“A number of important factories and oil mills on the River Hull
were either gutted by fire or destroyed by high explosives, the
most important of these being
Messrs Rank’s flour mills in Clarence Street, which are considered
to be about the biggest flour mills
in the country.
“Practically all the thoroughfares in the city were blocked and
road traffic was disorganised.”
The Daily Mail, Friday, May 9, 1941 –3
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6– The Daily Mail, Friday, May 9, 1941
FAMILY’S MOTORING
OFFENCES
LUCKY
ESCAPE M
N EAST Hull family had a
A
lucky escape when a 1,000 lb
bomb landed in their garden.
Arnold and Florence Foster
were in their shelter with their
five children when the high
explosive landed yards from their
home in Ellesmere Avenue, off
Holderness Road.
Neighbour Tom Farmery, 64,
was killed as the street sustained
a barrage of explosions shortly
after the sirens signalled a second
night of bombardment for Hull
last night.
However, the Fosters and their
children Maureen, Stella, Geoffrey, Trevor and Kenneth escaped
without a scratch after their
home-made shelter withstood the
worst of the blast.
The shelter, constructed from
12-inch thick concrete reinforced
with super-heated tubes from
ships’ boilers by Mr Foster, a marine engineer, saved the lives of the
family, although their home was
badly damaged..
Margaret, 14, said: “My father
decided to build our own shelter
because he wasn’t happy with the
shelters given out by the council.
He was standing outside as the
bombs started to fall last night
but ducked inside when they started falling close to us.
“He told us the next one was
going to be close so we had to
hang on and the next thing, we
felt the shock waves from the
explosion.
“It landed in the garden and
although the shelter has been
damaged and the concrete
cracked, it is still standing.
“Unfortunately,
we’d
just
recently decided to get chickens
and it landed on the chicken run
so that’s the end of the four chickens.”
ARKET
Weighton
Prosecutions.
George Humble, Milehouse
Farm, Market Weighton, was
summoned
at
Market
Weighton police court on Wednesday for parking a motor car
other than on the near side of
the road, having no rear light
or side lights, also with failing
to immobilise the car.
The chairman said that the
defendant said he was not
aware of the regulations.
Ignorance was no excuse. A
fine of 5s in each case was
imposed.
Patricia B. V. Oxer, residing
at the Lodge, Londesborough
Park, for causing an obstruction with her motor car and
with not being in possession of
a driving licence, was fined 10s
and 20s respectively.
IMPROPER
SIDELIGHTS
YRIL Pocklington, South
C
Cave, was fined £1 for displaying improper sidelights on
his motor car at Market
Weighton.William
Dawson
Lewis, Holme-on-Spalding-Moor,
summoned for driving a motor
car with an unauthorised rear
light at Market Weighton, was
fined £2.
Arthur Binnington, of Willerby
road, Willerby, was summoned
for driving a motor lorry without
proper
lights
at
Market
Weighton, while the Humber
HAulage Co Ltd, Albert-avenue,
Hull, was summoned for permitting the lorry to be driven
without such lights. Defendant
was fined 10s in each case and the
haulage company 20s in each
case.
THE DOCK WAS BLAZING
FROM END TO END
CYCLIST MESSENGER TELLS
OF TERRIFYING NIGHT
YCLIST messenger Raymond Peat, 16, tells
the Mail about his experience on WedC
nesday night.
“The sirens sounded and I went straight to the First Aid Post at
Francis Askew School, North Road.
“The sky was already red with fire. My name was put on the
blackboard to go out with the first ambulance.
“We could see that we were in for a terrible night and the first call
was for us to go near the side of the Riverside Quay.
“I set off at great speed and was joined by my divisional officer
Timmy King. As we got near the docks, we could hear a bomb getting
closer and closer but neither of us wanted to be the first to get off our
bikes. But the thing was settled for us by the bomb itself.
“The dock was blazing from end
“The injured, who had been
to end and we found a public
given morphine by Doctor Moyes,
shelter had been hit.
“The full length of the street had the letter M marked on their
was blazing. The ambulances foreheads and we took them to
became blocked in the street with Western General Hospital on
falling debris. It was decided to Anlaby Road.
“There was no beds available,
move casualties from this public
shelter to another public shelter what with there being so many
casualties, so we put them on the
in Goulton Street.
floor on their stretchers until a
bed would be found for them.
FIRE BOMBS
“We were given a replacement
“On one journey from one shel- stretcher and a blanket and then
ter to the other, we were abso- back to the incident. What
lutely covered in fire bombs.
happened to those people, they
“I dived for the entrance of this were taken in single decker
shelter and others did, so they buses, fitted out with beds, to
were on top of me, and as I looked either Beverley or Driffield base TERRIBLE NIGHT — BOCM Eagle Oils Mills on the banks of River Hull, burns after the heavy German raids.
upwards, I noticed for the first hospitals.
time there were children on
“Then when the casualties at
benches around the wall and they Goulton Street had been cleared,
never made a murmur.
we were told to run for it and we
“When the road was cleared, we returned to the First Aid Post.
took the dead, each with a printed
“We were sent out straight away
form attached to them to say to the corner of Regent Street and
where they had been found to Anlaby Road.
Albert Avenue mortuary.
SHRAPNEL
COVERED IN SHRAPNEL —
Cyclist messenger Raymond Peat.
I set off down Hessle Road and
turned into a street to cut
through to Anlaby Road and I was
being absolutely covered in
shrapnel as I went down that
road.
“I came across a house that was
covered in fire. It had obviously
been hit by a fire bomb because it
just appeared that the whole
bricks were burning. A policeman stood in a house doorway.
“He said: “There is nothing we
can do. There are people in there
but there is nothing we can do.”
“Returning back to the post, we
sat on little chairs because it was
in the primary and we were in a
semi circle.
“Someone brought out cocoa
and toast and handed it to us.
Someone started crying and I
think everybody did. It was the
shock and whatnot.”
SERVICES TO
CONTINUE
MATERNITY
HOME HIT
for the religious life of Hull, is
just now passing through a
difficult period.
Members of the congregation
will be glad to know, however, that
the services are not to be interrupted because of that.
For their devotions next Sunday
they are asked to attend at the
church hall, in Baker Street, at
10:45 a.m. and 6:30 p.m., when the
pastor, the Rev T. Houghton, B.A.
B.D. hopes to be present and
preach.
Expectant mothers will now
have to give birth to their
babies at home after the hospital was destroyed by a
massive blast.
The hospital had re–opened to
mothers between April 1 and
July 1 last year before it was
damaged for the first time on
August 28, 1940.
It had been hit a further three
times before last night’s attack.
The damage is so severe, the
hospital can no longer be used
and the grounds will operate as
a casualty clearing station.
HE
Prospect
Street
HE Maternity Home on
T
Presbyterian Church, which T Hedon Road also took a dirhas for so long filled a real need ect hit last night.
MISSING TEEN FOUND
WANDERING STREETS
BOY DISAPPEARED AFTER MOTHER
AND BROTHERS WERE KILLED
TEENAGE boy went missing for two days
A
after his mother and two brothers were
killed in a raid.
Walter Hailstone, 15, disappeared
brothers
Joseph,
16,
and
three-year-old Eric were killed
when a parachute mine landed in
playing fields behind their
home.
He was found wandering the
streets today in a deep sense of
shock.
LUFTWAFFE’S FURY
One rescuer, who asked not to be
named, said: “The poor lad was in
a terrible state. I’ve only seen
people with that kind of terror on
their face on the battlefield.”
Walter was buried alive alongside his father and two sisters
Freda, 20, and Norma, five, when
the mine fell just behind the family’s home in James Reckitt
Avenue in east Hull.
As the German bombers filled
the sky over Hull just before midnight on Wednesday, Bertha and
Lol Hailstone had taken their
children into the Anderson shelter in their garden.
However, the mine landed just
yards away from the shelter,
blasting it to pieces and burying
after his mother Bertha and two
the family inside under a mountain of soil and rubble.
James Reckitt Avenue was one
of the many streets throughout
Hull which bore the brunt of the
Luftwaffe’s fury with many
people trapped, killed and
injured as houses collapsed, pavements were torn up and buildings
reduced to rubble by shockwave
and blast.
DEEP SHOCK
Freda was the first of the children to be rescued, followed by
Walter. He is understood to have
watched as the bodies of his two
dead brothers were dug out and
laid on the grass outside their
home.
In the confusion, Walter, in a
deep state of shock, wandered
away from the house as the
bombs continued to fall on the
city.
It is not known where he spent
the past two nights but has now
been reunited with surviving
members of his family.
PLANNING FOR CHURCH VISIT
THE FUTURE STILL ON
T
HE syllabus for a course on
“Planning for Reconstruction After War” is just issued
under the authority of the University College of Hull.
The lecturer will be Mr J.
Hubert Worthington, M.A.,
F.B.I.B.A., and the time 7:45
pm, on each of the next seven
Mondays, with the exception
of Whit Monday, June 2.
They will be open free to the
public. The first three will deal
with the past and the closing
three with the present and the
future.
ARTIME conditions preW
vent a visit to Holy Trinity,
Hull, but the boys and girls will
attend service at Hessle Parish
Church at 11 o’clock, when the
service will be conducted by
Canon C. H. Lenton M.A., the Hon
chaplain and the special preacher
the Rev W.H. Leach.
The tea for former and resident
scholars will be at Hesslewood at
4:30 pm, and the distribution of
awards at 6:30, when the proceedings will be under the direction of
the chairman of the management
committee, Miss Ida Samuelson.
BLOWN APART — An Anderson Shelter destroyed by bomb blast.
LUFTWAFFE BOMBERS SHOT DOWN
HREE of Hitler’s weapons
T
of mass destruction have
been
shot
down
after
wreaking terror over Hull and
its people.
Today, four members of Germany’s Luftwaffe are in British
custody
after
three
Heinkel 111s – often called
“Wolves in Sheep’s Clothing”
because
of
their
relatively-innocent appearance –
were shot down by Defiants
during last night’s attack on
Hull.
The first aircraft crashed at
Wellings Farm, Patrington, at
1.30am, killing four of her
five-man crew. The sole survivor was captured.
Defiants shot down the
second Heinkel 111 over Long
Riston 20 minutes later,
killing two crew and leading to
the capture of another two.
The third aircraft crashed at
Sunk Island Road, Patrington,
around 2am, killing three of
the crew and leading to the
capture of a fourth. A fifth
crew member has been listed
missing.
Britain’s
Defiants
have
racked up more “kills” than
any other aircraft crews since
they began night-fighter service with 13 RAF squadrons
earlier this year.
SPOTTED — Unexploded bomb
in an east Hull garden.
PEOPLE
INJURED
BY UXB
OZENS of people were
D
injured
when
an
unexploded bomb blew up an
east Hull street as the smoke
cleared over the city.
Families in Victor Street had
spent the night in a public shelter, enduring a night of terror
as bombs fell all over east
Hull.
However, they were making
their way home to begin the
massive clean-up operation
when an unexploded bomb,
known as a UXB, was spotted in
the garden of Mrs Taylor near
the top end of the street
towards Holderness Road.
Mrs Taylor had just been
chatting with her friend Bertha Priestley, who had come
with her son Brian, eight, to
check she was ok after the
events of the night before.
After Mrs Priestley declined
her offer of a cup of tea, Mrs
Taylor went into her house
only for the UXB, which landed
in her garden and buried itself
underneath her doorstep, to
explode minutes later.
Brian told the Mail: “There
was a huge bang and we ran
outside to have a look and all
the street was filled with
smoke and debris and dust.
“People told my Mum that
UXB had gone off and we were
running down the street with
all these people being carried
out on stretchers.
“If we had gone in the house
for that cup of tea, we’d have
been dead.
“As it was, Mrs Taylor has
been badly injured but we
think she’ll survive.”
FREEDOM
CONFERENCE
NATIONAL
delegate
conference on the Freedom
A
of the Press convened jointly by
the
National;
Union
of
Journalists and the National
Council for Civil Liberties, will
meet in London on June 7.
How censorship affects the Press,
films and radio bulletins will be
explained by experts in these
forms of news presentation.
NEW LICENCE
GRANTED
OHN
Cooper,
of
J Holme-on-Spalding-Moor,
applied for the renewal of his
driving
licence.
The
application was granted.
BLACKOUT
LIGHT FINE
LLEN Dixon, Cliffe Road,
E Market
Weighton, pleaded
CRASH LANDING — Wreckage of a Heinkel 111 in a field shot down by
anti-aircraft gunners over the East Coast.
WOLVES IN SHEEP’S CLOTHING — Four members of Germany’s
Luftwaffe are in custody after three Heinkel 111s were shot down.
not guilty to showing a light from
a bedroom window during a
blackout. She was fined 7s 6d.
The Daily Mail, Friday, May 9, 1941 –7
DEAD IN MAKESHIFT COFFINS
FLEET SINKS
TWO SHIPS
TEENAGER has told how he watched Hull’s dead being taken out
A
of the city on trucks.
Billy Stocks, 13, stood at the end of Walker Street as flat-bed trucks
carried away the dead in makeshift coffins.
The youngster survived Wednesday night’s bombing despite a
parachute mine landing yards from his front door in Walker Street.
His mother Grace, father William and little brother James, nine,
were still in the house, hiding under the stairs, when the bomb fell.
However, a family friend was found dead on the roof of the dairy, her
baby also dead in her arms.
“We went outside and in the
Billy said: “I don’t think I’ll ever
middle of the road was an
forget it.
“I walked to the top of Walker anti-aircraft gun, firing into the
Street and walked flat-bed lorries sky and the planes were diving all
around us.”
taking the coffins away.
The family has since discovered
“We live opposite the Co-operative Dairies and when the sirens that a parachute mine was headwent, my Mam’s friend said we ing directly for their home but
should go into an Anderson shel- was caught on a telegraph wire,
sending it to the opposite side of
ter with her.
“My Mam said we were stop- the street.
Billy said: “You could have got a
ping in the house and we all went
under the stairs with my auntie double-decker bus in the hole that
was left.
and her family.
“My Mam’s right upset because
“I was the only one who couldn’t
get inside because of all the they found her friend’s body on
people crammed inside and I just the roof of the Co-operative with
saw the back window disinteg- her baby. They’d been killed
rate and there was just this soot instantly and they’d been in the
and smoke everywhere.
shelter.”
O
N Wednesday in the
Mediterranean, part of
Cunningham's Mediterranean
Fleet shelled the harbour at
Benghazi, sinking two ships.
In the North Atlantic, in a
special operation mounted for
the purpose, the German
trawler Munchen, a weather
ship, is captured northeast of
Iceland and secret papers are
taken.
General Quinan takes command of the British forces in
Iraq.
Yesterday, the British heavy
cruiser Cornwall found and
sank the German raider Pinguin near the Seychelles. The
Pinguin has sunk 28 ships of
136,550 tons during its cruise.
In the Mediterranean, there
were air attacks on the eastward and westward bound
British convoys. The carrier
with each convoy engages the
attacking Italian planes.
The Amba Alagi fighting continues in East Africa. Indian
forces take the the Falagi Pass
and three small peaks south of
Amba Alagi itself.
CYCLIST
BLOWN
OFF BIKE
NE of Hull’s few girl
O
messengers was blown off
her bike last night by the force of
a blast.
Pat Richards, 19, had just left
her home in Thoresby Street to
head for her first aid post in
Chanterlands Avenue as the
sirens sounded.
Miss Richards said: “It was dark
and we didn’t have any lights.
“There was a huge explosion
and I was blown off my bike.
“I just got up and got back on
again and went to the first aid
post.”
Last night, Miss Richards
wasn’t sent out by the post as it
was considered too dangerous.
But she showed the fighting
spirit Hull will surely become
known for in years to come.
“I stood outside and watched
the incendiary bombs falling.
“We just have to take it in our
stride. It’s just one of those
things.”
WEMBLEY WAR
CUP FIXTURE
F the league war cup final
IPreston
between
Arsenal
and
at Wembley tomorrow
is drawn, the game may be
replaced in the provinces.
A decision will be reached at
the Management Committee
meeting at Luton this evening.
When original arrangements
for the final were made the
extension of the season had not
been sanctioned.
With another month now
available, it is felt in many
quarters that a replay instead
of a ‘fight to a finish’ would
meet with general approval.
BOYS
STOLE
27 EGGS
WO evacuee boys, aged 11 and
T
13, charged at Linslade
(Buckinghamshire)
juvenile
court yesterday with stealing 27
eggs, said they gave some to their
father when he visited them, the
others they threw at trains. The
boys were put on probation for a
year.
BURNED TO THE GROUND — Flour Mills on the Eastern bank of the River Hull near Drypool lie in ruins after bombing.
WATCHING IN TERROR
AS HOME CITY BURNED
SOLDIER HELPLESSLY SAW CITY REDUCED TO RUBBLE
based near Preston has told how
watched his home city on fire.
A heSOLDIER
Gunner Thomas Henry Baker of the Royal Artillery was based at
battery HQ near Preston and has watched helplessly these past two
nights of terror.
The camp was hosting a dance, with guests from Smith and Nephew,
when the bombardment began.
Gunner Baker had just finished his shift when a report came from
coastal units of German aircraft spotted over the North Sea.
He had gone to the canteen for a drink of lemonade when he was
asked to take over from the barman, who had been invited for a drink
by the Sergeant Major.
Gunner Baker was chatting to his friend Roy Stather when a “terrific
crash” shook the building.
young in shelters, not knowing
He said: “The west wall was
whether they would survive the
replaced by a sheet of flame, and
night, ‘My God, this isn’t war, it’s
the whole world seemed to have
sheer bloody murder’ I thought to
collapsed. I ducked under the
counter and listened to the crash myself.”
He was given unofficial permisof wood, beer and lemonade
sion by his sergeant to race home
bottles.
“I pushed my way out from to check on his family.
“On the way, I passed air raid
under the counter, only to have a
checking
damaged
bottle of beer fall on my head. I wardens
crawled out and staggered to my houses for survivors, workmen
feet to find men and women lying digging out a bombed shelter in
on the floor unconscious. The case people were under the
flames were still blazing but rubble, and several blazing
people were helping each other to factories in Stoneferry. The ride
home was difficult because the
their feet.
“A bombardier was picking roads were blocked with debris
ladies up from the ground and but I was relieved to find my
dashing out with them — he was family safe and the house intact.
“Rumours were flying around
awarded the Military Medal for
this bravery. I did a fireman’s lift about the damage – I even heard
on a lady and had just reached the from an air raid warden that my
door when this bombardier took own battery had been wiped out,
her off me.
so I put him right and suggested
“I stepped out into the cold air that he should go home and get
and realised that I was only wear- some rest because the lights from
ing my shirt, trousers and sand- the fires burning in the city
shoes, so I went back to my hut for would be an invitation to the
some warmer clothes but what a bombers to return the next
shock awaited me there. The huts night.
were a mass of flames. My hut
was just a heap of ash and burnHOSTILE TARGET
ing timber — all my gear was
“Sure
enough the next night,
gone, and I would have been too
which was clear and moonlit, our
had I not helped in the bar.
station at Spurn Point called us
with ‘Pip up – hostile target on
VIVID FLASHES
bearing 95 degrees’.
“I was even more shocked to see
“We found a lone target, posthe state of Hull. Fires were burn- sibly a reconnaissance plane to
ing everywhere from King
draw our guns whilst the rest of
George Dock to the city centre
the pack sneaked in. The guns
including Alexandra and Vicdeliberately did not fire, but an
toria Docks, ships and warehouses were ablaze; stacks of tim- hour later all stations were
ber in Victoria Dock were burn- reporting targets and the guns
ing fiercely and the city centre engaged but it was really difficult
as the heights were very varied.
had fires of all shapes and sizes.
“The sight of Hull being bombed
“Vivid flashes indicated where
bombs were still falling. Build- was enough to make you weep; it
ings seemed to go up in blocks was worse than the night before.
The air was filled with the noise
and come down in pieces.
“Looking north towards Bever- of aircraft and our shells whistley, the fires continued, some ling up whilst the bombs whistled
sheets of flame shooting sky- down.
“The Luftwaffe had the advantwards, some large mushroom
clouds of black smoke, but in the age that even if their bombs
main the city was covered with missed the docks and factories
they would hit civilians in their
white and orange smoke.
“The sky was filled with the houses nearby, and hundreds of
sound of enemy aircraft. Bombs Hull people were killed before the
were dropping near and far, the enemy departed at around 5am
guns were blazing away and I leaving the city centre devastthought about the old and the ated.”
GRIM SEARCH — Rescuers look for survivors near an air raid shelter which has suffered bomb damage.
THREE GENERATIONS KILLED IN BOMB BLAST
FAMILY WIPED OUT AFTER BOMB FELL ON PUBLIC SHELTER
HREE generations of one family have been
T
wiped out after a bomb fell on a public
shelter.
Thomas Fitchett, 67, his wife Mary Jane, 60,
their daughter-in-law Mary, 23, and her two
children Raymond, 4, and 17–month–old
Maureen were killed instantly when a bomb
fell on Frederick’s Terrace shelter.
Only Mary’s three-year-old daughter Mavis
survived and is now recovering from her injuries.
Mary’s sister Elizabeth Grout had climbed
on to the back of a lorry with her sons Dennis,
10, and Eddie, 4, to escape when bombs fell all
around their home in Myrtle Grove as the
Germans attempted to destroy Hull’s docks.
The family watched from the back of the
lorry as it drove women and children living in
the Stoneferry area to relative safety in South
Cave as Hull was engulfed in flames.
It was only when they returned the next
morning that they discovered three generations of the same family had been killed in
the most intense bombing of the war so far.
Mrs Grout’s husband Ted was asked to
identify the bodies, which had been laid on the
top of the rubble, all that remains of the public
shelter.
TWO MEN KILLED — Firemen of the Auxiliary Fire
Service battle blaze at Costellos Corner in Hull.
FIREMEN KILLED AFTER
STATION TOOK DIRECT HIT
DISPATCH RIDER WITNESSES
DEATH AND DESTRUCTION
MOTORBIKE dispatch rider saw the bodA
ies of dead firemen after Hull Central Fire
Station took a direct hit last night.
Fireman Herbert Best, 46, lost his life alongside John Andrews, 47,
and Leonard Cressey, 48, both of the Auxiliary Fire Service (AFS),
when the fire station was targeted by high explosives and incendiary
devices.
Motorbike dispatch rider Cliff Leach, 18, witnessed the horror left
behind after the station was rocked by a series of explosions.
Cliff said: “There were fires raging all over the city and the station
was almost empty except for the messengers and the telephone
operators. One of the bombs landed on the roadway in front of the
garage doors. Another landed in the yard at the back.
“The firemen who were killed
were somewhere towards the the searchlights picking out the
aircraft but it was bad last
back of the yard.
“I saw the three firemen being night.
“The shrapnel was coming
laid out on the floor dead and the
down like rain and we were hit by
others having to identify them.”
three bombs and three firemen
SERIOUS DAMAGE
were killed.”
As the dust cleared, Cliff went
Hull fire brigade’s log book
states Fireman Best was killed outside the station to inspect the
with his two colleagues when a damage.
He said: “My motorbike was
mine fell on the station causing
leaning against the lamp post outserious damage.
“Two high explosive bombs side and when I went out to see if
were also dropped in front of it was all right, a bomb had blown
Central Fire Station, one wreck- a massive crater right where my
ing the No 1 motor ambulance bike had been. It had been sucked
and damaging the canteen van into the bomb hole and was down
and the frontage of the station,” the bottom of the crater.
the log book states, confirming
“Some of the firemen had to lift
Fireman Best’s widow is to be it out. The tank was dented a bit
awarded an annual pension of but it started up all right.”
£84.10 from today.
The fire brigade dealt with 464
MASONRY
separate blazes on Wednesday
Cliff
was
then tasked with ridnight and 375 last night. Auxiliary firemen Andrews and Cres- ing through the bombed out city
sey were among ten members of centre, checking fire crews had
the Auxilary Fire Service to lose enough water.
He said: “I was racing down
their lives alongside Fireman
Prospect Street and all the shops
Best.
Four regular brigade members were bombed out. All the
and 31 AFS members were also masonry was blown across the
injured as they battled to contain road and the fire hoses were snaka city on fire.
ing across the middle of the
Cliff Leach is one of three teen- road.”
age motorcyclists who answered
The recent intensity of the
an appeal by the AFS for dispatch bombing has seen a change in
riders in the Hull Daily Mail at Cliff ’s wartime service, meaning
the start of the war.
he now sleeps at the fire station.
He said: “At the start of the war,
MESSAGES
we worked on a rota, whether the
The dispatch riders drive sirens went or not. It meant the
between fire crews tackling three of us covered the whole
blazes in bombed buildings, week and we got there just before
ensuring they have enough water dusk and slept in the fire station
and taking messages from one until the morning before going
side of the city to another.
home.
Cliff, of Cottingham Road, said:
“But the bombing got so bad,
“The bombing got so bad we were they’ve told us it’s best for us to
ordered to stay in until the worst come in as soon as the air raid
of it was over. We don’t usually go sirens go off. I’ve been there every
into shelters because we like to night recently because there has
stand in the doorways and watch been so much bombing.”
8– The Daily Mail, Friday, May 9, 1941
TERROR OF HOSPITAL
STAFF AND PATIENTS
I
N these hard-pressed times,
Hull’s
housewives
are
struggling to make their rations
go further.
Here’s a recipe invented by
Savoy maitre-chef Francois Latry
and named after the Minister for
Food, Lord Woolton.
Now, Mail readers can bring a
little taste of what’s on offer at the
Savoy Restaurant into their
homes, despite food rationing.
SENIOR NURSE TELLS HOW SHE
TENDED THE INJURED AND DYING
SENIOR nurse at Hull Royal Infirmary
has told of the terror staff and patients
A
have endured in the devastation of Hull.
Edith Nelthorpe, a theatre sister at Hull Royal Infirmary, is this
morning recovering from her time on the city’s frontline as casualties
were ferried to the hospital.
She tended the injured and dying while bombs rained down on them
from enemy aircraft for five hours into the early hours of Thursday.
Last night, Miss Nelthorpe and
other staff at the hospital exper- staff were only able to sterilise
ienced an identical ordeal as the the area requiring treatment desbombers returned to the skies pite the state of casualties
over our city.
covered with debris.
“In the most cases, the patients
AIR RAID SIRENS
were covered in soot and brick
In an interview with the Mail as dust. Most of injuries were from
the last of the bombs fall silent, flying glass and torn flesh which
Miss Nelthorpe surveyed her had to be stitched back in place.
wrecked city as the rubble lies all
“I should think we did about 40
around us.
cases altogether, finishing about
She said: “The sound of the air
raid sirens and the whistle of a six o’clock, tired but well pleased
bomb as it spiralled towards with our efforts.”
Just as exhausted staff were
earth heralded the start of a terrible ordeal for Hull. It has left preparing to turn in last night,
many dead and injured with the the sirens sounded again, markindustrial life of the city dev- ing the start of another night of
terror.
astated.
“For five hours, enemy planes
“Patients were brought into the
rained bombs of all sizes on all Casualty Clearing Station as
areas.
before and separated into serious
“As theatre sister at the Anlaby and less serious ones,” she said.
Road Hospital, I was at the fore“The in-patients were visited,
front of helping to care for the as before, by the surgeon and a
surviving casualties as they were theatre list drawn.
brought in to the Casualty Clear“The previous day had worked
ing Station.”
without
too many hold-ups so it
Unbeknown to staff at the time,
a 500lb unexploded bomb had was decided to carry on as
landed just yards from the hos- before.
“No routine could be observed
pital and staff went about their
work, blissfully unaware of the as each case proved to be difdanger posed to their lives as they ferent.”
busied themselves with treating
43 OPERATIONS
the injured and dying.
CASUALTIES
By the end of the first raid early
yesterday morning, the casualties were assessed by surgeons
and a list was drawn up for
theatre.
Because of the scale of the casualties requiring operations, GPs
around Hull have been drafted in
to work as anaesthetists.
The hospital has adapted its
rooms to deal with the influx of
wounded people in desperate
need of treatment.
Miss Nelthorpe said: “The
Ante-Room has become a plaster
room for the fractures with the
theatre proper reserved for surgery.”
However, because of demands,
Staff worked through the list,
operating on a total of 43 patients
before they were returned to
their wards.
“We were tired out but felt all
had been worthwhile when Mr
Corbett, the surgeon and a man of
few bouquets, thanked all the
staff for the excellent back-up he
had been given.”
Again, the siren sounded once
more just as staff prepared to
turn in, but they were able to
leave the hospital shelter and
return to bed within half an hour
after the “all clear” sounded.
Today, like many other heroes
throughout the city, the Mail
salutes their courage at a time
none of us will ever forget.
WOOLTON PIE
STILL STANDING: — ARP personnel, air raid wardens and locals view the devastation, with rubble heaped
next to an air raid shelter that withstood a blast. It is leaning backwards but has served its purpose.
ESCAPED DEATH
BY SPLIT SECOND
HOME GUARD MEMBER DESCRIBES THE
MOMENT MIGHTY BLAST SHOOK SHELTER
MEMBER of the Home Guard has told of
the moment a bomb ripped through his
A
BOY DISCOVERS
public shelter.
Harold Flower, who works for the Metal Box Company and volunteers for the Home Guard, was taking cover in the shelter in
Carrington Street, near Hull FC’s Boulevard stadium, when a land
mine landed feet from the door.
He had gone to the shelter when the air raid sirens started up late on
Wednesday night and the sky filled with hundreds of high explosives,
incendiary bombs and land mines.
He told the Mail: “Many of the heavy ones shook the shelter until at
2.30am, after three hours of continuous bombing, ours arrived.
“A land mine fell in the football ground entrance.
“There was a terrific crack and
a mighty blast shook the shelter.
His fiancee Edith Nelthorpe
“The door was torn off and the “Nell” , a sister at Hull Royal
brass knob flattened on impact Infirmary, knew a bomb had
with the wall.
landed in Carrington Street and
“The oil stove overturned but, raced to the scene to tend casluckily, did not fire.
ualties caused by the blast.
“The blast swept through the
Mr Flower said: “We walked
shelter and blew clouds of dust back with her and the all clear
and grit through it.”
went as we reached the hospital.
By some miracle, no one was
“Houses were demolished at
injured.
Saner Street end and the railway
“As we heard the buildings fall- crossing at Selby Street corner
ing, we knew we had escaped had suffered when a bomb fell
death by a split second,” he between the shops and the railsaid.”
way gates.”
SIX KILLED
Six people lost their lives and
another is critically injured and
not expected to survive after the
Airlie Street public shelter took a
direct hit. Among the victims is
the daughter of his foreman at
work.
Mr Flower said: “Gas kept
exploding and as there were fires
all over the place, the fire brigade
were unable to come until a long
time after.”
CONVENT ABLAZE
He discovered St Mary’s Convent was ablaze at the corner of
Convent Lane before returning to
his own home to find it had been
wrecked.
He said: “A hopeless tangle of
furniture, overmantles, doors,
smashed ornaments and inches
of soot greeted us.
“The front door knocker was at
the top of the stairs and glass had
penetrated the wall like darts.”
He said the turmoil in the house
showed
the
indiscriminate
nature of a bomb strike.
“All the ornaments in the chimney piece were just as we had left
them, even cigs and letters were
unmoved,” he said.
“Yet it blew the mirror, a large
overmantle over the sidboard,
right across the kitchen without
breaking it.
“We realised we should not be
able to live in the house any
more.”
BROTHER’S SUIT
S
TANDING in the rubble of
what was once his home, a
little boy has become the toast
of his older brother.
Mike Brennan, 7, was with
his parents Edith and Tony, his
sister Pat, 15, and brothers
Ronnie, 18, Terence, 13, and
three-year-old Tony in the shelter off St Paul Street in the
early hours of Thursday morning.
However, their home was destroyed when a landmine
exploded at the intersection
with Fountain Road.
As the dust cleared, Mike
returned to the street to search
through the rubble, collecting
shrapnel.
Ronnie had bought a new suit
on the day of the raid from
Mannie Southwell on Fountain
Road and had hung it up
behind the bedroom door.
But the house had been destroyed, with only part of the
outer walls left standing.
As little Mike searched
through the rubble, he discovered the blown-off bedroom
door, complete with the new
suit still hanging on the nail.
Observers said, after a clean
and brush up, the suit will be
as good as new.
All members of the family
were saved when the shelter
protected them from the worst
of the blast, although Pat
suffered bruises when the door
was blown in and landed on
her.
Ronnie had given them all a
chuckle when he appeared in
the shelter, seconds before the
explosion.
He came dashing in, wearing
ladies’ shoes, saying they were
the only pair he could find.
CITY FATHERS TO SALUTE COURAGE
the face of unprecedented horror from the
skies.
Lord Mayor Sydney Smith
intends to salute the courage of
the city’s residents at a meeting of
Hull Corporation next month.
Sources close to the Lord
Mayor’s office have given the
Mail access to the Corporation
motion, due to be put before councillors in a few weeks.
We can reveal the council
intends to pay its respects to families of the 454 people, including
many from the war services such
as the auxiliary fire service and
the woman’s volunteer service,
who gave their lives over the
course of May 7 and 8.
It states: “The council extend
their deepest sympathy to those
citizens who have suffered
bereavement in the terrible
ordeals which the city was called
upon to face recently, and would
pay a particular tribute to the
members of the services who gave
their lives in the carrying out of
their duties.”
Lord Mayor Smith is also expected to ask his fellow councillors to
back calls, praising the courage
of every man, woman and child
who stood up to the wrath of
Hitler.
That motion states: “The council wish to convey to the people of
this city an expression of their
great admiration for the fortitude
and calmness which they displayed during the severe ordeals
they were called upon to face.
“To all members of the services
and officials of the council,
extend the highest praise and
congratulations upon the magnificent way in which, under
great strain, they carried out
their respective duties at all
times with so little regard for
their own personal safety.
“They express sincere sympathy with the people who have
suffered distress by the loss of
their homes and with the tradespeople and commercial interests
who have suffered serious
losses.
“At the same time, the council
would record their admiration
for the praiseworthy manner in
which the people have carried on,
despite their difficulties and for
the courageous manner in which
the traders and commercial
houses have continued business
and overcome great difficulties.”
Both motions will be put before
the council on Thursday, June 12,
and are expected to be carried
unanimously.
HOW WE BROUGHT YOU THIS BLITZ SUPPLEMENT
PAINSTAKING RESEARCH BRINGS YOU THE FULLEST ACCOUNT OF CITY’S DEVASTATION
just like any other project, born out
I ofT began
a passion for journalism.
Phone: Hull Central 15100
MOSCOW, RUSSIA
JOSEPH
Stalin
has
become Russian Premier,
replacing
Vyacheslav
Molotov.
NEW YORK,
AMERICA
A FILM, which critics
believe
could
achieve
great
things,
has
premiered at New York's
Palace Theater. Citizen
Kane is directed by and
stars Orson Welles.
THE city of Liverpool has
sustained seven nights of
intense bombing. Casualty
figures are not yet known.
As the bombing subsided, the
terrified families peered out of
the shelter at the damage left
behind.
Mr Flower said: “The houses
looked a tragic sight. All window
frames and doors had gone and
huge pieces torn off the roofs.
“Volunteers were called for to
carry water and man stirrup
pumps at the fire which had been
caused in Airlie Street.”
ITY fathers are to
C
praise the courage
of Hull’s population in
STOP PRESS
LIVERPOOL
TERRIFIED FAMILIES
IN RUINS — This was the sight that greeted those who ventured
down Prospect Street and Brook Street following the raids. Hull Royal
Infirmary, which was damaged, stood on the corner of both streets.
MAKE MOST
OF RATIONS
But the people involved became Team Blitz, spurred on by a
heartfelt commitment to do right by a city and its people.
This special supplement marks the 70th anniversary of the worst
two nights of the Blitz on Hull,
produced by design editor Ian ment as authentic as possible.
Forced to abandon his skills in
Bond,
picture
editor
Jim
Mitchell and news feature writer 21st century newspaper design,
Ian went back to basics to recreAllison Coggan.
For the first time, the Mail ate the adverts, headlines,
brings you the fullest account of crossheads and story layout of 70
the devastation inflicted on our years ago.
We were also mindful that not
city, written without the cononce during the war did the Mail
straints of wartime censorship.
Using
archives,
personal miss a single day of publication,
accounts and the memories of despite near-misses on the offices
in Jameson and the trauma
survivors, we report on those terexperienced at home by the news- NEAR-MISS — View from blown-out Mail office windows showing
rible nights of May 7 and 8, 1941
devastation in West Street and flattened Metropole Ballroom.
paper’s staff.
as if it was just yesterday.
Staff at Hull History Centre and
The photographs of our dev- Beverley
Treasure
House of May 9, 1941. We also use war- Raymond Peat, who died in 2006,
astated city were sourced from provided us with confidential time events from around the provided us with a cassette
our vast picture archive, selected files from the city’s war depart- world, dating from April and May recording of his recollection.
with the utmost care by picture ment, Hull City Police and Hull 1941, in our pages.
Cliff Leach, the motorbike diseditor Jim Mitchell.
But it is Mail readers, who con- patch rider, went on to serve as a
Corporation, the forerunner to
Hull born and bred, he drew on Hull City Council.
tacted us in their hundreds after pilot in the RAF during the
his extensive local knowledge to
Hull And East Yorkshire Hos- appeals in the newspaper and remainder of the war. He is now
guide the team through the city’s pitals NHS Trust also opened its Flashback, to whom we owe the 88, living in Liverpool.
wartime history.
Dennis Grout, now 80, supplied
archives to us, allowing us to use most gratitude.
But perhaps the toughest chal- the full record written by AssistWithout their help, reliving the us with information about the
lenge was faced by the Mail’s ant House Governor Bernard worst times of their life and the deaths of the Fitchett family, his
award-winning design editor Ian Sylvester.
deaths of those most precious to mother’s sister and cousins.
Bond, who painstakingly recrePat Ellis, one of the children
Many of the smaller stories in them, the supplement would not
ated the broadsheet format of the the supplement have been taken have been realised.
involved in the terrifying race
The family of cyclist messenger through fire on Hessle Road, gave
1941 Mail to make the supple- from a copy of the Hull Daily Mail
us permission to quote her
mother Annie.
Tom Arksey, who gave an eye
witness account of the devastation around the Yorkshire
Penny Bank, died on October 10,
2006, aged 97. His wife Jessie, who
now lives in residential care in
York, will celebrate her 100th
birthday on July 15.
His account of the nights of the
bombing is reproduced today
with the permission of his family.
The family of Fireman Walter
Ernest “Bill” Cook also gave us
permission to use his diary.
The family of Harry Flower,
who later married nurse Edith
Nelthorpe, gave us diaries the
couple had used to record the
events of May 1941.
The eye witness account of
1429538 Gunner Thomas Henry
Baker – Royal Artillery, of Hull,
was passed onto a Second World
War Two website. Born in Hull in
1913, we believe he died in 1998,
aged 85, but we have been unable
to trace his family.
It is with the greatest respect
that we reproduce these memories, believing it would have been
the wishes of the authors, for
their stories to be told and never
forgotten.
Ingredients
1lb potatoes – King Edward
2lbs carrots
½lb mushrooms
1 small leek
2oz margarine or chicken fat
2 spring onions
Salt, pepper, nutmeg, parsley.
Bunch of herbs made of 1 small
bay leaf, 1 small sprig of thyme,
parsley and celery
Method
Peel the potatoes and carrots, cut
them into slices of the thickness of
a penny. Wash them well and dry in
a tea-cloth. Fry them separately in a
frying pan with a little chicken fat.
Do the same for the mushrooms,
adding the finely chopped onions
and leek. Mix them together and
season with salt, pepper and a little
nutmeg and roughly chopped fresh
parsley.
Fill a pie-dish with this mixture,
placing the bundle of herbs in the
middle. Moisten with a little giblet
stock or water. Allow to cool. Cover
with a pastry crust made from half
beef-suet or chicken fat and half
margarine. Bake in a moderate
oven for 1½ hours.
EGGLESS SPONGE CAKE
Ingredients
6oz self-raising flour with 1 level
teaspoon baking powder or plain
flour with 3 level teaspoons baking
powder
2½oz margarine
2oz sugar
1 level tablespoon golden syrup
¼ pint milk or milk and water
Jam for filling
Method
Sift the flour and baking powder.
Cream the margarine, sugar and
golden syrup until soft and light,
add a little flour then a little liquid.
Continue like this until a smooth
mixture. Grease and flour two 7
inch sandwich tins and divide the
mixture between the tins. Bake for
approximately 20 minutes or until
firm to the touch just above the
centre of a moderately hot oven.
Turn out and sandwich with jam.
MOCK GOOSE
Ingredients
150g (6oz) split red lentils
275ml (1/2 pint) water
15ml (1 tablespoon) lemon juice
Salt and pepper
For the stuffing:
1 large onion, chopped
50g (2oz) wholemeal breadcrumbs
15ml (1 tbsp) fresh sage, chopped
Method
Cook the lentils in the water until all
the water has been absorbed. Add
lemon juice and season. Then make
the “stuffing”. Saute the onion in a
little water or vegetable stock for 10
minutes. Drain, and add to the
breadcrumbs. Mix in the chopped
sage and mix well. Put half the lentil
mixture into an ovenproof dish
spread the stuffing on top, then top
off with the remaining lentils. Put in
a moderate oven until the top is
crisp and golden.
ETHIOPIA
EMPEROR Haile Selassie
has
re-entered
capital
Addis Ababa, five years to
the day of when it was
occupied by Italy.
COUPLE
DIE HOURS
APART
IR James Fraser, O.M. died
S
at Cambridge yesterday
afternoon at he age of 87. Lady
Fraser died only a few hours
later.
Sir James was one of the
greatest scholars of the age.
Until two years ago when his
sight
failed,
he
wrote
everything by hand. A native of
Glasgow, he studied at Glasgow University.
Sir James was the author of
the Golden Bough, a comprehensive study of primitive
man, which was published in
1890. He wrote 284 books, two
of them at the age of 82.