• zeppelin raids on Lancashire

Posted: **Thu Mar 18, 2021 9:59 pm**

http://www.lancashireatwar.co.uk/world- ... 4575771599

other part of story not on the page mentions finding unexploded bomb at someplace called clay hole on the Ridge in Burnley.
I know there were a few bombs dropped in the vicinity in WW2, but I'd never heard of zeppelin raids over here before.

Posted: **Thu Mar 18, 2021 10:07 pm**

At least two bombs fell within the town boundaries in WW2.

One of them feel in the grounds of Burnley College and one fell on a decoy station up Crown Point Road killing 1 person. It was there to get bombs dropped on the moorland instead of Manchester.

Posted: **Thu Mar 18, 2021 10:13 pm**

bodge wrote: ↑
Thu Mar 18, 2021 10:07 pm
At least two bombs fell within the town boundaries in WW2.

One of them feel in the grounds of Burnley College and one fell on a decoy station up Crown Point Road killing 1 person. It was there to get bombs dropped on the moorland instead of Manchester.

About 25 years ago a friend lived across from Burnley college, had a broken window in his attic and his parents swore it was due to a bomb dropping on Thompson Park during WW2, always believed it as you do, maybe they weren’t lying after all

Posted: **Thu Mar 18, 2021 10:14 pm**

I know there were bombs dropped in ribble valley, think one was in chipping which hit a fuel tanker. Also one hit a terraced row in Altham west on Whalley road. to this day the gap in the row is still there to be seen.
I thought there were those decoy sites up around Hurstwood as well.

Posted: **Thu Mar 18, 2021 10:15 pm**

Burnley1989 wrote: ↑
Thu Mar 18, 2021 10:13 pm
About 25 years ago a friend lived across from Burnley college, had a broken window in his attic and his parents swore it was due to a bomb dropping on Thompson Park during WW2, always believed it as you do, maybe they weren’t lying after all

Sounds more like a stray Gifton Noel-Williams penalty to me!!

Posted: **Thu Mar 18, 2021 10:25 pm**

Zepelin also flew down what is basically the East Lancs railway and dropped at least 1 bomb in Ramsbottom. There's a plaque by a bridge if i remember, not sure if it killed anybody.

Posted: **Thu Mar 18, 2021 10:29 pm**

Absolutely awesome to say we're c* like you are and we have a wicked sense of humour too, as evidenced in the Maine Road debacle.

Have a go at that and target, going to the trouble of all that just to get at Balckburn.

UTC

You only have to imagine the map of Blackburn and the design team motivated.

Posted: **Fri Mar 19, 2021 12:54 am**

Definitely bombed Thompson’s park I’m sure.

Posted: **Fri Mar 19, 2021 5:18 am**

I'm not seeing a whole lotta love for this thread....

Posted: **Fri Mar 19, 2021 5:49 am**

bodge wrote: ↑
Thu Mar 18, 2021 10:07 pm
At least two bombs fell within the town boundaries in WW2.

One of them feel in the grounds of Burnley College and one fell on a decoy station up Crown Point Road killing 1 person. It was there to get bombs dropped on the moorland instead of Manchester.

Was watching an interesting programme on 'Yesterday' the other day. It was actually yesterday but watching Yesterday, yesterday could be confusing

Anyway they were showing how the British were building decoy towns around major cities to lure the Luftwaffe away from the real built up areas. There was a rather humorous piece where the Germans were building a totally wooden runway and wooden planes unaware that British spotter planes were watching. In truly British humour. The RAF dropped a wooden 'bomb' on it as if to say 'You'll have to do better than that lads'.

Posted: **Fri Mar 19, 2021 7:54 am**

cricketfieldclarets wrote: ↑
Fri Mar 19, 2021 12:54 am
Definitely bombed Thompson’s park I’m sure.

I am sure the story i heard was the bomb dropped where the lake is .

Posted: **Fri Mar 19, 2021 8:16 am**

The story was that due to air pollution, the town looked like a lake from the air.

A bomb did land in Thompson's Park and one around Crown Point.

The decoy building at Crown Point was mocked up to look like a munitions factory in Rochdale.

Posted: **Fri Mar 19, 2021 8:19 am**

Really interesting story I read about a raid in Whitby in a local museum and the damage there was worse.
Apparently when the zeppelin that bombed Lancashire returned to Germany the pilot decided not to bomb Blackburn as it was already decimated plus mud huts and tethered horses don't make good targets.

Posted: **Fri Mar 19, 2021 8:20 am**

The decoy station on Gorple Road at Hurstwood was part of a series of stations built to protect a factory in Accrington. Another was placed near Hameldon Hill, I walked up the other week but could not see much
www.lancashireatwar.co.uk/hambledon-hil ... 4590149775

Posted: **Fri Mar 19, 2021 8:21 am**

Tribesmen wrote: ↑
Fri Mar 19, 2021 7:54 am
I am sure the story i heard was the bomb dropped where the lake is .

The final part of the jigsaw when developing Thomson Park was where to put a Lake.....fortunately a bomb dropped right on the very spot. Saving a lot of head scratching and money...So I'm told.

Posted: **Fri Mar 19, 2021 8:33 am**

Slightly further afield, a V1, Doodlebug, flying bomb, landed in a field outside Oswaldtwistle. It was air launched from a Heinkel bomber.

Posted: **Fri Mar 19, 2021 8:41 am**

Father in law told me one of the most guarded bridges in WW2 was the Whalley viaduct as it transported lots of munitions that were stored in various locations in the Ribble valley and Bowland forests.

Posted: **Fri Mar 19, 2021 8:49 am**

Bloody Germans. I don’t think we should ever forgive them for what they did. Inhumane. And not even that long ago.

Posted: **Fri Mar 19, 2021 9:06 am**

The bombs dropped in Altham was my dads uncles home. My dad and his brothers and sister were stopping there as my grandma and grandad were working at GEC then the air raid sounded and luckily Grandma picked the kids up and went home. Woke up the next day with uncle Tehran’s house blown to pieces.

Posted: **Fri Mar 19, 2021 9:06 am**

Uncle Ethrams sorry

Posted: **Fri Mar 19, 2021 9:16 am**

I think there was around 20 plus "Eire"stone letters wrote across the the West Coast of Ireland to make sure the Germans didn't mix the Irish island for the English mainland .

Seems we got on quite well with the Germans as their U boats liked to call in from time to time .

Posted: **Fri Mar 19, 2021 9:21 am**

My grandma used to recall seeing a zepplin(s) over Rossendale during WW1.

Posted: **Fri Mar 19, 2021 9:30 am**

dermotdermot wrote: ↑
Fri Mar 19, 2021 8:49 am
Bloody Germans. I don’t think we should ever forgive them for what they did. Inhumane. And not even that long ago.

Just out of interest, dermotdermot how would not forgiving the Germans manifest itself. For example how should I behave differently towards Germans, if I too chose not to forgive them for the Second World War?

Posted: **Fri Mar 19, 2021 9:40 am**

There was another stick of German bombs dropped that damaged houses at the top of Rossendale Road in 1941.
It was a good job no one was sat on the privy at the time.

: bomb damage to house in rossendale road ww2.jpg (1.31 MiB) Viewed 6975 times

Posted: **Fri Mar 19, 2021 9:43 am**

dermotdermot wrote: ↑
Fri Mar 19, 2021 8:49 am
Bloody Germans. I don’t think we should ever forgive them for what they did. Inhumane. And not even that long ago.

Dresden.

Posted: **Fri Mar 19, 2021 9:56 am**

Thanks to Darwen Days website; from a book I have been working on for several years now, and again regarding WWII rather than WWI:

One morning in September 1940, a lone German bomber probably returning from a night raid on Liverpool dropped the last of its load on housing in the centre of Darwen, just down the road from Blackburn. Six local folk were killed.

One victim was ill-fated coalman James Page, who had begun a delivery round that day only in place of a colleague who was late, and narrowly escaped the explosions only to succumb soon afterward beneath a collapsing chimney stack.

Clearly, when your number was up there was no escape.

Posted: **Fri Mar 19, 2021 10:11 am**

Sorry this is not the article I thought it was... but worth reading. The Rossendale free press had an archive of an article were they shot one down in the Valley...

A Zeppelin crashed/was shot down in Holcombe Rossendale after dropping bombs in the Rossendale Valley.

https://aircrashsites.co.uk/history/zep ... cashire-2/

Posted: **Fri Mar 19, 2021 10:22 am**

A different one from Rossendale, don’t know where I saw the crash photos... think it must have been in a local archive, likely Lancashire Archive in Preston. But here is more on the Rossendale attack
https://www.rossendalefreepress.co.uk/n ... 2-11977505

Posted: **Fri Mar 19, 2021 10:33 am**

tim_noone wrote: ↑
Fri Mar 19, 2021 9:43 am
Dresden.

Dresden was In the latter part of the war. The Blitz was near the beginning. The Germans deserved everything they got. I will qualify it by saying war is ugly full stop and and civilians get hurt and killed. That evil regime ( and the Japanese) had to be stopped at all costs.

Posted: **Fri Mar 19, 2021 10:37 am**

dermotdermot wrote: ↑
Fri Mar 19, 2021 8:49 am
Bloody Germans. I don’t think we should ever forgive them for what they did. Inhumane. And not even that long ago.

Racist. You only have to see what has happened in Trump’s America to see how easily people can be taken in by a gobshite orator with a platform. Although it has the same right wing factions as the rest of Europe modern Germany is a wonderful country.

Posted: **Fri Mar 19, 2021 10:55 am**

huw.Y.WattfromWare wrote: ↑
Fri Mar 19, 2021 10:37 am
Racist. You only have to see what has happened in Trump’s America to see how easily people can be taken in by a gobshite orator with a platform. Although it has the same right wing factions as the rest of Europe modern Germany is a wonderful country.

There was a bit of a difference. What a strange post. The Prussians had been an aggressive military state for hundreds of years before Hitler... right back to Fredrick the great... it is why they were our go to allies for much of history... against Louis XIV, Napoleon.... they even served with the Hessians in the War of Independence.

As for banning racists, I agree... but I also believe people who consider everyone racist who says something they do not agree with should also be banned as equally dangerous.

Posted: **Fri Mar 19, 2021 11:09 am**

dermotdermot wrote: ↑
Fri Mar 19, 2021 8:49 am
Bloody Germans. I don’t think we should ever forgive them for what they did. Inhumane. And not even that long ago.

I briefly worked with a bloke who was a prisoner of war in Burma at John Cotton’s before he retired. We used to have to give him the day off whenever we expected Japanese car reps (such asHonda, Toyota etc...) as he made no secret of the fact he’d attack them on sight... he could literally have got away with murder... diminished responsibility, and brought a doctors note issued in the late forties to prove it was a bad idea to keep him in Calder Mill

Posted: **Fri Mar 19, 2021 11:24 am**

chekhov wrote: ↑
Fri Mar 19, 2021 9:30 am
Just out of interest, dermotdermot how would not forgiving the Germans manifest itself. For example how should I behave differently towards Germans, if I too chose not to forgive them for the Second World War?

Posted: **Fri Mar 19, 2021 1:12 pm**

Herts Clarets wrote: ↑
Fri Mar 19, 2021 5:18 am
I'm not seeing a whole lotta love for this thread....

That's cos you're dazed and confused.

Posted: **Fri Mar 19, 2021 1:41 pm**

elwaclaret wrote: ↑
Fri Mar 19, 2021 11:09 am
I briefly worked with a bloke who was a prisoner of war in Burma at John Cotton’s before he retired. We used to have to give him the day off whenever we expected Japanese car reps (such asHonda, Toyota etc...) as he made no secret of the fact he’d attack them on sight... he could literally have got away with murder... diminished responsibility, and brought a doctors note issued in the late forties to prove it was a bad idea to keep him in Calder Mill

Many years ago I managed some investments for an elderly widow whose only instructions were “nothing German or Japanese” which back then wasn’t very helpful!!

Posted: **Fri Mar 19, 2021 1:42 pm**

Led by the O.P.

Posted: **Fri Mar 19, 2021 2:37 pm**

: Led-Zeppelin-I-Album-Atlantic.jpg (137.9 KiB) Viewed 6609 times

Posted: **Fri Mar 19, 2021 2:37 pm**

elwaclaret wrote: ↑
Fri Mar 19, 2021 11:09 am
I briefly worked with a bloke who was a prisoner of war in Burma at John Cotton’s before he retired. We used to have to give him the day off whenever we expected Japanese car reps (such asHonda, Toyota etc...) as he made no secret of the fact he’d attack them on sight... he could literally have got away with murder... diminished responsibility, and brought a doctors note issued in the late forties to prove it was a bad idea to keep him in Calder Mill

40-odd years ago I worked for a national vehicle parts distributor & the manager of the Chester branch, Sid Berry, refused to have anything manufactured in Japan in his depot, due to having been a Japanese PoW during WW2. Unfortunately this was the beginning of the surge in Japanese manufacturing for tools, cars etc, so he spent most of his time vetting products that head office had allocated to him.

However,he wasn't averse to selling replacement parts for Japanese cars, saying " About time they had some reliable engineering going into those piles of crap!"
Sid had the foresight of Mystic Meg, as we can now see

Posted: **Fri Mar 19, 2021 5:41 pm**

dermotdermot wrote: ↑
Fri Mar 19, 2021 8:49 am
Bloody Germans. I don’t think we should ever forgive them for what they did. Inhumane. And not even that long ago.

typical english jingoism.

if the rest of the world took that attitude towards the british empire then our only allies would be a small sausage factory in tanganyika.

Posted: **Fri Mar 19, 2021 6:10 pm**

yTib wrote: ↑
Fri Mar 19, 2021 5:41 pm
typical english jingoism.

if the rest of the world took that attitude towards the british empire then our only allies would be a small sausage factory in tanganyika.

Which we actually took from the Germans at the end of WW1 and kept as part of the WW1 reparations Germany had to pay us.

Posted: **Fri Mar 19, 2021 6:13 pm**

And that wasn't even the wurst part......................

Posted: **Thu Mar 25, 2021 12:26 pm**

https://providencechapel.info/zepplin-raid/

Posted: **Fri Mar 26, 2021 7:39 am**

It's interesting to read accounts of people not being scared. In an era where planes were not common I'd be scared to death seeing a giant zeppelin dropping bombs in the air.

Yes they were a stupid idea but still a scary one. Only thing scarier would be flying on one.

Posted: **Sat Mar 27, 2021 12:36 pm**

Update on the world war 2 bombs that fell on the town.

Burnley's first bomb fell in Thompson Park at 9.50 pm on 27th October 1940, about 50 yards from the Municipal College and near to Bank Hall hospital, which had its windows blown out by the force of the blast. The only visual signs of the bomb were a small crater and an uprooted tree.

The other bomb fell on 6th May 1941 and was one of a stick of eight incendiaries, seven of which landed outside the town boundary. The bomb damaged a water main, telephone wires and some houses in Manchester Road.

It was two men that died at the decoy station up Crown Point Road in late December 1940 during the blitz on Manchester.

Posted: **Sat Mar 27, 2021 2:35 pm**

My parents used to do fire watching during WW2 from the roof of Burnley Town Hall. They did say though that if on duty on a Saturday and there was nothing doing that they could get into the dance going on downstairs!

Posted: **Sun Jun 27, 2021 2:01 pm**

duplicate - see below

Posted: **Sun Jun 27, 2021 2:16 pm**

Tribesmen wrote: ↑
Fri Mar 19, 2021 9:16 am
I think there was around 20 plus "Eire"stone letters wrote across the the West Coast of Ireland to make sure the Germans didn't mix the Irish island for the English mainland .

Seems we got on quite well with the Germans as their U boats liked to call in from time to time .

https://www.rte.ie/brainstorm/2021/0528 ... edenderry/

My Old Grannie wasn't too keen on the Germans - they seem to have misplaced Upper Amiens Street

Posted: **Sun Jun 27, 2021 2:31 pm**

bodge wrote: ↑
Sat Mar 27, 2021 12:36 pm
Update on the world war 2 bombs that fell on the town.

Burnley's first bomb fell in Thompson Park at 9.50 pm on 27th October 1940, about 50 yards from the Municipal College and near to Bank Hall hospital, which had its windows blown out by the force of the blast. The only visual signs of the bomb were a small crater and an uprooted tree.

The other bomb fell on 6th May 1941 and was one of a stick of eight incendiaries, seven of which landed outside the town boundary. The bomb damaged a water main, telephone wires and some houses in Manchester Road.

It was two men that died at the decoy station up Crown Point Road in late December 1940 during the blitz on Manchester.

Details of the RAF personnel involved in the Burnley raid one killed four injured ...

http://www.rafcommands.com/database/air ... qdate=1941

Aircraftsman L R Harwood: KILLED ; Sergeant D A Murphy, Aircraftsman D R Fryatt, Aircraftsman J Owen, Aircraftsman E A Jones: INJURED ; enemy bombing raid at Burnley, Lancashire, 12 OCTOBER 1941.

Aircraftman 1st Class Leslie Ronald HARWOOD (1295013) of the Royal Air Force Volunteer Reserve
Circumstances of Death: AIR81/9582
Death of Death 1941-10-12 Age : 21 years.

Served in Burnley

Burial/Commemoration Details : Sec. 2. Row 6. Grave 4. at Worthing (Durrington) Cemetery, United Kingdom (Map)
More Details: SON OF PERCY AND EVA HARWOOD, OF WORTHING.

Posted: **Sun Jun 27, 2021 8:30 pm**

My gran said she can remember a German plane flying up Barker house Road in Nelson during the day. It had obviously got lost. The pilot apparently dropped his bombs on the moors and then bailed out.

Posted: **Sun Jun 27, 2021 9:03 pm**

Only one bomb was dropped on the town where I now live - when I saw the photo of the ‘bombing of a northern town’ I was a bit surprised to recognise a crossroads all of two minutes walk down the lane from my house .. similar story it was dropped by a stricken bomber believed to be returning from a raid on Barrow

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