Remembering Hull at war

Time and time again Hull suffered the effects of German bombing in World War 11. The city, a major target because of its dockland, was almost brought to a halt, but through the courage of its people fought back valiantly. Here we take a look back to those days as seen through the eyes of local people. These stories were originally published 30 years ago…
X
My memories are of children in the Hull air raids and thoughts of what it must have been like to be a parent in wartime:
The boy running during a heavy raid to find out if his auntie was all right.
The bundle in my brother’s arms – the remains of a child.
The girl saved because her burning, trapped father told where she was buried before he died.
The four children buried under a house and gas escaping. All four died despite one of the greatest rescue attempts of the air raids.
The boy who, too late, found it wasn’t a parachute but a mine descending.
The children who watched in silence as their relatives and neighbours gathered together and helped until the street could be unblocked and casualties removed.
The boy who died with his father trying to stop a roof fire.
The children in a house burning like a huge bonfire.
The little coffins at the mass funeral.
The three toddlers orphaned because their fathers, first aiders, attended the above and other incidents.
R Peat,
Broadway.
Holderness Road,
Hull
x
x
I was in domestic service when the war started and then I was sent to work at Brough aircraft factory.
After two and a half years I decided I wanted to be a post woman and got the job.
I was put on delivery on the Sutton Trust Estate. At the time I was living at 132 Wingfield Road on Bilton Grange.
I enjoyed being a post woman, but we had to work hard. I left our house at five o’ clock each morning to get to the office to start work at 5.20.
I had to walk right through the estate to Suttonway to get the first bus and it was a blackout so not a glimmer of light could be shown.
They were a lot of grand women and the deliveries were long and heavy.
Once a month we got a crop of doctors’ bills to take out and I have known us have small parcels fastened to the strap of our bags because there wasn’t room inside.
I recall air raids, one especially. I was on the bus going down Portobello Street when the air raid siren went.
We all got off the bus and made a bee line down somebody’s path and into their shelter. When the owner of the shelter came she couldn’t get in.
I never did find out where she went.
However, while we were in there we heard this bang which set us all trembling thinking the bombs were dropping near. Afterwards he heard that a woman had left her gas oven on and it blew up.
Mrs ET Shillito,
Escourt Street,
New Bridge Road.
Hull
X
The battle cry to “Women Against Hitler” was sounded during the Hull blitz by ATS recruiting sergeant Gwen Mead whose picture was shown in a slide in local cinemas to persuade girls to sign on.
Years later as Mrs Gwen Woodcock of Wheeler Street, Anlaby Road, she recalled how she was motivated by naked revenge after seeing the death and destruction all around her. She wrote in 1979:
“After the blitzes the theme I worked was revenge. Mine was a volunteer office (conscripts went through the Ministry of Labour) and every woman recruited was added strength against Hitlerism.
“My photograph was shown in cinema screens in Hull and the East Riding with times and places where I would be.
“The following year – 1942 – I was promoted to sergeant and began to see the theme of revenge working out. The RAF began to hit back and the most thrilling sight I saw was the crossed searchlights holding the enemy plane until the marvellous Spitfire got within range.
“When I stand at the Cenotaph on Remembrance Sunday these are the things I remember – a city that was burned for two nights, there was no horizon, the red fires on earth blazed into a red sky. The bombing was merciless.
“The morale of he people, both service and civilian, was magnificent.”
X
During the war I was delivering milk the hard way for Clover Dairies. In those days they were milk barrows which had to be pulled.
I had to load the inside and then throw crates full of milk on the top. These crates were not the plastic crates as used now containing 20 pints. They were iron crates with 24 pints in them.
After doing half of the round we were met by a lorry driver who took all the empties and reloaded the barrow for the next half.
I remember one round I did, it started by pushing out of Nile Street, off Commercial Road, and the first call was Delhi Street, Marfleet, all done on foot.
All round Marfleet and back to Nile Street. I wore so many pairs of shoes out that the coupons we got for footwear did not suffice my needs and I bought second hand ones from a little shop in Craven Street.
My most horrible memory is when I worked a round ion Holderness Road. I made many friends, one family in particular where I had a cup of tea each morning.
After the usual tea break one day I said “See you tomorrow,” but for that family tomorrow never came. The street was cordoned off because of bomb craters and that family had been wiped out overnight. I never got over the shock.
I had the same experience with a lot more of my customers.
Apart from doing this heavy job I had a bay daughter to bring up alone. On numerous occasions I had been up all night with her in the shelter, but I still had to be up and out by 6.15am.
I had to take my daughter to Buckingham Street nursery. It took three quarters of an hour to walk there, then I got a bus to the dairy to load up and start my round.
One day I was working a round in Preston Road when at 8.30am the sirens sounded. I left my barrow and jumped on a bus back to the nursery fearing for my daughter’s safety. When I arrived there Mrs Thomas, who was in charge told me never to pout myself out like that as they were in the shelters with the children.
It was a very hard job, but to my mind a rewarding one.
Mrs Alice Spivey,
Lamorna Avenue,
Hull
X
The firm where I was employed had some excellent concrete shelters and as the people of the district had no protection they were allowed to use them.
I was entrusted with the key and we could shelter between two and three hundred people. Old people I conducted in after getting others settled down.
An early experience was when the warning went one night about 7 o’clock and three more times before daylight and it was raining heavily. I had to change into dry clothing three times.
I was later provided with Wellington boots, oilskin and steel helmet. Arriving home after one raid I found a piece of iron girder - as much as I could carry – had come through the roof. Fortunately it was not winter time.
On another occasion a warden, companion and myself answered the call of a woman in hysterics and were able to prevent her from gassing herself.
An eventful night was when we were informed that a sick woman wished to be in the shelters and although she was rather heavy four of us managed to keep her on a stretcher and keep her happy.
One memorable night we heard a big explosion, then a second, third and fourth, each one seeming to be closer.
Then we heard number five. We heard the thump of number six, but there was no bang.
The next morning a large unexploded bomb was discovered in another part of a building less than 100 yards away.
After one raid I returned home to discover that a six storey mill nearby had been reduced to a pile of rubble and the house so severely damaged that it was no longer habitable. Standing on the main road it appeared as if the whole town was ablaze.
Mr S Wilberforce,
Aneurin Bevan Lodge,
Hotham Road,
Hull
x
Time and time again Hull suffered the effects of German bombing in World War 11. The city, a major target because of its dockland, was almost brought to a halt, but through the courage of its people fought back valiantly. Here we take a look back to those days as seen through the eyes of local people. These stories were originally published in the Hull Daily Mail 30 years ago…
X
My memories are of children in the Hull air raids and thoughts of what it must have been like to be a parent in wartime:
The boy running during a heavy raid to find out if his auntie was all right.
The bundle in my brother’s arms – the remains of a child.
The girl saved because her burning, trapped father told where she was buried before he died.
The four children buried under a house and gas escaping. All four died despite one of the greatest rescue attempts of the air raids.
The boy who, too late, found it wasn’t a parachute but a mine descending.
The children who watched in silence as their relatives and neighbours gathered together and helped until the street could be unblocked and casualties removed.
The boy who died with his father trying to stop a roof fire.
The children in a house burning like a huge bonfire.
The little coffins at the mass funeral.
The three toddlers orphaned because their fathers, first aiders, attended the above and other incidents.
R Peat,
Broadway.
Holderness Road,
Hull
x
I was in domestic service when the war started and then I was sent to work at Brough aircraft factory.
After two and a half years I decided I wanted to be a post woman and got the job.
I was put on delivery on the Sutton Trust Estate. At the time I was living at 132 Wingfield Road on Bilton Grange.
I enjoyed being a post woman, but we had to work hard. I left our house at five o’ clock each morning to get to the office to start work at 5.20.
I had to walk right through the estate to Suttonway to get the first bus and it was a blackout so not a glimmer of light could be shown.
They were a lot of grand women and the deliveries were long and heavy.
Once a month we got a crop of doctors’ bills to take out and I have known us have small parcels fastened to the strap of our bags because there wasn’t room inside.
I recall air raids, one especially. I was on the bus going down Portobello Street when the air raid siren went.
We all got off the bus and made a bee line down somebody’s path and into their shelter. When the owner of the shelter came she couldn’t get in.
I never did find out where she went.
However, while we were in there we heard this bang which set us all trembling thinking the bombs were dropping near. Afterwards he heard that a woman had left her gas oven on and it blew up.
Mrs ET Shillito,
Escourt Street,
New Bridge Road.
Hull
X
The battle cry to “Women Against Hitler” was sounded during the Hull blitz by ATS recruiting sergeant Gwen Mead whose picture was shown in a slide in local cinemas to persuade girls to sign on.
Years later as Mrs Gwen Woodcock of Wheeler Street, Anlaby Road, she recalled how she was motivated by naked revenge after seeing the death and destruction all around her. She wrote in 1979:
“After the blitzes the theme I worked was revenge. Mine was a volunteer office (conscripts went through the Ministry of Labour) and every woman recruited was added strength against Hitlerism.
“My photograph was shown in cinema screens in Hull and the East Riding with times and places where I would be.
“The following year – 1942 – I was promoted to sergeant and began to see the theme of revenge working out. The RAF began to hit back and the most thrilling sight I saw was the crossed searchlights holding the enemy plane until the marvellous Spitfire got within range.
“When I stand at the Cenotaph on Remembrance Sunday these are the things I remember – a city that was burned for two nights, there was no horizon, the red fires on earth blazed into a red sky. The bombing was merciless.
“The morale of he people, both service and civilian, was magnificent.”
X
x
During the war I was delivering milk he hard way for Clover Dairies. In those days they were milk barrows which had to be pulled.
I had to load the inside and then throw crates full of milk on the top. These crates were not the plastic crates as used now containing 20 pints. They were iron crates with 24 pints in them.
After doing half of the round we were met by a lorry driver who took all the empties and reloaded the barrow for the next half.
I remember one round I did, it started by pushing out of Nile Street, off Commercial Road, and the first call was Delhi Street, Marfleet, all done on foot.
All round Marfleet and back to Nile Street. I wore so many pairs of shoes out that the coupons we got for footwear did not suffice my needs and I bought second hand ones from a little shop in Craven Street.
My most horrible memory is when I worked a round ion Holderness Road. I made many friends, one family in particular where I had a cup of tea each morning.
After the usual tea break one day I said “See you tomorrow,” but for that family tomorrow never came. The street was cordoned off because of bomb craters and that family had been wiped out overnight. I never got over the shock.
I had the same experience with a lot more of my customers.
Apart from doing this heavy job I had a bay daughter to bring up alone. On numerous occasions I had been up all night with her in the shelter, but I still had to be up and out by 6.15am.
I had to take my daughter to Buckingham Street nursery. It took three quarters of an hour to walk there, then I got a bus to the dairy to load up and start my round.
One day I was working a round in Preston Road when at 8.30am the sirens sounded. I left my barrow and jumped on a bus back to the nursery fearing for my daughter’s safety. When I arrived there Mrs Thomas, who was in charge told me never to pout myself out like that as they were in the shelters with the children.
It was a very hard job, but to my mind a rewarding one.
Mrs Alice Spivey,
Lamorna Avenue,
Hull

Written by The Editor - 25/08/2009 15:42:50

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