re 72 years ago

[Rocky742]

During ww2 I had a memory of my Mother telling me that when we were coming home from Heber Rd school we were attacked by a German plane. I was going home to Jennings rd. Does any one have any memories of this?

[chellbirdse15]

This is very possible as I have the original bomb casing that dropped on our street in Nunhead and wiped out the one side of the road...... as the plane flies this is very possible, unfortunately I dont have any one left that would know about that Road. Look up the new paper archives they will be able to let you know. The big give away, is having different styled houses down the road, we lost all the Victorian houses and have a mixture of 50's, 60's and 80's housing down our street now !!

[Rocky742]

Thanks for the reply. Would the newspaper be the South London Express. I think that was what it was named.

[computedshorty]

For the benifit of new member Rocky.

Heber Road School has been our family local school, seven of us children attended from 1926 to 1951.

My own started in 1936 as an infant, we did have a short sleep on the floor in the main hall spaced in rows with just a cover over us, I remember the low toilets and tiny chairs and tables, and the rows of hooks to hang up our coats.

The science block building reminds me at a later date being taken to the top floor and the teacher told us we were going to learn about gravity we all looked out of the windows to see a feather and a ball dropped down, we learned that a solid item fell quicker than a light item, he said that if one of you fall out you will be classed as a solid item.

That science block was built on brick piers that were bricked in during the war for us as to use as Air Raid Shelters.

When the wall in Heber Road had a gateway built in it for the Taxi converted into a Fire Engine to stay in the playground the Firemen were housed in the upper rooms, after a fire the wet hoses were laid out in lines to dry, there were three Emergency brick Water tanks, on Bomb sites one just at the end of Jennings Road in Crystal Palace Road, one at the end of Milo Road in Beauval Road, and one behind my home in Landcroft Road, between Crystal Palace Road and Thompson Road.

I remember the black German plane with white crosses on it shooting at us, I was in Jennings Road just outside the School Keeper Lodge, I was walking to school, I have a feeling it was after dinner.

My time at school was a pleasant time although most of it was during the War, and teachers were called up for Service, and some of the children were evacuated, but most returned within a few weeks, so the classes were condensed to take in children of a more larger age group, we played cards with the teacher to pass the time in the Shelter, it was very dim so we could not have classes, one teacher had been in the army but was wounded, so became our teacher he taught us how to compile Ciphers a kind of code, I was quite good at it, you had to find a substitute for each letter the clues were that you found the five vowels ( the most used letters and the double used letters I/E oo ee ll ss mm nn ) , I had fun doing this, although my writing has never been very good, and was a mess using those wooden pens with a steel nib point that you dipped in the ink well at the top of the desk.

There was a brick built Air Raid in Jennings Road with a concrete flat roof built on an open plot a few doors from the school, I never found out why as all the houses had Anderson Shelters or in door Morrison Shelters.

I remember the houses in Rodwell Road most of my school chums lived in the houses between Syrena and Crystal Palace Road some had steps leading up. The other end was posh. I remember Freddy Stains he would be 81 now if he is still about.

Dons Sweet shop there was a step down as you went in always full of kids who I don't think had much money to spend or there was much to buy as sweets were rationed and not many available, we bought Zubes a kind of cough drop, or Galloway's Cough.

Mixture because it was sweet, or Ice lolly on a stick for a penny coloured but no taste, I think Don made them.

See att Picture f Autin Big Seven

[Rocky742]

Many thanks for the confirmation of the German plane. Also thanks for the many recognisable memories. I was born (1936) in Jennings Rd opposite where the brick air raid shelter was. I rember the Don shop very well. I was a member of the Boys Brigade from the Baptist church on the corner of Goodrich and Lordship Lane, we used to meet in Heber Rd school in the evenings, after which we used to go to a house on the corner of Cyrena and Heber Rd to buy steak and kidney pies. I wonder what was in them??? If any one else has memories please come back.

[computedshorty]

Hi Rocky.

My own memories of Jennings Road was, on the corner of Landcroft was the Wenlock Off Licence, mauve tilled and up two steps to the front door that was right on the corner, a red Phone box outside on a large forecourt.

Facing was on the other corner the owner had bought a 1937 Austin Big Seven, as the war had stared he could not use it as he got no petrol allowance, he kept it in a shed in his garden got to from Landcroft Road, a few houses then the group of lock up Garages, and the builders yard of Coleman & son, then the Air Raid Shelter, then the Gardens that were open to the public of the Heber Arms, facing here lived a Policeman, and one of the school lads, he had a sister and an older brother who was in the army the Kings Royal Rifles, with my own brother.

The school had a block near the Crystal Palace end where we had our shelter underneath, they also kept the Taxi converted into a Fire engine here but came in through Heber Road where they knocked the wall down and put a wooden gate.

The nearest bomb that fell was directly facing Jennings Road in Crystal Palace Road, where later the built a brick Reserve Water Tank, I remember a large fig tree in the front garden coming back on your side just a few houses along.

On the corner of Goodrich road was a sweet shop called Murtons, we used to sit on the step in the evenings of climb the lamp post to the cross bar and hang there, a pair of semi restored houses and a red post box on the other corner and Flectures the grocers on the facing corner and Hine the builders one along from the final corner.

The church on the corner of Lordship lane we were sent to Sunday school in the basement, I think the B.B. used up stairs.

[edhistory]

.

[Rocky742]

Thanks for the map of the bomb site at the end of Jennings Rd. Could you

tell me the date of the bombing please.

Rocky

[computedshorty]

Here is a picture of myself on right, and two mates a few years later note Emergency Water Tank built in the bomb site with th bricks from the two houses that were bombed, all the buildings down to the site were shops.

[Rocky742]

Thanks for the photo. I recoginse the area well. In front of you was a bakers (Noeths I think), on the other corner is the Castle pub, behind you was a hardware shop(Lashams?) on the other corner was a grocers who had another shop at the top of Goodrich opposite Murtons. The third shop up from the water tank was a cycle shop named Crystal Cycles,being a keen cyclist I worked there part time early 1950's just before I joined the RAF. Remember the Fish and Chip shop well, spent many an hour outside with my friends, but this would have been after the war in the early 1950's

Rocky

[computedshorty]

Yes Noeth's the bakers, you will of course have sat in front of the shop on the concrete under the window and enjoyed the heat from the ovens below the front forecourt that warmed your bum nicely on those winter evenings.

Those that got bombed were in pairs of two the first one down was a shop the next was a house, you can just see the outside " Stallards " the stands & shelves that the Green grocery and fruit was placed.

The middle lad in picture was Don Utton lived two doors along from the bakers in Goodrich Road, he went into the RAF.

You will have served the extra six monthes as I did.

[Alan Medic]

Noeth is an unusual name. I looked it up and found this. Might they have been German?(click on Family Origin)

http://www.ancestry.co.uk/name-origin?surname=noeth

[computedshorty]

Noeth was known to be German origin.

I remember that when War broke out the windows of Noeth's Bakery were broken, but nothing else.

They seemed a normal working class family, the son Peter slightly older than myself never played with us.

Their bread was wonderful and they always sold out.

Our favourit was the crusty Cottage loaf as Picture, Have not seen them lately.

[computedshorty]

How many of us remember seeing this ......... then going to see the bombed buildings to see if we could help, but as a small boy I could not help just turned away as we were in the way.

Places and people you had known for years.

GONE.

The appearance of German bombers in the skies over London during the afternoon of September 7, 1940 heralded a tactical shift in Hitler's attempt to subdue Great Britain. During the previous two months, the Luftwaffe had targeted RAF airfields and radar stations for destruction in preparation for the German invasion of the island. With invasion plans put on hold and eventually scrapped, Hitler turned his attention to destroying London in an attempt to demoralize the population and force the British to come to terms.

At around 4:00 PM on that September day, 348 German bombers escorted by 617 fighters

Sept. 7, 1940 - the beginning of the London Blitz

blasted London until 6:00 PM. Two hours later, guided by the fires set by the first assault, a second group of raiders commenced another attack that lasted until 4:30 the following morning.

This was the beginning of the Blitz - a period of intense bombing of London and other cities that continued until the following May. For the next consecutive 57 days, London was bombed either during the day or night. Fires consumed many portions of the city.

Residents sought shelter wherever they could find it - many fleeing to the Underground stations that sheltered as many as 177,000 people during the night. In the worst single incident, 450 were killed when a bomb destroyed a school being used as an air raid shelter. Londoners and the world were introduced to a new weapon of terror and destruction in the arsenal of twentieth century warfare.

The Blitz ended on May 11, 1941 when Hitler called off the raids in order to move his bombers east in preparation for Germany's invasion of Russia.

[Rocky742]

At that time I would have been three and half years old.. I don't remember specifically but I do remember going down to the Anderson airaid shelter in the garden on numerous occasions and being kept awake by the noise of the bombing. I will always remember the smell of the paraffin lamp in the shelter and when I smell paraffin now the memomies come back.

Dad was away in the Royal Marines so it was just Mum, me ,Nan and Grandad ( who because of their age had difficulty getting in the shelter) and Uncle Will if on leave from the RAF. It was not very comfortable but we survived.

Later in the war when we had the V1 attacks Dad was home on leave and was having a haircut in a barbers in Hindmans Rd when one crashed. He came home smothered in dust, later he got stuck in the doorway of the shelter as he tried to enter frontwards, ( we had leant to go in backwards!) He said he was safer back in the Marines!

There must be many more memories later.

Rocky

[Rocky742]

With my Dad, just before he rejoined the Royal Marines, on the unbuilt Anderson

[computedshorty]

We were lucky in East Dulwich, the nearest was behind my back garden wall, glad we had a long garden, we had some damage but the houses at the back got demolished.

There were so many people getting killed that in some areas those who were recovered could not be identefied and were buried in a comunal grave with hundreds of relatives passing the open trench not knowing which was their loved one.

This is a picture that was witheld from the public.

I think that now the public should be able to see these pictures.

[Rocky742]

Terrible scene.

Where was it?

[computedshorty]

Coventry.

After all the dramatic events, from which the citizens of Coventry were still reeling, the future rebuilding of the town was, for the time being, one of the last things to occupy their minds. Before they could continue with their lives, the people had to say goodbye to their dead - well over five hundred of them.

Before the raid, the government had instructed Coventry to cater for 800 casualties, and a mortuary was subsequently made near the gas works (in Gas Street) to hold 500 bodies - an astonishingly accurate figure.

It was obvious from the start that with such a high number of deaths in such a short space of time, hundreds of private burials would prove a huge burden on time and resources. After much deliberation about the popularity of such a thing, it was decided that Coventry was to be the first city of the war to hold a mass funeral.

There were several practical reasons for such a burial, not least of which was that the cost was paid for by the government, and wasn't a burden on each family. Another advantage of the mass burial was that it overcame the worrying problem of identifying individuals.

The first of these funerals was held on Wednesday 20th November, and the first 172 blitz victims were buried that day. By this time, not all the dead from the raid had yet been discovered, and on Saturday 23rd, 250 more were buried in the second mass funeral at the London Road Cemetery.

[Rocky742]

Hope all is ok

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