Hi In 1941 my father was an RAOC driver who, after his evacuation from France in 1940, ended up at the No2 Ordnance Field Park near Retford in Nottinghamshire. During the Blitz he was sent to Liverpool on Fire Watch Keeping duties. Jim never talked about this, or any other part of his wartime service. But with a little help from his units war diaries and the internet, here's what I believe to be a fair representation of Jim's time there. In March 1941, Jim underwent training in Fire Watch-keeping duties. Jim was shown basic fire-fighting techniques including how to extinguish a Magnesium (Incendiary) Bomb using no more sophistication than a pale of water, a stirrup pump and sand. Jim was also trained in recognising how to recognise someone suffering from the effects of a bomb blast and treatment for shock. On the night of 14th March 1941, Jim took part in an exercise to assess the unit’s ability to aid a civil authority. On the 24th March 1941, Jim was informed that the units impending overseas move was delayed once again, this time to the middle of May. At the beginning of April, Jim was told his Fire Watching duties would commence sometime soon and in lieu of this was awarded another 7 days leave. On the morning of the 21st April 1941, Jim left Carlton and drove his truck in a convoy containing 258 of his fellow troops. 14 officers went in advance in staff cars and soon arriving at a transit camp in Huyton, east of Liverpool. Liverpool was an anchorage for large numbers of allied warships and a major munitions manufacturer. It was also a major port whose 11 miles of quays were capable of handling 90% of all of the war supplies being shipped across the Atlantic and as such it was vitally important to keep Liverpool working. Goering knew this and had been sending more and more bombing missions in their direction. Jim was now part of a 3 man Supplementary Fire Party (SFP) keeping watch for incendiary explosions in their area of responsibility. Magnesium (incendiary) bombs were relatively small and if caught quickly enough caused little or no damage. Each night Jim would ‘stag-on’ for up to 12 hours, in a makeshift sand bagged shelter built on the rooftops of the dockyards, railway buildings, factories and businesses of Liverpool, keeping a watchful eye out for any incendiary bombs dropping in his area. When he spotted one, Jim and his team of would dash to the bombed building and locate the incendiary bomb. Two of the team would deploy a 30ft long hose and connect it to their stirrup pump. The pump would be connected to any available water supply, which in most cases was just a bucket. Using a dustbin lid as a makeshift fire shield, Jim would approach the bomb and throw a sandbag over it, smothering the bomb. Once this was done, Jim would withdraw, whilst his 2 team mates would use the stirrup pump to spray the bomb from up to 15 feet away, cooling the bomb and rendering it safe. The team would then move onto the next bomb until they were all out, each taking turns on deploying the sand or working the stirrup pump. If Jim’s team had got there too late, those larger fires were dealt with by the men of the Auxiliary Fire Service (AFS). To help him gain access to any locked building, Jim had a fireman’s axe. Jim also had torches and a whistle to warn others of the dropping of incendiary bombs. By the beginning of May, Goering’s attentions were moving towards the Russian front and before he deployed most his forces east, he sent them towards Liverpool for one last push. Between 1st and 7th May 1941, 671 bombers of Goering’s Luftwaffe dropped 2315 high explosive bombs (870 tonnes), 119 land mines and 112,000 incendiary bombs. The AFS dealt with over 400 fires over the 3rd and 4th May 1941 and in just one week the bombing had killed 1741 people and injured 1154 more. Notwithstanding the ‘normal’ risks associated with fire fighting, the duties of a fire watch keeper were far more dangerous. Incendiary bombs were dropped by ‘pathfinder’ aircraft that ‘lit up’ areas for other bombers to aim at. This meant that if Jim team didn’t get the fires out, things could very quickly get a whole lot worse. This was exactly what happened on the 1st May 1941 when a High Explosive (HE) bomb landed in the vicinity of another SFP, killing Sgt A.H. Sampson and Cpl J.J. Kelly, both of No. 2 OFP. On the night of the 3rd May at the height of the Blitz, Jim was rocked by an enormous explosion in the region of the docklands. The ammunition ship SS Malakand, loaded with over 1000 tonnes of bombs and munitions had gone up, killing 4, destroying the docks and throwing debris over two miles away. The same night Pte G.W. Compton of No.2 OFP was injured by a HE bomb and admitted to Broadfield Hospital. By the end of the worst week of the ‘Liverpool Blitz’ two of Jims colleagues had been killed and a further four hospitalised. By the end of May, Jim had worked nights continuously for over 6 weeks. His CO was getting increasingly concerned about his men describing them as “considerably overworked with insufficient sleep”. In addition to this, he also pointed out to his superiors, that his unit was already fully mobilised and awaiting embarkation orders for immediate overseas service. His superiors took heed of his concerns and as soon as the bombing raids diminished in early June, No. 2 OFP withdrew back to Nottinghamshire. On 1st September 1941, No 2 OFP was disbanded, resulting in my father being transferred to 1st Armoured Division RAOC Workshops and sent to North Africa on 28th September 1941. Gus
Well done Gus, Some very tough and dangerous work, you should be very proud. Now on to North Africa to continue the story.
Hi Thanks for the complement. I've more or less finished his time in North Africa, Egypt and Palestine. He stayed there till Nov 1944 when he went to Greece. His time in Athens however is going to take quite some time to properly figure out. I took over 800 photos of war diaries and other stuff from the NA just covering Dec 44 and Jan 45. The battle of Athens appears to be one of the first 20th century counter insurgency operations with many similarities to NI and Iraq. Gus
Brilliant Gus. What a great job he did. Being from Liverpool myself I thank him for all the help he gave our city. Ant
Thank you for your very interesting story of your father. I have just finished reading "Three Women of Liverpool" by Helen Forrester. Although it is a fictional story the facts are true. It is all how the concentrated bombing raids of May 1941 affected all the people and families who were living there at the time. It really brings it home. That is how I read about the explosion of the munition ship.
Hi, just came acroos this thread. My mother and my grandparents were living in Liverpool during the war. They lived at the junction of Canning St and Catherine St,. Liverpool 8. They told me that they gave up going down to the shelter when the raids were at their worst and stayed in their beds. My mother worked for the Ministry of Food and walked to work thro the bombed sites everyday. The story is also that my mother and grandmother went to visit friends in Farnworth and had a bath when they got there as they were black from the soot and smuts from the fires. My mother met my father in Liverpool as he was waiting to embarke to N Africa in August 1940. They married on his return in 1945
Given the title of the thread, I thought it would be worth tagging this on here. It's a list compiled by Merseyside Fire Service of all bombing raids on the city: http://www.merseyfire.gov.uk/Historical/pdf/Blitz_cronology.pdf See also: Merseyside Fire & Rescue Service - Auxilary Fire Service and the National Fire Service and the Blitz pages linked from it. Unlike most sites, it doesn't just cover the Christmas 1940 and May 1941 raids.
more here http://www.ww2talk.com/forum/united-kingdom/4171-blitz-information-liverpool.html http://www.ww2talk.com/forum/united-kingdom/49900-liverpool-bootle-blitz-dead.html http://www.ww2talk.com/forum/all-anniversaries/34874-liverpool-may-blitz-1941-a.html http://www.ww2talk.com/forum/ww2-museums-events-places-see/35122-liverpool-blitz-70-a.html http://www.ww2talk.com/forum/united-kingdom/36567-chinese-victims-liverpool-blitz.html http://www.ww2talk.com/forum/user-introductions/34391-liverpool-blitz-transport.html regards Clive
