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1937-1941: Superintendent C. Teather |
Superintendent Charles Teather took over Sheffield Police Fire Brigade in April, 1937 from Superintendent Breaks. It was an expanding Brigade that he took charge of.
Because of the housing development that had taken place a single pump Station had been opened on the Manor Estate with the Firemen living in the adjoining Corporation houses, and one fire engine and crew were stationed at the Divisional Police Station at Whitworth Lane, Attercliffe, to provide the first attendance to the fire risks in the steelworks in this area.
The Firemen were now working a two-shift system consisting of eleven hours of day duty, and thirteen hours of night duty with one day off per week.
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Owing to the possibility of a war with Germany, and as a result of the Civil Defense Act 1937, which enabled local authorities to raise an Auxiliary Fire Service the AFS came into being. The new volunteers attended weekly training classes with regular Firemen as instructors. and the training and equipping of AFS began to advance rapidly. 1 Inspector, and 5 Police Firemen were transferred to the AFS to deal with the delivery of machines and appliances, and to undertake training. By 10th August 1939 1,200 Auxiliaries had been trained. To view a short clip of the preparations for war go to Pathe News and type 'Sheffield Firemen' in the 'Search Box' and select the clip 'News in a Nutshell'. There is a short piece in this newsreel showing Sheffield Fire Brigade. |
The anticipation of war finally became a reality when Neville Chamberlain, the Prime Minister, read out the Declaration of War with Germany at 11.15am on September 3, 1939, 15 minutes after it was delivered by the British Ambassador in Berlin to the German Government. On the outbreak of war in 1939 the Auxiliary Fire Service was embodied and posted to 20 temporary Fire Stations which were opened throughout the City, one regular fireman being attached to each of these stations.
Ready for action members of the Auxiliary Fire Service outside their fire station at Chapel St Woodhouse, The fire engine is an old roadster car with a ladder strapped to the roof and a hose fastened to the mudguard on the other side of the vehicle.
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 Photograph Courtesy of Sheffield Star This was typical of many of the AFS Units at the time. |
Sheffield now had two fire brigades: Sheffield Police Fire Brigade and the Auxiliary Fire Service. Whilst both were expected to rise to the challenge of potential of German bombing, their uniforms where entirely different.
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As shown in newsreel Footage of the time the Sheffield Police Firemen wore the leather fire coat introduced in the 1930's, and the traditional brass helmet. This apparel was dispensed with on the advent of the National Fire Service (NFS) in 1941. |  |
AFS Firemen wore the traditional woolen fire coat and the magnesium steel helmet. This uniform was the one adopted by the NFS in 1941, and remained in service until 1948. |
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In conjunction with increase in the Fire Service strength, precautions against air raids were in hand before the declaration of war with Germany had been made. Anderson shelters, made out of corrugated steel had been delivered to many householders. It was then up to the householder to dig a hole large enough to accommodate the shelter. This was done with the help of relatives, friends and neighbours all helping each other to slot and bolt together the metal sheets that made the shelters. The shelters, being built below ground were then often covered or surrounded with the excavated material. Larger shelters were built in school grounds. Teachers and older pupils were given duties of guarding these shelters. The shelters were later to become the classrooms at times when the air raids became more prevalent. Barrage balloons began appearing in the skies, their purpose was to entangle any low flying enemy aircraft. |
Training of the AFS continued at a pace by the Sheffield Police Fire Brigade, and in the city centre many of the buildings had been sand bagged and the windows covered with sticky brown paper to prevent the glass shattering when bombs fell. Posters warning amongst other things that "walls have ears" and "careless talk costs lives" appeared in prominent places. Initially,
Sporadic visits to the district by German bombers which began in August and September were recognized as reconnaissance expeditions, and after the treatment metered out to Coventry and Birmingham, the authorities, and most of the public-knew that Sheffield was scheduled for a mass raid. It came on the night of 12 December 1940 when the Luftwaffe launched operation 'Crucible' which according to the Imperial War Graves Commission, would result in 562 people losing their lives on the nights of 12th to the 16th inclusive.
| As previously stated, the attack on Sheffield was code-named Crucible by the Germans, a reference to the pioneering steel making technique developed in Sheffield in the eighteenth century. From several airfields in occupied France, the Dritte Luftflotte sent out some 300 aeroplanes, mainly Junkers JU-88s, Dornier 17s and Heinkel 111s. On the 12th the alert was sounded at 7 p.m. and within a few minutes German planes were over the city and facing a heavy barrage. Flares were followed by showers of incendiaries. An aerial bombardment that was to last for approximately nine hours had started. |  |
It is estimated that 300 enemy aircraft participated, and that approximately 450 H.E. bombs, in addition to six parachute mines and many thousands of incendiaries, were dropped during the raid of December 12th-13th. Enormous damage was done, particularly in the centre of the city and in the north-west and south-east. Casualties, while heavy, were lighter than was feared when reports disclosed the extent of the damage.
The nights of the 12th December and 15th December 1940, when according to records made at the time 602 people were killed and 1,571 injured. However, the Commonwealth War Graves Commission contains the records of 566 killed during this period. In view of the fact that many people were probably never recovered, or found, then it is most probable that the figure of 602 deaths nearer the mark. From a public and fire service perspective the events are best described in the words of the Star and Telegraph reporter J.H. Roycroft by using extracts from his article 'Sheffield in Flames'. His comments are interposed with abridged articles by Sheffield Police Firemen Christopher Eyre, and Auxiliary Fireman Bill Wright.
| The Sheffield Blitz |
The alert was sounded at 7 p.m., and within a few minutes German planes were over the city and facing a heavy barrage. Flares were followed by showers of incendiaries, as the first wave of bomber marked the target. An aerial bombardment that was to last for approximately nine hours had started. The "all-clear" went at 4.17 a.m., by which time scores of fires were burning, throwing ominous glares over great areas. in the city.
The evening of Thursday, which is early closing day in the city, has always been a popular night for down-town entertainments. This particular evening was no exception. Places of entertainment were crowded, a dance was in progress in the Cutlers' Hall, hotels and restaurants were busy.
In view of the presence of so many people in the city it was little short of a miracle that the number of dead did not number well over a thousand. Fortunately there was no direct hit on the auditorium of any theatre or picture house. These were cleared after a time on police orders, and though the Central Picture House was destroyed by fire, and had more than 400 persons in it when the blaze started, they were all got safely away to shelters.
The Wholetime Police Fire Brigade crews from Division Street reinforced by the part-time men from Sheffield's AFS Stations were quickly in the City Centre and were attending the fires caused by the first wave of marker incendaries when the second wave of bombers arrived.
What happened next is best told by the Firemen who were there.
Third Officer Christopher Eyre - His Story IF a man who went through it all tells you he wasn't afraid that night you can take it he's lying. "At first it wasn't so bad, though bad enough. We were turned out right at the start to save the Empire, and fought the fire there for an hour. " Then the bombs started falling all along The Moor." " It's almost impossible to describe. We could hear the whistling and the crashes, we were ringed in by flame, and yet I seemed to be in a vacuum. "You had to concentrate with all you'd got on the job and ignore what was happening within yards of you." Even the "regulars" had never fought these conditions before. But there were only 60 of them and the 1,800 strong firefighting force was mainly made up of shopkeepers, businessmen and workers in "reserved occupations" whose experience had been confined to backyard bonfires before the war. |
 Photograph looking down High St - C&A Modes on far left. From the book - Sheffield at War - by Sheffield Star and Telegraph |
"I remember looking down The Moor once and seeing the whole place alight from end to end with buildings collapsing into the street. Now and again we dived under the appliance as a big one whistled down beside us, and once I was blown on my back without receiving a scratch." The team was directing its hoses on to the furiously blazing Campbell's furniture store. Without let-up the waves of bombers were pouring down their loads. From one end to the other the firemen on The Moor were straddled by bomb-bursts.
"While we were fighting the fires in Pinstone Street," Mr. Eyre goes on, one of our chaps came to tell me that one appliance which had gone to Porter Street had been blown to bits (See notes). Two men went with it, both my close friends."
"Later in the night we were fighting a tremendous fire at Bramall Lane, but lack of water sometimes. made it impossible to do anything”
"We were using anything on wheels to draw the pumps, driving over the debris where it was possible- and with hardly any idea of what streets were blocked or open."
Even more daring was shown by the transport drivers who saved the situation when the pumps began to run out of petrol.
Through the blazing streets the drivers took their lorries, loaded with up to 500 gallons of petrol, with slates. bricks and burning debris whirring across their cabs or clanging against the tanks.
They were in a kind of war. they had never dreamed of—like most people—but they made it and the crews kept fighting
SCARED? We were all scared. There were times when you didn't look down at your feet because a dead person might be there. Wherever you turned there were flames and ruins, and if a man stopped to think, about it he'd have gone out of his mind "
That was how it was for Sheffield firemen that night, this body men of whom the majority had never seen this type destruction.
 Photograph - Thought to be High Street From the book - Sheffield at War - by Sheffield Star and Telegraph |
AFS Fireman Bill Wright - His Story I was driver and pump operator on the first machine. On reaching the top of Normanton Hill, Jerry saw our headlights and started diving and firing tracer bullets at our machines. We managed to get through to the bottom of Granville Road, where we met an amazing sight. Tramcars and overhead wires were all over the road. We carried on to Fitzalan Square, where the Marples public house had just received a direct hit. We placed three machines on the Moor and one down Porter Street. |
At 12:42 am on the 13th December Sheffield Police Fire Brigade requested assistance from neighbouring Fire Brigades, and in response to their request Manchester and Nottingham sent ten pumps each, Bradford sent six, Barnsley four, Doncaster, Wakefield, Halifax, and Huddersfield sent three each, and Rotherham, Wombwell, Leeds and York all sent two. Manned pumps also arrived from Mexborough, Wortley, Hoyland, Kiveton Park, Thorne, Wath, Cudworth, Pudsey, Morley, Spenborough, Pontefract, Shipley, Bingley, Keighley, Brighouse, Elland, Holmfirth, Castleford, Mirfield and Ossett. The outside help totalled 70 pumps and 522 men. Some of outside pumps had difficulty getting into the city and had to be guided round bomb craters by men of Sheffield Transport Department. They and the local services were hampered by water freezing under their feet and on their clothes.
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 A Fireman stands helpless in the midst of chaos From the book - Sheffield at War - by Sheffield Star and Telegraph |
As water supplies ran low, water from Glossop Road, Park and Sutherland Road baths was used for fire fighting. Water was also taken from local rivers and from the canal basin.
Owing to the fracturing of water mains in the centre of the city, fires got completely out of control for a time. Several large buildings not directly affected by the raid were involved, and in some cases completely destroyed by fires.
Happily a change in the direction of the strong wind helped the fire-fighters, and all the outbreaks were under control soon after daylight.
That night 7 Firemen died
1 Fireman was fatally injured
40 others were injured
| Name | Age | Location |
| Norman Elliott | 35 | Sheffield Water Department Turncock working with the Fire Service, 35 years of age. Died on 12th December 1940, at Union Street. |
| Alfred Garlick | 30 | Fireman; Auxiliary Fire Service, injured 12th December 1940 at Archer Road, died December 14th 1940, at Royal Hospital. |
| Arthur Moore | 28 | Fireman/Driver Auxiliary Fire Service, died on 12th December 1940 at Burgess Street. |
| Fredrick Parkes-Spencer | 36 | Fireman; Sheffield Police Fire Brigade, died on 12th December 1940 outside Empire Theatre. (The Empire Theatre had frontage on Charles Street and its rear was on Cross Burgess Street). |
| Stanley Slack | 29 | Fireman; Auxiliary Fire Service, died on 12th December 1940 outside Empire Theatre. |
| Tom Stacey | 31 | Fireman; Auxiliary Fire Service, died on 12th December 1940 at corner of Castle Street and Castle Green. |
| John William Swaby | 38 | Fireman; Auxiliary Fire Service, died on 12th December 1940 at Burgess Street. |
| Source: Imperial War Graves Commission |
| With regards to fire service fatalities: One of the 'Marples' victims was named as Albert Wallace an AFS Fireman. However, Albert's name does not appear on the Sheffield Fire Brigade 'Roll of Honour' and it unclear whether he was on duty, or did not report for duty that night. He may have been assisting the injured, or he may have taken shelter from the bombing. This still remains a mystery, and the answer probably died with Albert. |
It is reported that the two most vivid impressions one had of Sheffield immediately after the sounding of the "All clear" were the numbers of people walking about, and the innumerable fires which completely enveloped great blocks in the centre of the city.
How so many people had escaped unharmed was a miracle. All had been hustled into shelters, and had either remained in one place during the nine hours of the raid or had to move from one shelter to another as more buildings caught fire and made shelters untenable.
Whilst it was perceived by most that the shelters were the safest place to be, this was not always the case and the following numbers of people lost their lives in them.
| Date | Shelter Location | No. Killed |
| 12/12/1940 | Craven Works, Darnall | 1 |
| 12/12/1940 | Fox Street, Pitsmoor | 5 |
| 12/12/1940 | Samuel Osborne, Clyde Works, The Wicker | 3 |
| 13/12/1940 | Earl Street, Town Centre | 1 |
| 13/12/1940 | Laurel Works, Nursery Street, The Wicker | 7 |
| 13/12/1940 | Porter Street (Off the Moor), Town Centre | 12 |
| 13/12/1940 | St Mary's Road, Highfield | 1 |
The heaviest loss of life in a single "incident" was at London Mart Hotel (locally known as Marple's) situated at the junction of High Street and Fitzalan Square. At the time of the direct hit it was estimated that between 60 and 70 persons—half of whom were women—were killed. However, with information taken from the records of the Imperial War Graves Commission the actual number can now be given as 49. |
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At about 10.50 p.m. on the night of the bombing windows on the ground floor of Marple's were shattered when a bomb struck the premises of C. and A. Modes Ltd., on the opposite side of the street, . A number of people were cut by flying glass, and they went down into the cellar of the hotel, where soldiers, using field dressings, helped to bandage their wounds.
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At approximately 11.44 p.m. the hotel received a direct hit from a heavy calibre bomb, and the premises were completely destroyed. Before the hotel was hit, customers and staff alike had been calm throughout the evening. In fact, they had been singing popular choruses to the accompaniment of gun-fire and the dropping of bombs. The wrecked and smouldering ruins of the hotel were the subject of many stories for days after the raid. What follows is the official account of what happened, as pieced together by the police. |
Rescue work began at about 10 o'clock the morning of the 13th December. Within two or three hours seven men had been liberated. Two of the rescued walked away and their identity has never been revealed.
The five other men rescued were: John Watson Kay, aged 46, Boma Road, Trentham, Stoke-on-Trent; Edward Riley, aged 36, Ecclesall Road, Sheffield; Ebenezer Tall, aged 42, Clarissa Street, Shoreditch; William Wallace King, Arbett Parade, Bristol; and Lionel George Ball, Knowle West, Bristol.
They told vivid stories of how they spent the night trapped in the cellars. How they could hardly breathe for smoke and dust . . . how they dug with their hands to make an air vent—how they dozed, weary and light-headed from the loss of blood.
It was calculated that over 1,000 tons of rubble were removed during the rescue operations, and the recovery operations continued on the site for several weeks.
An eye-witness account by Star and Telegraph reporter J.H. Roycroft
For two hours after the "All-clear" on the 13th, the streets in the centre of the city were crowded with people making their way home.
No public service vehicles were running and pedestrians threaded their way between blazing buildings which threatened to collapse as they passed. They had to avoid burning tramcars and dodge the firemen who were still hard at work.
Most of them must have passed or stepped over unexploded bombs.
Apart from Fargate and one side of High Street the whole of the centre of the city seemed merged into one colossal blaze. At 4 a.m. there was not a building in Angel Street and King Street which was not demolished or on fire.
 From the book - Sheffield at War - by Sheffield Star and Telegraph |
The bombs wreaked havoc with the shopping centres of High Street and The Moor. Messrs. John Walsh (left) the well beloved store of all Sheffield families was razed to the ground as were many other shops and stores in the city centre area. From Market Place at the top of Angel Street one could see the whole of Cockayne's shop as a mass of flames and crumbling masonry, with twisted steel girders just becoming visible in the glare. H. L. Brown's the jewellers, and Dean and Dawson's booking agency next door had apparently been wiped out by a direct hit from a high explosive, and the tailor's shop between them and the bank on the corner of Angel Street and High Street was blazing furiously. Further down Angel Street the whole block of property which included the Angel Hotel, Bortner's the jewellers, Bell's bread shop and the smaller shops between there and the recruiting office at the corner of Bank Street was flaming to heaven. On the other side Crossley's, the drapers, was rapidly disintegrating in an uncontrollable fire which was running through the shops and offices up to Symington and Crofts at the corner of King Street. |
King Street was an inferno. Every building in it was on fire or razed to the ground. Even the great block of the Norris Deakin Buildings was in danger of complete collapse and the Mecca Hotel on the corner of Haymarket was by then almost burned out. Opposite was one of the biggest individual fires in the city. It involved the whole of the island block of property which housed C. and A. Modes, Burtons, the tailors, and billiard saloon above, the various provisions shops in King Street, and the tailors on the corner of High Street and Haymarket. The whole of this enormous building was blazing, with sparks and burning brands of timber being hurled high into the air as though blown by a powerful blast furnace. The building was a shell in which every window was vividly lighted by the internal fire. |
 From the book - Sheffield at War - by Sheffield Star and Telegraph |
By a miracle Fargate escaped with scarcely a scratch—comparatively speaking. No building on either side of the road was directly hit, though one seemed to wade through waves of shattered glass as one walked towards the Town Hall.
The Town Hall, standing starkly in silhouette against the ruddy glow of the fires on the Moor, was intact. Some windows had gone and a high explosive had fallen in the middle of Surrey Street between the Halifax Building Society building and the Town Hall. The steep upward sweep of the blast had left unscathed the lower walls, but from the second storey upwards, the grimy solid stone was splattered with dirt.
Pinstone Street was all there, but as one walked past the Moor Head end of St. Paul's Garden one became uncomfortably aware of a thick and viscous layer of clay and trampled earth. A high explosive bomb had fallen in the garden and done no more damage than break a few windows in St. Paul's Parade and Pinstone Street, and liberally bedaub the road with mud.
The Moor from the Moor Head was a holocaust—no other word adequately describes it. The long straight road was one mass of flame on either side and at intervals, where there was some big store such as Atkinsons' or Roberts Brothers, the brighter, bigger glow of greater individual fire could be picked out. Campbell's furniture store—half a mile of show-rooms all presumably well stocked—was still blazing furiously, though it was the first of the big fires to be started in the centre of the city. The Empire Theatre adjoining was undamaged, but the sweet shop on the Union Street corner of the Empire Building had been razed by a high explosive. Brook Shaw's motor showrooms on the corner of Charles Street and Union Street was on fire, and the Three Horse Shoes Hotel on the other corner of the road intersection was a complete ruin. |
 This was Atkinson's Department Store on The Moor From the book - Sheffield at War - by Sheffield Star and Telegraph |
 Redgates the Moor. From the book - Sheffield at War - by Sheffield Star and Telegraph |
The Moorhead was ringed by blazing buildings and further down the Central Picture House was almost gutted, but still blazing. Back towards the centre of the city in Barker's Pool and along Leopold Street the damage, superficially, seemed negligible. The Regent stood apparently unharmed to any great extent, and the massive pile of the City Hall and the gaunt structure of the Grand Hotel were black in the night. But a bomb of useful calibre had fallen neatly in the centre of one of the big emergency water tanks nestling against the War Memorial and had blown it to smithereens. |
One lump of twisted steel sheeting had crashed into the wall of the Regent high up, and another had been planted down in the forecourt of the Grand Hotel. Down towards the Cathedral the new undamaged Telephone Building gleamed white, but in Church Street the corner block of the Royal Insurance Company building was blazing and had been given up as a complete loss.
Here was a little island of horrid and depressing devastation. A bomb of very heavy calibre had scored a direct hit on the office of the Council of Social Service near to the Royal Insurance building in St. James' Street. It was old property, and in a way all the more pitiable. The building, and those on either side and behind, had crumbled into dusty rubble.
Down Vicar Lane all the old property of the Sheffield of centuries ago was in ruins. The Church Army Home at the bottom of Vicar Lane was Old Sheffield simply a pile of stone. When the bomb fell which demolished it, a Church Army officer in charge of a mobile canteen was outside the building replenishing the stores of his canteen. Miraculously he escaped and, with a tram conductor—another of the hundreds of modest heroes whose fame can never be sung—he dug unceasingly until he had extricated the people who had been sheltering in the cellar of the home. There was no fatality in the building.
The lodging house round in Campo Lane and the shops adjoining had vanished as if by magic. To get up Campo Lane towards Townhead Street one had to clamber over a pile of bricks and stone. The buildings seemed to have been blasted right across the road. That anyone could have come out of them alive seemed impossible. On the corner of Hawley Street the end of the block of Corporation flats had been shattered by high explosive, and further down in West Bar a big bomb had dropped in the roadway, damaged some tram cars, burst a water main and turned the district into chaos.
Walking round along Bridge Street one noticed almost casually that the shops at the bottom of Snig Hill had mysteriously gone, that the Blue Boar Hotel was just about burned out, and that something pretty big had fallen in the congested property behind Tennants' Brewery.
The Old Town Hall—the police courts—were on fire and one wondered anxiously what had happened to the main control of the city's A.R.P. which was housed deep in the rock beneath the building. The staff was in a bomb-proof hole but what of fire and suffocation?
Actually, the lights in the control had failed and the emergency lighting was in operation. The emergency ventilating plant had been put out of operation and there was serious danger that the staff would be entombed beneath the burning debris. Firemen did a great job of work and the control was saved.
Then, on passing this area, one became aware of another huge fire. It was the Brightside and Carbrook central store in Exchange Street—a solid wall of flame.
 From the book - Sheffield at War - by Sheffield Star and Telegraph |
And so it was that when daylight dawned on that grim December morning it was found that havoc by fire and bomb had changed the appearance of the heart of Sheffield to a degree that came as a shock to the thousands of suburban residents who, having taken refuge in shelters, were aware of the more or as less serious damage in their neighbourhood but did not foresee the extent of the havoc wrought until they wandered into the city next morning. Every tramway route was marked with abandoned trams and buses, some intact, many with smashed windows and scorched bodies, and several completely burned out. |
Private buildings suffered more than those belonging to the Municipality. The half-million pound City Hall experienced nothing worse than the tearing up of the main steps and the damaging of the entrance hall, while the Town Hall, the Central Library and Art Gallery came through the bombardment without structural damage. The West Bar office of the Public. Assistance Department—later the Social Welfare Department—home of the old Sheffield Board of Guardians, was demolished, and other Corporation property affected was the "old Town Hall"—the building in which the police courts were held—and Nether Edge Hospital, which was badly involved, five patients being killed and one dying from injuries.
Three voluntary hospitals were hit, without, happily, causing any loss of life.
The Jessop Hospital for Women was so severely damaged that the old part had to be vacated, while the Royal Hospital and the Royal Infirmary were also slightly affected.
Craters—there were 200 in all in roads in the city—damaged tracks and wrecked trolley wires, kept the tram service at a standstill, and until these could be restored, the Corporation, with the aid of vehicles lent by other local authorities, maintained a really excellent bus service to all suburbs normally relying on trams.
Whilst official records show that 496 people were recorded as being killed on the first raid of 12-13th Dec, only approximately 126 were recorded as dying in the city centre. Districts mainly to the south of the city were also badly hit with the most notable being the record of 32 people being killed on St Mary's Road. Bombs also fell on Grove Street, and Rock Street Pitsmoor killing 12 and 15 people respectively.
Among several 600 lb. time bombs which failed to explode was one that fell in the Royal Hospital. One of the curios of the raid was a piece of shrapnel weighing several cwt. (part of a 600 lb. bomb) that was blown a distance of half a mile.
From the book - Sheffield at War - by Sheffield Star and Telegraph
The second mass raid lasted from 7.10 to 10.15 p.m. on Sunday, December 15th, and was confined to the East End of the city, extending from the south-east to the north-east.
As in the case of the first raid, it began with the dropping of a large number of incendiaries which caused many fires. Five parachute mines and about 100 H.E. bombs were dropped, which resulted in the deaths of a known 70 people.
A full list of recorded deaths is available by downloading the full list for
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The Air Raid Wardens who died during the raids: |
| Date | Name | Age | Location |
| 12/12/40 | Charles Raynes | 35 | Bramall Lane |
| 12/12/40 | Constance Raynes | 36 | Bramall Lane |
| 12/12/40 | John Charles Butler | 33 | Cross Burgess Street |
| 12/12/40 | Harold Cooper DCM | 46 | Marples Hotel |
| 12/12/40 | John William Battersby | 53 | Stockton Street |
| 13/12/40 | John William Shaw | 29 | Sheaf Street |
| 13/12/40 | Harry Doyle | 56 | South View Road |
| 13/12/40 | Walter Shephard | 72 | Abbeydale Road |
| 15/12/40 | John Thomas Appleby | 60 | ARP Post Coleford Road |
| 15/12/40 | Joseph Armstrong | 44 | ARP Post Coleford Road |
| 15/12/40 | Leonora Armstrong | 41 | ARP Post Coleford Road |
| 15/12/40 | Frederick Brown | 38 | ARP Post Coleford Road |
| 15/12/40 | Robert Horace Cooper | 37 | ARP Post Coleford Road |
| 15/12/40 | Cecilia Gascoigne | 46 | ARP Post Coleford Road |
| 15/12/40 | John Thomas Gascoigne | 50 | ARP Post Coleford Road |
| 15/12/40 | Lawrence Hall | 38 | ARP Post Coleford Road |
| 15/12/40 | Walter Hemmingfield | 54 | Coleford Road |
| 15/12/40 | Victor George Thomas Salibury | 42 | ARP Post Coleford Road |
| 15/12/40 | Frank Donald Winter | 40 | ARP Post Coleford Road |
| 16/12/40 | George Edward Dickson | 53 | Manor Oaks Road |
Other service people who gave their lives:
| Date | Name | Age | Service | Location |
| 12/12/40 | Florence Elizabeth Wolstenholme | 30 | (FAP) First Aid Post | 25, Endwood Road |
| 12/12/40 | Joseph Morris | 58 | ARP Rescue Service | Marples Hotel |
| 12/12/40 | George Glaves | 45 | ARP Rescue Service | Westbrook Bank |
| 12/12/40 | Thomas Paramore | 35 | FAP (First Aid Post) | Westbrook Bank |
| 12/12/40 | Thomas Wilson | 52 | ARP Ambulance Driver | Westbrook Bank |
| 12/12/40 | Harry Wright | 59 | A.R.P. Rescue Service | Westbrook Bank |
| 13/12/40 | Frank Hides Monks | 52 | Constable Police War Reserve | Parkwood Road |
| 13/12/40 | George Beck | 34 | ARP Ambulance Driver | Shoreham Street |
| 13/12/40 | Percy Wood | 44 | Red Cross Ambulance Service | Shoreham Street |
| 13/12/40 | Lawrence Raymond Cross | 25 | (FAP) First Aid Post | St Mary's Road |
As a result of these two raids 566 people were recorded by the Commonwealth War Graves Commission as having died , and the Sheffield Star reported that 1,817 people were injured. 2,849 houses were destroyed, 2,990 badly damaged and 71,785 slightly damaged. Eight schools were destroyed and 106 damaged. 1,218 business premises were destroyed and 2,255 were damaged. Eighteen churches including Valley Road Mission were destroyed and 90 damaged. 206 water mains were broken, 8 gasholders destroyed, 50 electric substations and 850 street lamps destroyed. 31 trams and 22 buses were wrecked.
Following the Sheffield Blitz further raids were mounted by the Luftwaffe. However, none of the matched the bombing intensity and loss of life that occurred on the 12-13th and 15th December 1940.
Extract - Sheffield City Council, Watch Committee, 19th December 1940 |
| Extract - Sheffield City Council, Watch Committee, 16th January 1941 Pursuant with the instruction given in Fire Brigade Circular 153/1940: 5 Sergeants and 20 Firemen of the regular Fire Brigade are allocated to the AFS as follows: To each of the 5 Divisional Stations 1 Sergeant ( Elm Lane, Woodhouse Road, Norton Lane, Darnall Road and Division Street. To each of the 20 Auxiliary Stations 1 Fireman. |
|
Date |
Area mainly affected |
Dead |
Seriously Injured |
Slightly Injured |
1941 |
Jan. 9th |
Dore |
- |
- |
1 |
|
Jan. 16th |
Aldine Court; Sheaf Street; Glossop Road |
- |
- |
3 |
|
Feb. 4th |
Slayleigh Avenue |
1 |
1 |
4 |
|
March 14th |
Southey Hill area (land mines); Northumberland Road |
14 |
29 |
26 |
|
May 9th |
Little London (Stokes' works); Hastings Road; Cemetery Road |
2 |
11 |
25 |
| Totals | 17 |
41 |
59 |
For whatever reason the heavy industry in the East of Sheffield had been spared, and the production of war materials was able to proceed unhindered.
However, this intense period of inland bombing of industrial centres and London had shown that the Fire Brigades of Britain had difficulty in working together as their equipment and working practices were in many aspects different and incompatible. To rectify this a bill was rushed through Parliament to amalgamate all Britain's fire brigades into one body; the National Fire Service which came into being on the 18th August 1941.
This nationalisation was to end the running of the City's Fire Brigade by the Sheffield Police and thus ended the Sheffield Police Fire Brigade's 72 year service to the City.
The Sheffield Roll of Honour (A full list of people who lost their lives in the bombings of Sheffield)
Editors Notes:
In Third Officer Eyre's story, he states that he was informed that a pump stationed on *Porter Street had been blown to bits, and two men killed. According to official records this is incorrect. It appears that the pump that received the direct hit was stationed on Burgess Street.
* Porter Street: Now no longer in existence. At the time it ran from Matilda Street to the end of Bramall Lane.
What was not made public, was that the Germans flew by a beam, an early kind of Radar. This was fixed on a point and then the German bombers flew down the beam to their target. The interception of enemy radio beams indicated that Sheffield was the objective. The authorities were warned, anti aircraft gun batteries, police and all branches of the Civil Defence services were ready. However, the intelligence services had found a way to bend this beam and instead of the point the Germans had chosen, which was the Duke of Wellington pub on Carlisle Street, the beam had been bent so that the Germans flew straight to the City Centre instead. This saved the Steel works but threw the City Centre into chaos and killed many people.
Because of the nature of the city's industries the people of Sheffield expected that bombing from the air would be an early and sustained war experience, though none dared to prophesy its nature, extent or toll; all that could be done was to prepare.
Why did the bombing stop?
German historians usually place the beginning of the Battle of Britain in mid-August 1940 and end it in May 1941, on the withdrawal of the bomber units in preparation for Operation Barbarossa, the Campaign against the USSR on 22 June 1941.
Why divert bombers from their objective to the centre of Sheffield?
For those readers who only remember Sheffield from the early 1970's onwards, and especially the East End as being a place of sports stadia and entertainment complexes. The East End had a completely different character up until the end of 1960.
The Sheffield East End of the 1940's:
English Steel Corporation - Vickers Works: For the first 18 months it housed the only drop hammer capable of forging crankshafts for Spitfires and other important aircraft. It also produced armour, springs etc for a range of tanks - Churchill's, Cromwell's, Valentines, Sherman's and Centaurs were supplied by the English Steel Corporation. The fire power of the British ships came from their cannons, and 40% of the forgings for them came from English Steel. The castings for many of the British Bombs also emanated from the works.
United Steel: Nearly 3,000,000 tons of semi-finished steel was produced at this works during the war. Of this half was re-rolled into the firms continuous bar and strip mills. The bar mill produced 270,000 tons of shell steel bars, as well as large tonnages of rivet, bolt and nut bars and ferro concrete bars. Gun forgings were also produced for 2 pounder, 25 pounder and the 4.5 inch and 3.7 inch anti-aircraft guns.
Edgar Allen & Co: Made 10,000 tons of armour plate. Sheets for for more than 1,115,600 helmets for British troops in austenitic 11-14 per cent manganese steel were supplied to the helmet makers. They also made enough bullet core steel to produce 512,750 cartridges. The track work department drilled and tapped 7,312 tank plates, and ground 837,600 aircraft parts.
Arthur Balfour and Co. Ltd: Specialised in the production of high speed tool steels. This metal was extensively used for the machining shells and the production of reamers which could be used in continuous work.
Firth Vickers Stainless Steels: This company produced vast amounts of stainless steel for aircraft production. The company also produced welding wire for the production of tanks, at a rate of 70 tons per month.
Brown Bailey Mills: Makers of special and alloy steel. 7,000 blocks of special steel were produced and ultimately made, by another company, into torpedo air vessels, mainly for the Fleet Air Arm; upwards of 9,000 guns barrels were produced, and the number of rifle barrels, either in the form of forgings, or merely as round bars, was well over a million.
Hatfields Ltd: Produced 4,550,000 Shells and bombs. They also produced 42,000 tons of bullet proof and armour plate for the Royal Navy, Army and Royal Air Force, and were one of the major contributors of armour protection, both for tanks and for aircraft. In Remembrance of my Grandmother, Ellen Jane Plane, who worked as a crane driver at Hatfields throughout the Second World War.
Whilst I have named only a few of the major companies involved, and I apologise to the other 100 or so not named. I think the above list gives the reader some idea of why someone might want to bend a radio beam and send the Luftwaffe over the city centre instead.
The Luftwaffe's main intention was to destroy the factories along the Don Valley, and according to the official reports the first wave of bombers (Heinkels carrying incendiary weapons) encountered low cloud in the target area. However, this was contradicted by a report in the Sheffield Star which stated that: "Conditions for bombing were perfect. There was a full moon in a cloudless sky and a keen frost had whitened the roofs". It was also speculated that a Luftwaffe navigator mistook the Moor for Attercliffe Road. (the major arterial road through the industrial belt). Nevertheless, once the first wave of bombers had marked the target area with incendaries, the second wave of planes carrying high explosives arrived at 9pm and bombed the fires in the heart of the city thinking these marked their target.
It will probably never be known what the exact objective was of the first and more disastrous of the two raids. In their official communique the Germans claimed to have hit their targets of steel and war works, but, either by accident or design, this is the one thing they did not do. The attack was one on civilians and non-military objects.
The second raid on the 15th December was actualy confined to the East End, but little damage was done to plants on war production.
Both raids, therefore, were a failure from a military point of view. The civilian population, though shocked and temporarily dazed, did not lose heart, nerve, or confidence. If the object of the raids was to break their spirit they failed; it left the people of Sheffield embittered and a more determined people.