York Stories

Baedeker raid, 70 years on

Lisa @YorkStories — Sat, 28 Apr 2012 18:30:08 +0000

The 70th anniversary of the ‘Baedeker’ raid is being marked in an imaginative way – on Twitter – @BaedekerLive. You can follow events ‘as they happened’, if you’re able to stay up all night. The Twitter feed is viewable now, or later, on this link. It’s an excellent idea. The 140-character message seems the perfect form to convey the urgency and chaos, the widespread reports of damage, of that night 70 years ago.

This image, courtesy of the Imperial War Museum’s collection, shows the effect of the raid on one property. The caption explains:

“This house was almost totally destroyed in a direct hit by a bomb during the ‘Baedeker’ raid … Its owner, Mr McGregor, is shown standing amidst the remains of his home. Mr McGregor and his wife (plus their lodger) were protected from the bomb blast and collapsing masonry by a Morrison air raid shelter. This shelter is visible under rubble to the right of the photograph.”

Though I was born decades after the war, the Baedeker raid has felt ‘close to home’ since I read about it many years ago, and realised how many people died in streets close to where I live.

There are already many pages on this website with further information on the raid and its effects. On 29 April 1942, Stephen was living to the north of the city, Audrey was on Blossom Street, close to the Bar Convent, where five nuns died.

Many people lost their lives that night. William Milner died at York station. Arthur Broadhead died on Bootham. Six year old Betty Pope died in the Queen Anne’s School shelter. Dorothy Thompson died in Nunthorpe Grove. Her body was found on 7 May, at the bottom of a bomb crater.

List of civilian casualties

Perhaps the best place to visit to reflect on the destruction of that night, the devastation brought about by war, and the importance of forgiveness and reconciliation, is the church of St Martin le Grand, on Coney Street. Its book of remembrance is shown on the front page of this website. The book is currently on loan to York Libraries, and is part of an interesting exhibition in York Explore (Central Library).

It’s 8.30 on 28 April. I’ve checked the Twitter feed. Last update: 7pm. ‘All wardens’ posts fully staffed’.

Footnote:

We must also remember the devastating effects of our bombing of ‘enemy targets’. One month earlier, for example, in Lubeck.

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Footnote 2:
00.20, 29 April 2012 – ‘misinformation’ concern: dates confusion

As I’m still awake, and there’s no update on @BaedekerLive, it seems as good a time as any to mention/query the fact that some sources give the date of the Baedeker raid on York as 28-29 April, some as 28 April. Most say 29 April, as it was in the early hours that the bombing began.

A piece on the BBC website says “The county town of York heard the approach of enemy aeroplanes at midnight on 28 April”. Doesn’t seem enough to place the raid as happening on 28 April, does it. But the Wikipedia article does, as did a recent article on a York-based website.

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Footnote 3:
00.35, 29 April 2012 – ‘misinformation’ concern (2): numbers of casualties

Some sources give the number of civilian casualties as 70-something, others as 90-something. Quite a discrepancy there.

The York Press coverage fluctuates on the numbers, even within the same paper, within the last week or two.

A variation of 20 seems a little too vague. A solution seemed to be to trace each name on the list of known casualties to the official Commonwealth War Graves Commission records (list above – Civilian casualties list).

The discrepancy was obvious – it’s due to the weird boundaries at the time, which had half of the Clifton district under Flaxton District Council. This included houses in the Kingsway area. Clearly very much part of York as we know it, and well within the outer ring road, and not far from where I live.

A lot of people died there, and it seems odd that in the 21st century remembering some sources continue to discount them from the numbers.

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Tag(s): WW2, Baedeker

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1942 ‘Baedeker’ raid

Lisa @YorkStories — Sun, 04 Mar 2012 18:14:03 +0000

I’ve updated and I hope enhanced the pages on this site relating to the air raid on 29 April 1942. The civilian casualties list has had a lot of visitors in recent days, following an article in The Press about the ‘Baedeker’ raid. I’ve added a page with a simplified, alphabetically-arranged list of addresses in York where there were civilian casualties.

I’ve also compiled a Google map, as a visual representation of where those bombs fell. It only represents a part of the widespread bombing, only showing the sites where civilians died, but it shows how badly certain streets, such as Bootham Crescent, were affected.

Each marker on the map represents loss of life, maybe one, sometimes many. From tiny children, to two elderly sisters whose house was hit, to the six year old girl in the Queen Anne’s School shelter.

Full list of names.

Tag(s): Baedeker, WW2

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Addresses of civilian deaths, Baedeker raid

Lisa @YorkStories — Fri, 02 Mar 2012 00:00:07 +0000

March 2012

A simplified version of the civilian war dead list. Addresses in the York area where civilians were killed by bombing on the night of 29 April 1942. Explanatory notes and links are included below. You can also view the Google map.

35 Amberley St (9 killed)
37 Amberley St (2)
39 Amberley St (3)
The Bar Convent (5)
16 Bootham Cres (2)
26 Bootham Cres
30 Bootham Cres
39 Bootham Cres (3)
Bootham Cres (3)
14 Bootham Sq
16 Burton Stone Lne (4)
Burton Stone Lane
14 Chatsworth Terr (2)
53 Chatsworth Terr (3)
55 Chatsworth Terr (2)
Chatsworth Terr (2)
Collingwood Ave
6 Fairway, Clifton (2)
8 Fairway, Clifton
68 Garfield Terr
Grant Ave
39 Lavender Grove
Phoenix Cott, Leeman Rd
1 Phoenix Cotts [?Leeman Rd]
12 Livingstone St
2 Malton Way, Clifton
13 Mansfield St
6 North Parade
26 Nunthorpe Cres
45 Nunthorpe Rd (2)
46 Nunthorpe Rd
49 Nunthorpe Rd
6 Pickering Terr (3)
45 Plantation Drive
62 Price St
Welwyn House Flats, Queen Anne’s Rd (2)
18 Queen Anne’s Rd (2)
20 Queen Anne’s Rd (4)
Queen Anne’s School Shelter
Railway Station
LNER (Railway Station) Police Office
80 Rowntree Ave
103 Spalding Ave, Clifton
110 Spalding Ave, Clifton (8)
112 Spalding Ave, Clifton
12 Sycamore Terr
16 Westminster Rd
18 Westminster Rd (2)

If only the street name is given, with no house number, the casualties are often air-raid wardens, fire watchers, and members of other support services, on duty in the area. For more information, and the names and ages of casualties, see the more detailed list from which the above was taken.

The information above is correct to the best of my knowledge. Please let me know of any omissions or inaccuracies.

. . . . .

Page compiled 2 March 2012, from this list.

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The lost street of Pickering Terrace

Lisa @YorkStories — Sat, 31 Dec 2011 00:00:13 +0000

2012

‘A high explosive bomb hit the school wall’

There are many familiar street names on the lists of air raid damage and casualties from the ‘Baedeker’ raid of 1942. One street name probably not so familiar is Pickering Terrace.

I could find no trace of it when I first searched many years ago. Seemed odd that a whole street had disappeared.

It is shown on the pre-war maps. Pickering Terrace was just off Newborough Street. It’s now just a strange little stump of a street, apparently leading to a back entrance to Shipton Street school. The fish and chip shop on Newborough St marks its corner.

There were eight houses here, presumably similar to the ones on Newborough Street, four on each side. They were built in the late 19th century, when the football ground behind the ones on the left was a cricket ground. No trace left now of any of them. The school yard seems to have taken in the ground they once occupied, which was just beyond the wall shown on this photo.

The school is closed and awaiting redevelopment. Its yard is overgrown and deserted. Where the buddleia now grows, bombs fell in April 1942.

One of the casualties of that raid died at number 6 Pickering Terrace. Katharine Cooper, aged 47.

A contribution to the BBC archives includes an account of the bombing of Pickering Terrace. Gerald Wilkins lived on Newborough Street:

“My eldest brother and his wife lived just up the road in a small cul-de-sac of 6 or 8 houses bordering onto a school wall. My brother was also working nights at "Crooks Optical" factory. His wife, who was pregnant, was on her own. My mother and I went to our front door looking for her. There were many houses on fire also incendiary bombs burning in the street. Soldiers, from nearby Lumley Barracks, were trying to fight the fires. They began shouting, "Get inside" as a figure ran down the street. It was my sister-in-law running towards us. She was safe and sound. She was doubly lucky, as a high explosive bomb hit the school wall demolishing all their houses, as well as German planes which were machine gunning the street. My father and brother were told that our street had been burnt to the ground. Luckily this was not true, but my father did say that he had seen locomotive engines piled on top of one another at least three or four deep, and wondered at the force required to do this.”

WW2 People’s War is an online archive of wartime memories contributed by members of the public and gathered by the BBC. The archive can be found at www.bbc.co.uk/history/ww2peopleswar/.

Maps

Pickering Terrace is shown on the 1937 map at www.old-maps.co.uk (new window). To locate, put the coordinates 460002 and 453002 in the Coords boxes on the home page, select 1937 map from the list in the box on the right when the modern map appears in the central box. The street is shown close to the north-east corner of the football ground.

On film

A film clip of York City FC in training, dating from 1938, shows terraced houses in the background, which must be Pickering Terrace. About 22 seconds in. View on British Pathé.com.

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Memorial to a wartime fireman

Lisa @YorkStories — Wed, 09 Feb 2011 20:22:20 +0000

2011

This headstone in York Cemetery marks the resting place of one of the casualties of the ‘Baedeker raid‘ on 29 April 1942. Arthur Broadhead was a fireman with the National Fire Service, and died while carrying out his duties that night – ‘killed in action’, at Bootham Crescent.

‘Incendiaries are usually the prelude to attack by high explosive,
and so it was in Bootham Terrace, the NFS had responded quickly to deal
with a fire there, soon afterwards a stick of HE straddled the little
railway bridge linking Grosvenor Terrace and Bootham Terrace, killing
a fireman, two Fire Guards, Mr Colman the Deputy Head Warden, a soldier
and some civilians.’

From North-East
Diary, 1939-1945

Arthur Broadhead, Mr Colman and others are included on the casualty list for that night.

Other NFS firemen lost their lives in York during the war years. Robert Sunderland, aged 63, of Etty Avenue, died 21 Sept 1941, in the River Ouse. Sidney Thompson, aged 33, of Rectory Gardens, died 2 Aug 1942 in a fire float at King’s Staith, near Ouse Bridge. Both are recorded on the Commonwealth War Graves Commission searchable database. More information regarding the raid in which Mr Thompson was killed is available on the York Air Raids pages: 2 August 1942 report.

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Baedeker raid

Lisa @YorkStories — Wed, 09 Feb 2011 00:00:48 +0000

February 2011

The ‘Baedeker raid’ on York was the most destructive bombing raid on the city. It wasn’t the only time York was bombed during the war years, but it’s the most well-known air raid.

Compared to nearby Hull, where my mother lived at the time – or, more famously, London – bombing on York was quite small-scale. Though that would be no comfort to those living through it.

There are many memorials in York reminding us of the impact of the bombing on the lives of ordinary civilians. Also standing as a memorial is the church of St Martin-le-Grand on Coney Street, partly rebuilt after bomb damage. It has a stained glass window representing the church burning that night, a detail of which illustrates this page.

Some of York’s historic buildings were bombed during the raid – notably the Guildhall. The railway was a target – the railway station was badly damaged, and many bombs also landed on schools and homes close to the railway lines – such as Poppleton Road School, which suffered a direct hit. (The line of the rebuilding is still visible in the brickwork.)

For more information see the other pages in this section.

More reports can be found on the website York Air Raids

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