Everything about The Liverpool Blitz totally explained
The
Liverpool Blitz was the heavy and sustained bombing of the city of
Liverpool and the surrounding area of
Merseyside in
England during the
Second World War by the
Nazi German Luftwaffe.
Liverpool and
Wirral Merseyside was the most heavily bombed area of the country outside of
London, due to its importance in the UK's war effort. The government was desperate to hide from the Germans just how much damage they'd wreaked on the ports and so reports on the bombing of the area were deliberately kept low-key. Over 4,000
Liverpudlians and Merseysiders lost their lives during the blitz, twice the number killed in
Birmingham and even three times that of
Coventry.
London, by comparison had suffered 30,000 deaths by the end of the war.
Liverpool and the
Wallasey Pool were strategically important locations during the
Second World War for numerous reasons. Its large ports on the
River Mersey on the West Coast of England meant that the
Atlantic Ocean, and therefore the
United States, was easily accessible. This would prove to be a key part in the UK's participation in the
Battle of the Atlantic with Liverpool's and the Wirral's ports being used for import and export of goods as well as naval ships from several nations being stationed there. Over 90% of all the war material brought into Britain from abroad, some 75 million tons, passed through its eleven miles of quays.
Preparations for war
Evacuation of children at the start of the war in September
1939 was a pre-emptive measure. The evacuations were organised by
Liverpool Corporation and though some children were transported to smaller towns nearby, many went to far more rural areas in
North Wales and
Cheshire.
The Christmas blitz
Air raid attacks became heavier towards the end of
1940 and Liverpool and Wirral had suffered over 300 air raids by the end of the year. 365 people were killed between
December 20 and
December 22, often due to direct hits on air raid shelters. One in Durning Road was destroyed with the loss of 166 lives and in the north of the city, 40 died when a bomb struck railway arches on Bentinck Street, where local people were sheltering.
The bombing decreased in severity after the new year and in the early part of
1941.
The May blitz
The first bomb landed upon
Wallasey at 10:15 pm on the 1st of May. The peak of the bombing occurred from
May 1 to
May 7 1941. It involved 681
Luftwaffe bombers. Half of the docks were put out of action, with 1,741 people being killed whilst 1,154 people injured. Many more were made homeless. 2,315 high explosive bombs and 119 other explosives such as
incendiaries were dropped.
One incident occurred on
May 3 when the
SS Malakand, berthed in the
Huskisson Dock, was struck by a bomb which set it on fire. Despite valiant efforts by the fire brigade to extinguish the flames, the ship's cargo of 1,000 tons of bombs exploded. The blast destroyed the dock itself and caused a huge amount of damage to the surrounding quays. The explosion was so violent that some pieces of the ship's hull plating were blasted into a park over a
mile away.
Bootle, to the north of the city suffered the most appalling damage and loss of life. Whole swathes of streets simply disappeared and today, street maps of the district show huge grassed over areas in an otherwise densely populated area.
Today one of the most vivid symbols of the Liverpool Blitz in the city is the burnt outer shell of
St Luke's Church which was destroyed by an
incendiary bomb on
May 5 1941. The church was gutted but remained standing and, in it's prominent position in the city, was a stark reminder of what Liverpool and Merseyside had endured. It eventually became a garden of remembrance to commemorate the thousands of local men, women and children who died as a result of the bombing of their city and region.
1942
The last German air-raid on
Merseyside took place on
January 10,
1942, destroying several houses on Upper Stanhope Street in
Liverpool. By a quirk of fate, these included number 102, which had been the home
Alois Hitler Jr., half brother of
Adolf Hitler and the birthplace of
Hitler's nephew,
William Patrick Hitler. The house was never rebuilt and the whole site eventually cleared of housing and grassed over.
Further Information
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