Thread: The War Years
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Old 9th February 2019, 15:09
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John Rogers United States John Rogers is offline
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dropped over a wide area. Many hundreds burnt on the riverbanks, and many fell on the village of Shirehampton. Several fires were started in the docks and in the Smelting Works. The sky was illuminated buy chandelier flares; fifteen were counted at one time eight were seen over Avonmouth. Antiaircraft fire drove the raiders off their targets, with the results that damage was kept to a minimum. The A.A. barrage, in fact was considered the heaviest yet put up in Bristol. Considering the scope of this raid the casualty were light, 9 dead and 22 injured. Four German bombers were shot down with crash landing at Redding’s farm, near Weston-Super. Mare.



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7/8 Apri11941.
Single raider dropped H.E. and incendiaries bombs on Shirehampton; slight damage was reported to some homes.

9 /10 Apri11941.
Raiders attacked Avonmouth again with H.E. Bombs hitting the railway station and destroying the Cinema.

11/12 Apri11941. (Good Friday) Bristol's Sixth Blitz.
This heavy two-scale raid was the sixth and final large-scale attack on Bristol. The enemy claimed to have 153 aircraft over the target, Bristol/Avonmouth, dropping 193 tons of H.E. and 34,884 incendiaries bombs. Incendiaries H.E. Bombs were dropped in waves of planes after they had broken through the heavy Ack-Ack fire. The attack started at 10:00pm and lasted 2 hours; at mid-night the all clear was sounded. Thirteen minutes later the enemy planes were back over the city and did not leave unti1 3:52 am. The second raid was far more serious than the first. Bombs fell on Shirehampton and Avonmouth, a large bomb destroyed 10 homes in Richmond Terrace, and a large land mine fell on Priory Rd in Shirehampton killing five people in their homes. Total dead for the night were 180 and 300 injured.

4 May 1941
The RAF, night fighters began to keep the German planes away taking a toll on the bombers. Thirteen of the enemy planes fell to fighter aircraft. And on 7 may 24 more were shot down.

31 may 1941
Avonmouth and Shirehampton was under attack again, bombs destroyed several buildings on the dock, and bombs fell on Park gates and Sea Mills. Two people were killed and 12 injured.

27 July 1941.
When the new RAF airfield at Broadfield Down was built (which is now Bristol Lulsgate Airport), no one in their wildest dreams could have envisioned that the first aircraft to use the new hard runway would be a German bomber.
It was a misty morning on 27 July 1941 when a strange looking aircraft circled overhead above Lulsgate Bottom, which was still under construction. The plane made a perfect landing. The time was 6: 20 am. It taxied up to the workers on the strip. The pilot stepped out of the cockpit and asked the workers what part of France he was in. Apparently the pilot had been following the coastline down from Birkenhead after a bombing mission and mistook the Bristol Channel as the English Channel; he had been driven off course by one of Britain's secret weapons, a radio


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