Uncle Billy's Letter about the Blitz

This is a letter Billy sent to My Grandmother, his sister Lal. I have edited it for personal details.The place of work mentioned was H and J Quicks in Trafford.

22/2/41
3 White Swallow
Barton Rd
Swinton
Manchester

Dear Lal,
Just received your Xmas Calendar and also a Xmas Card from Eileen and thanks so much for them for it is so good to hear from you in these difficult times. First of all I must tell you we are all OK and have suffered no damage at all so don’t worry-we have had a rough time over here but are none the worse for it. I sent you some papers with photos of the Manchester blitz and hope you got them safely.

Poor Salford got it the worst and you can’t imagine what it looked like the morning after the Blitz. Around the old home at Seedley it was pitiful to see and even St Johns and St Ambrose’s were “blitzed”. The Seedley Cinema and Hodge lane got it very severely as well — in fact every part had a taste of it including the little park and Hope Hospital lost all the staff through a direct hit. Salford Royal and all along the Crescent got it very heavy and in the City they made an awful mess. The Royal Exchange and the Free Trade Hall and the Stations and the Cathedral and there is no longer any St Mary’s Gate. Here in Swinton we got it too and although we were lucky we had a tough time. The only 2 shops on the street opposite us got a direct hit and killed Mr. Blakemore outright on the Monday night. On the Sunday only a few hours previous he helped our party to put out fires in the houses and then he gets killed.

The first Blitz started at 7pm on the Sunday before Xmas and lasted exactly 12 hours; the longest Blitz of all and Mam and Valerie along with some friends were in the Anderson all the time. The first planes came over in waves and dropped thousands of incend. bombs. Fires broke out almost everywhere and one dropped in the next garden to ours opposite the front door so I helped Mrs. Deakin to put it out and then the fun really started.
Owing to the many fires everywhere it was just like day light and he came over wave after wave with high explosive and Heavies and the noise was terrible with exploding bombs and anti-aircraft fire. Along with a few more we went round putting fires out in bedrooms-most of the bombs broke through the slates and lodged between the bedroom floors and kitchen ceilings and believe me they want some putting out as they send out flying pieces of molten metal which sets fire to anything it touches. We had left our house thinking we had finished it OK, but had to go back as the bed was on fire. When we got there we went up stairs, but the smoke was so thick we had to put our masks on and in the fog of the smoke one of the men threw a bucket of water on me and was it cold and did I swear — well I’ll leave you to guess.
We were on the job five hours altogether and at the end of it I was all in. This was at 5 am and in all that time we hadn’t even had a drink of tea- only a smoke. Anyhow I went to the shelter and told Nora I was going in the house for a drink and I was so done up I lay on the kitchen rug and just falling asleep when one of the mobile anti guns fired a salvo over our house. I thought our house was hit at first and then I knew what had happened. After that I gave up all ideas of sleep and made some tea took it to the Anderson, came back by the fire and started to get ready for work.
Of course there were no buses and the trams were still on the roads where they had stayed all night as the wires were down. To cut a long story, I had to walk from Swinton to Trafford Bridge and when I got there they wouldn’t let any body over so I had to walk to the bottom of Ordsall Lane Regent Road and up Dawson St. along Chester Rd. to Old Trafford and eventually reached work at 10-35 am after leaving home at 7am, so you can imagine how tired I felt.

What a shock when I got to work- hardly anything left, only the walls and the offices were intact. I’ve never seen such broken glass- almost knee deep in places. A land-mine dropped on the White City had blasted our works and what a blast it must have been. Anyhow we got on the job clearing up, but at 3pm the Boss realizing we were all done up told us to go home and off we went. I managed to get a lift on a brick lorry part of the way and arrived home about 5-30-had some tea and was getting ready for a good sleep when the sirens started and off we went to the Anderson. (It’s rather funny you should ask in your letter had we had to use our Anderson) “Not Arf”, we are hardly ever out of it. And so the second blitz started and about ten times worse than the Sunday Blitz.

The two shops opposite us got a direct hit and we thought it was for us when we heard the bombs coming and we all ducked and then a terrific explosion and loads of debris on our shelter and then I realized we were alright. I had a peep out to see if it was our house and was glad to find it was alright. The Doctors house at the corner got a direct hit also and it was completely demolished. Our Anti-Aircraft put up a good show and the raid finished at 1-30am and to our relief we went home, had a bit of supper and slept in chairs downstairs- we weren’t risking going to bed in case he came over again.

So off to work on Tuesday —same route only worse-as I passed Regent Bridge there were fires all around, even the Abattoirs was on fire and I got to work at 10am and half an hour after we had to evacuate our works as there was a land-mine on the opposite side which hadn’t gone off and the police told us to clear off as fast as we could- Oh boy, you should have seen us run- I’m blowed if I know even now where I got my speed from, but I broke all records.

Well dear Lal, we are in the pink in spite of every thing and we are not downhearted in the least-one can get used even to a blitz so we are keeping our chins up in the firm belief that before long the tide will turn and then our men will give the Jerries a double dose of what we have had to undergo. Of course this sort of warfare suits the Germans-hit and run-it’s the only game they are experts at, but they have got it coming to them and before long.

Yours lovingly Billy
XXXXXX

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