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AIR RAIDS
York had a few small raids during the war, but the major raid, called the Baedeker Raid, happened in April 1942 in which 93 people were killed, and more than 200 were injured. During the war 9500 houses in York were damaged or destroyed.
It was called the Baedeker Raid after a famous tourist guidebook which told the Germans about important historic buildings.
One of the buildings to be damaged was the Bar Convent, now All Saint's School, on the corner of Nunnery Lane.
I remember the night of the raid on York, when the sirens went I had to report to the warden's base, which was opposite the Odeon, downstairs from a cycle shop called Shearsmith's, and that's where our headquarters were.'
Anyway when they started bombing York, it appears that one of the first bombs to drop was on the Bar Convent so we, being the nearest ARP place to the convent, rushed down. I helped to get some of the nuns and pupils out of the coal chute down Nunnery Lane. We took them across to a butcher's shop across the road called Rank's Butchers.'
While they were doing that they said, 'John, there's a message here, you must go to the Guildhall and take this message to get troops here, because we think there's more trapped.' So I got on my bicycle and cycled past the railway station, that was all ablaze, and when I got to the Guildhall, that was ablaze, so they redirected me to the War Office down Fishergate, so that's where I left the message. It was about half past two in the morning, I believe.
I remember actually during the Baedeker Raid in April 1942, spending half
the night under the kitchen table, which was the best we could do in our
house. I went to school at St Olave's and I used to go in by bus, and
come back home by bus, but I seem to remember that nothing got in the
way of school. We just carried on as before. It was a bit smelly and there
was quite a bit of fire damage around Bootham.
PETER BINNS was nine and lived in Lavender Grove off Poppleton Road.
My father worked at the old County Hospital and he used to do fire-watching
duties. If he was at home on a night when the sirens went off, if it was
obvious that they weren't bombing York, we used to go into the back yard
to see if you could see anything. We had two air raid shelters built,
one in the back yard, about ten foot by six foot, brick shelter with a
concrete roof and a steel door. But because that was damp, my mum and
dad had the cupboard under the stairs altered ... and we used to use that
as an indoor shelter because it was warm, it was dry, and we didn't have
to go dashing down the back yard on a night when the sirens went off.
'We used to put on these siren suits which were like a pair of overalls made of blanket type material to keep you warm over your pyjamas. My dad went outside and then he said, "Come and have a look at this". And we went down to the end of the back yard which led on to the allotments, and the whole of Clifton Ings was on fire with incendiary bombs. It was just like a continuous flash gun. And then the planes were coming over and somebody started machine gunning. So my dad's, "Right, time we went inside". You could hear bombs whistling down and pots rattling in the cupboards, and then everything went absolutely quiet, probably only for about a second, and then bang. The roof came down, the walls fell in, the windows went out, and that was it. The bomb had landed on the other side of the street and it had demolished some terraced houses, and because things were that unsafe and you couldn't breathe for the brick dust and everything else, my dad decided to go for the shelter in the yard. So it was a case of me under one arm, my sister under the other one, shouting at my mum, "Come on Doris". And we headed for the shelter in the yard.
'And we basically sat there until the all clear went, which
was almost daylight. And when you step outside and you see that your house
that was there when you went to bed, was no longer there, it's a bit of
a shock. The wall down the centre of the house was still there and the
back bedroom was hanging at an angle with my bed on it, the old bed with
the brass knobs on the top and a teddy bear above the bed.
Until then it used to be fun in one sense. Putting your gas mask on when
you were at school. For a kiddie of my age, it was fun. You didn't realise
something would happen. Because when we saw it the following morning and
the house had gone, and the furniture was all in pieces, and your toys,
you'd got your Monopoly, your tin cars and all the rest of it, they'd
all gone, they were under piles of rubble. And it really comes home to
you what war is about.
'So when daylight came and we saw what had happened, well it was basically down to my mum and dad. We finished off going up to a house which was a bombed out reception centre, on Boroughbridge Road. We went there to fill forms in and all the rest of it, and they gave us blankets, and they gave me a Monopoly set which was an American one. My mum's brother used to live in Prior's Walk so we went there and slept on their floor for a few nights until we got sorted out.
'Yeah, it was frightening. It was fun beforehand
but frightening afterwards.
1. When did the big air raid on York take place, and what was it called?
2. Which building was hit on the corner of Nunnery Lane?
3. Where did Tony Wood and his family shelter?
4. What part of York could Peter Binns see in flames?
5. What job was John Mennell doing in 1942?
6. What did Peter Binns's family receive from the refugee station?
7. Did families get any compensation for houses that were destroyed during the air raids?
8. Who did John Mennell rescue on the night of the air raid?
9. Which family had shelters indoors and outside?
10. Where did John Mennell take the message on the night of the air raid?
Imagine your house was demolished during an air raid. How would you feel?
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