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Wolverhampton
and World War II As in the First World War, Wolverhampton was bombed from the air. The town had made provision against air raids. As has been already mentioned, air raid shelters were built throughout the borough underneath public buildings and in people's back gardens. The document below shows the location of the public shelters in the town centre. The largest shelters were situated at the retail market, which could hold over a thousand people, and at the Central Arcade (now part of the Mander Shopping Centre) which could hold almost five hundred people. Shelters were also provided near principal bus stops. Warnings that enemy aircraft were in the area were given by short blasts on sirens and hooters, or a fluctuating signal rising and falling every few seconds. Alternately air raid wardens and the police would sound a warning with short blasts on whistles.
Map of air raid shelter provision, 1939 (Map 402a)
Etheridge School Bilston Air Raid Drill, January 1940 (D-EDS-41/16/1)
Extract from Broad Lanes Infant School log book referring to air raid alerts. The entry for 19th February 1941 reads "Alert 2.20pm. All Clear 3pm. Children remained in school under desks while plane was overhead. Shelters unfit for use" (D-EDS-21/2/1) Shelters were built at some of the schools, and the pupils and their teachers practised evacuation. We have already seen footage of Elston Hall School building its shelters. Here the school practises an evacuation: Click on the buttons below to access video footage of the interview.
Elston Hall School (VT6) Where schools had no shelters other arrangements were made. For instance, children from Bingley School could use the shelters near to Lea Road chapel:
Letter about Air Raid Shelters, Bingley School Log Book (D-EDS-140/3/1) There were a number of bombing raids on Wolverhampton and the surrounding area, though the number of casualties was few and in the majority of cases the damage was light. On 31st July 1942 seventeen houses in St Giles Crescent, off Willenhall Road, were damaged by high explosive bombs. A register of bomb damage survives which provides details of damage done to each house. Most of the houses could be repaired but numbers 2, 4, 33, 34 and 35 had to be demolished and rebuilt.
St Giles Crescent in 1938 before the war began (Ordnance Survey map)
St
Giles Crescent - the houses marked in orange had to be rebuilt
Register of bomb damage for No. 34 which had to be demolished and rebuilt (DX-830)
Report
to the Housing Committee on families made homeless by bombing following
the attack on 31st July 1942 In 1945 the houses were rebuilt:
Contract for rebuilding the houses (D-LEG/1945/4-53) Wolverhampton did not receive the heavy bombing suffered in Birmingham and Coventry during November 1940, which caused severe damage and loss of life. By the autumn of 1940 the German Air Force was using a system of radio beams to direct their bombers. This system was called "Knickebein." It used three radio beams. The aircraft followed two parallel beams, and a third radio beam crossed the other two. The point where the third beam crossed was the location of the target. In November 1940 a decoded message was received stating that German High Command had ordered the German Beam Stations to set the beams for Birmingham, Coventry and Wolverhampton. Following attacks on Birmingham and Coventry extra anti-aircraft guns were sent to the Wolverhampton area, but there was no raid. It seems that German aerial reconnaissance had detected large numbers of anti-aircraft guns in the area and the raid had been cancelled. According to The West Midland Airfields the code name for the attack on Wolverhampton was "Einheitspreis" meaning unit price, as at Woolworth the retail store, the words Woolworth and Wolverhampton being similar! Bomb damage, Beckminster School, 3rd October 1940 (W5/BEC/E/1)
Documents found in Germany at the end of the war reveal some of the Nazi's knowledge of Wolverhampton and the surrounding districts.
German Bombing Map, 1939 (map cabinet B) Listed on the map in German, are:
Also discovered were maps of Wednesfield and Bilston, lists of various industries, locations of local airfields and the fact that one "Flakbatterie" using 9.4cm shells defended Wolverhampton. A major target for the German Air Force was the Boulton Paul aircraft factory at Pendeford, north west of Wolverhampton. Luftwaffe maps from 1940 show the works. In order to protect the site a dummy factory was built at Coven two miles to the north. So convincing was the decoy factory that it was bombed three times during the war!
Luftwaffe
Aerial Photograph of Boulton Paul Factory, 1940
© Copyright. Wolverhampton City Council, 2002
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