Liverpool Blitz

The Liverpool Blitz was the heavy and sustained bombing of the city of Liverpool and the surrounding area, in England during World War II by the Nazi German Luftwaffe.

Liverpool, Bootle and Wirral were the most heavily bombed areas of the country outside of London, due to their importance in the British war effort. The government was desperate to hide from the Germans just how much damage they had wreaked on the ports and so reports on the bombing of the area were deliberately kept low-key. Over 4,000 Merseysiders lost their lives during the blitz, dwarfing the number of casualties sustained in other bombed industrial areas like Birmingham and Coventry. London, by comparison had suffered 30,000 deaths by the end of the war.

Liverpool, Bootle and the Wallasey Pool were strategically important locations during the Second World War. The large port on the River Mersey on the north west coast of England had, for many years been Britain's main link with American destinations and this would prove to be a key part in the British participation in the Battle of the Atlantic. As well as providing anchorage for naval ships from many nations, the Mersey's ports and dockers would handle over 90% of all the war material brought into Britain from abroad, with some 75 million tons passing 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

Trees now grow in the shell of St Luke's Church

The first bomb landed upon Wallasey "over the water" from Liverpool on the Wirral in Cheshire, 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 on May 3 involved the SS Malakand, berthed in the Huskisson Dock, which was set alight by a barrage ballon which had somehow drifted free and had caught upon the ships upperworks. Despite valiant efforts by the fire brigade to extinguish the flames, the fire spread to the ship's cargo of 1,000 tons of bombs which 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.Fortunately, casualties were few.

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 its 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 of 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.

External links

• More Information
• More information
• SS Malakand
• Evacuation
• Timeline
• [1]Some details of the Liverpool blitz from first hand accounts. The reason why Edge Hill was a particular target.