The War Years

Extracts from: North-East Diary, 1939-1945, Roy Ripley & Brian Pears http://www.ne-diary.bpears.org.uk/index.html

[HE - High Explosive, UXB – Unexploded Bomb, IB – Incendiary Bomb]

Sunday, 3rd September 1939

Over the last two days, 44,000 Newcastle children have been evacuated to places in Northumberland, Cumberland and Yorkshire

Monday, 1st/Tuesday, 2nd September 1941 N730

Newcastle was the enemy's target on the night of 1st/2nd September, when twenty-five long-range bombers operated, the attack was sharp, it only lasted an hour, but it resulted in considerable damage to property, over a hundred houses being demolished. HE was scattered from Northumberland Road in the west to the Wallsend boundary in the east and as far north as Jesmond Dene Road. Forty-nine people were killed and it is estimated that about 1,000 were made homeless.

There were several fires, including one at New Bridge Street Goods Station, 300 tons of food were destroyed and it took two days to put the fire out. The LNER Jesmond station was blocked by debris and, owing to damage at Manors railway station, the Edinburgh to Kings Cross traffic was diverted via Carlisle, near the Wallsend boundary on the Riverside branch, damage also disrupted services . A UXB at the labour exchange delayed the organisation of repair work, but by Tuesday evening, first-aid repairs to public utilities were affected.

At Willington Quay three died when an HE destroyed an Anderson shelter behind Bede Crescent; other HE caused damage in the Borough and the HE just over the Newcastle boundary damaged sixty houses.

22.05.. Northumberland.. One HE (very large) on Riverside LNER [NZ297653], fifty yards inside Wallsend boundary. Railway blown up, tram standards damaged. Sixty houses damaged by blast. Slight injuries to five men and three women.

22.30.. Northumberland.. Willington Quay.. Four HEs near Holy Cross [NZ310671] - [NZ311673]. One on Archer Street, blocking the road, the other three on soft ground near end of back gardens in Bede Cres. A man and his wife were in an Anderson shelter on the very verge of a crater at rear of number 36 Bede Cres., their two sons were standing just outside the entrance when the bomb exploded. The man and his sons were killed, his wife was slightly injured. Another Anderson shelter only three yards from the one wrecked stood up to the blast, all occupants escaped with slight injuries. Three more women were slightly injured. 22.30.. Northumberland.. Three HEs Wallsend [NZ292665] - [NZ302670] in gardens between Station Road and West Street. No injuries.

22.30.. Northumberland.. One UXB fell in children's playing field on soft ground seventy yards W of West Street, Wallsend, [NZ292665].

. Thursday, 30th April/Friday, 1st May 1942 N971

Eleven died at Wallsend when HE aimed at the shipyards hit houses

Monday, 1st June 1942 D1003

From today all men's and youths clothing will be subject to the following restrictions. Jackets:- No double-breasted jackets - not more than three pockets - no slits or buttons on the cuffs - not more than three buttons on the front - no patch pockets - no half belt - no fancy belts and no metal or leather buttons. Waistcoats:- Plain single breasted only - no collar - not more than two pockets - not more than five buttons - no backstraps and no chainholes. Trousers:- Maximum width of trouser bottoms 19" - plain bottoms - no permanent turnups - not more than three pockets - no side or backstraps - no extension waistbands - no elastic in waistbands and no pleats. General:- No zip fasteners and no raised seams.

Restrictions on women's clothing include the following:-embroidery, applique work and lace on women's and girls' underwear is banned, skirts cannot have more than three buttons, six seams, one pocket and two box pleats, double- breasted suits are out, as are pockets on pyjamas for both sexes.

Total:- Wallsend 36 killed 34 badly injured 88 lightly injured

Holly Avenue Thursday April 30th 1942 [Brian Pears.]

Holly Avenue in Wallsend stretched for nearly half a mile beside the main railway line to the coast. It consisted entirely of terraced flats divided occasionally into blocks by intersecting streets. In the easternmost block, the first downstairs flat had its front door around the corner, so its address was 43 Willow Grove. James Anderson, a 64 year old retired labourer, lived there with his wife, Annie Elizabeth aged 64, and five of his children: Dennis aged 28, Marian aged 26, Andrew aged 24 who was home on leave from the army, Ernest aged 22, and Elsie aged 19. On that night Ernest was on night shift. Further along the block, in the downstairs flat 159 Holly Avenue, James' son, Stanley, a 36 year old foreman moulder, lived with his 35 year old wife, Elizabeth Ann, and two of his children, 11 year old Stanley and 3 year old Ann. Their other two children, Doris and Ronald, had been evacuated to Haughton Castle. Stanley too had been evacuated, but was sent home because he wet the bed! Next door, the upstairs flat 157 Holly Avenue, was the home of Doris and Samuel Lee and their 18 month old twins Nicholas and William Alexander. Samuel was away serving with The Black Watch and, on that night, a relation, 22 year old Margaret Elliott from number 151, the wife of Robert Hilton Elliott, happened to be there. In 156 Holly Avenue, Arthur Dempster aged 30 had a visitor; his sister, 34 year old Margaret Gallantry Duffy, from Stanley.

When the sirens sounded, Stanley Anderson went on duty with the Home Guard, but the rest of these people stayed in their homes instead of seeking safety in the communal surface shelter built against the railway embankment opposite. A fatal error, but the Andersons, at least, had a reason; three of their relations, Smith Anderson and his sons, Harold and Kenneth, had been killed in a shelter along in Bede Crescent, Willington Quay during the raid on September 1st, 1941.

As the planes came nearer and the searchlights and anti-aircraft guns went into action, James Anderson and his son, Dennis, went outside to look at the sights. Stanley Anderson popped into the shelter to see if his family were there and, when he found they weren't, he dashed into number 159 to get them. Just then, a bomber dived to attack the Wallsend Shipyard, just over the railway track, and one of the bombs landed right on Stanley's home. It demolished the whole block. The people in the shelter were badly shaken but otherwise unhurt.

Neighbours rushed to try to help the victims but the wardens stopped them; the remaining walls were in a dangerous condition and there was gas escaping. They had to wait for the Rescue Squad. Eventually everyone was accounted for but Margaret Elliott, the Lee twins, Arthur Dempster, Margaret Duffy and six of the Andersons - James, Annie, Elsie, Stanley, Elizabeth and young Stanley- were dead. Doris Lee and the other Andersons were released from the rubble alive but they were all injured, most of them badly. The injured were taken to the First Aid Post, in a hut near the Drill Hall on Coach Road, before being sent to hospital. Andrew Anderson had been trapped by his legs for three and a half hours and would have to spend nine weeks in Shotley Bridge Military Hospital. Marian Anderson never recovered from the shock and was to spend years in Northgate Hospital at Morpeth.

It is hard to imagine the nightmare faced by James Anderson of 35 Edwin Grove, Willington Quay. He was brought to identify the bodies of six members of his family including his parents and his brother and sister. And poor Doris Lee, her husband miles away in the forces, and her twin babies dead - she would never get over it.