Swansea Blitz
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Swansea Blitz | |||||
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Part of the Imperial War Museums) | |||||
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Belligerents | |||||
Nazi Germany | United Kingdom | ||||
Casualties and losses | |||||
Unknown | 230 killed, 397 injured |
The Swansea Blitz was the
PRA planning
With the passing of the Air Raid Precautions Act of 1937, Swansea Council was responsible for instigating civil defence measures to protect the local population of 167,000 people. The local authority looked into building communal air raid shelters and setting up the necessary rescue and fire services.
With the threat of war with Germany growing towards the end of the 1930s, Swansea council had built over 500 communal air raid shelters as well as providing Anderson shelters for domestic premises. With the outbreak of war in September 1939, the pace of providing shelters increased further. To complement the already-built communal shelters, the council requisitioned cellars and basements as makeshift shelters.
Those with gardens often built
Bombing raids
This section needs additional citations for verification. (August 2017) |
First raid, June 1940
The first air raid on Swansea commenced at 3.30 am on 27 June 1940. An initial marker flare was dropped by a Luftwaffe plane, and the following bombers dropped high explosives to the east of the city centre in the
The Three Nights' Blitz
Through the rest of 1940, Swansea was targeted by single and small groups of enemy bombers. There were several small-scale raids in January 1941, but the worst bombing period occurred over three nights on 19, 20, and 21 February 1941. This period, to become known as the Three Nights' Blitz, started at 7.30 pm on 19 February.[2][3]
On the first night, the building housing both the Regimental HQ of 79th (Hertfordshire Yeomanry) Heavy Anti-Aircraft Regiment, Royal Artillery and the Gun Operations Room (GOR) at Swansea was destroyed by a bomb. Two officers and five other ranks were killed or died of wounds, but the guns continued firing under local control, and communications were maintained.[4][5]
On the evening of 21 February, there was confusion between the Sector Operations Room at
By the time the "all clear" siren sounded after three days, major parts of Brynhyfryd, Townhill, and Manselton had been destroyed, and 230 people were dead and 409 injured. Moreover, 7,000 people had lost their homes. The city centre suffered direct hits that started major conflagrations destroying many commercial premises, including the Ben Evans department store and the Victorian market.[7]
Over the three nights of the blitz, a total of nearly 14 hours of enemy activity were recorded. 1,273 high explosive bombs and 56,000
Further bombing
Swansea was the target for several more raids, with the last being recorded on 16 February 1943.[9]
School bombed
The 19th-century grammar school that had stood on Mount Pleasant Hill since 1851 and was the alma mater of
Notes
- ^ "BBC Wales - History - Themes - Bombing raids". Bbc.co.uk. Retrieved 9 August 2017.
- ^ Sainsbury, pp. 77–79.
- ^ Collier, Appendix XXX, ibiblio.org; accessed 9 August 2017.
- ^ Routledge, p. 395.
- ^ Sainsbury, pp. 80–81.
- ^ Sainsbury, pp. 83–84.
- ^ "Looking back at the Swansea blitz of 1941". Wales Online. 19 February 1941. Retrieved 9 August 2017.
- ^ "The Blitz". Swanseamuseum.co.uk. 21 February 1941. Retrieved 9 August 2017.
- ^ Collier, Appendix XXXVIII, ibiblio.org; accessed 9 August 2017.
References
- Basil Collier, History of the Second World War, United Kingdom Military Series: The Defence of the United Kingdom, London: HM Stationery Office, 1957.
- Brig N.W. Routledge, History of the Royal Regiment of Artillery: Anti-Aircraft Artillery 1914–55, London: Royal Artillery Institution/Brassey's, 1994, ISBN 1-85753-099-3.
- Col J.D. Sainsbury, The Hertfordshire Yeomanry Regiments, Royal Artillery, Part 2: The Heavy Anti-Aircraft Regiment 1938–1945 and the Searchlight Battery 1937–1945, Welwyn: Hertfordshire Yeomanry and Artillery Trust/Hart Books, 2003, ISBN 0-948527-06-4.