Plans to mark 85th anniversary of Sheffield Blitz that devastated city ‘gathering pace’

A region-wide effort to record the memories of locals that were children in December 1940 when a tenth of the city were made homeless are top of the agenda.

The Blitz Kids project is hoping to start this year and will culminate in the 85th anniversary year – 2025.

The Sheffield Blitz saw over 2,000 people killed and wounded.

Much of the city centre was flattened in attacks. Prior to the blitz Devonshire Green, for example, was a thriving community of back-to-back housing. The face of Sheffield was changed forever.

The tenth anniversary edition of ‘Sheffield’s Date With Hitler’ – which chronicles the devastating two night bombing raid using scores of eye witness accounts, rare photos and more – tells the story of the formidable resources that were brought in to protect the city from a repeat of the Sheffield Flood of 1864, regularly cited as the worst disaster in Victorian Britain.

The book, which was originally published to mark the 75th anniversary of raid, adds a whole new twist to the raids and what might have happened.

Though the legendary dam buster raids provided a massive moral boost to the country’s war effort the War Cabinet – far from celebrating – were more concerned about the Germans adopting their own ‘bouncing bomb’ technology and using it to destroy the city of Sheffield.

Every ounce of British engineering and scientific ingenuity was used to protect the city’s population from the possibility of a breach on any of the dams set high above the city in the Parish of Bradfield. Hundreds of military personal were stationed in the area; thick smoke was pumped out over the dams to disguise them; massive chain-like structures were hung across the water to stop low level bombing and hundreds of boats were put on standby to rescue residents in the event of a successful attack.

Author Neil Anderson said: “The Sheffield Blitz killed and wounded over 2,000 people and left the city crippled but a successful raid on one of the dams could have caused death and destruction on a scale not seen since 1864 when the wall of Dale Dyke Dam was breached and 700 million gallons of water poured through the heart of Sheffield destroying everything in its wake.”

Sheffield was always viewed as a prime target for attack because of its high concentration of steel and armaments factories in its East End and there were numerous bombings throughout the war. But the Sheffield Blitz raids on December 12th and 15th 1940 were on an unprecedented scale – seemingly indiscriminate bombing across the virtual length and breadth of Sheffield.

The biggest single loss of life in the Sheffield Blitz was at the Marples Hotel in Fitzalan Square that received a direct hit.

Author Neil Anderson is one of the people working on the bid for funding to mark the 85th anniversary.

You can keep up with plans by joining the Sheffield Blitz 85th anniversary page on Facebook.

*Content supplied by Neil Anderson.