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Sunderland in world war 2

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I understand that Sunderland was bombed far more heavily than Newcastle because the Germans felt they would only really need one relatively undamaged sea port in the north east post-invasion, and that was to be Newcastle. Sunderland was also the bigger producer of ships so it would make sense to disrupt that as well.

And we had the better football team which could've been a threat to Bayern Munich...........

My Nana's piano suffered bomb damage when the house windows were blown in - the end was all scratched with glass and the very last white key never worked again - Hitler has a lot to answer for.....
 
One of the reasons Sunderland was bombed so much was that we produced 1/4 - 1/3 (reports vary) of the total tonnage produced by all British shipyards during WWII.

Little known fact - the Liberty Ships were based on a design by J.L. Thompson & Sons. I'm not 100% certain but I think the SD14 is a derivative of the Liberty Ships too.

Rick O Shea said:
And we had the better football team which could've been a threat to Schalke 04..........
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Tidied as they were the top team in Germany during the Third Reich. ;)
 
@Paddy O'Dors posted some good photos a while back of some bomb damage around Fulwell. I think it was Garcia Terrace / Atkinson Road area. There are a few blocks of houses down there that don't fit with the others. I was also told by my Dad that a few bombs dropped on what is now Barnes Park extension and I think you can still identify the crater areas (I believe it was a farm in those days). My Grandad was an ARP and I believe there were also some bombs fell around Silksworth Lane area aimed at the railway line that was there at the time.
 
My gran told me she sat on the bridge at grangetown and watched binns the store burn down
 
Blyth said:
Hartlepool was the first place hit by the Germans in ww1 I believe.

Wasn't Sunderland hit my a Zeppelin attack?
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my old man reckoned sunderland was 5th most bombed city in the country - ive never checked this out however

coxhoedave said:
Fulwell in May 1941 courtesy of the Luftwaffe.

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is that redby school?

coxhoedave said:
Fulwell in May 1941 courtesy of the Luftwaffe.

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amazing pic just emailed it to me dad!
 
My Dad was 9 when the war ended and can still remember the names of his class mates that were wiped out during the Blitz. One day playing in the yard with them, the next day being told at school that whole families had been wiped out. He also lost a cousin at the junction of Hendon Valley Road and Villette Road, because she got off the tram two stops later my Grandmother. He says the air raid siren had gone off and his cousin stayed on the tram to go home as she felt safer there, never made it. He also says that when sitting in the air raid shelter listening to bombs falling from the sky, the old folk would tell the kids that you couldn't hear a bomb that was falling directly towards you, presumably to stop them getting upset.
So one day he was playing in the front street with his mates when one of his neighbours came out shouting the war had ended, I expected him to be jubilant, he said it didn't phase him as he couldn't remember a time when we weren't at war.
Recons the main targets in Sunderland were the docks, Shipyards and Gas Works down Hendon.
 
zwartekat said:
@Paddy O'Dors posted some good photos a while back of some bomb damage around Fulwell. I think it was Garcia Terrace / Atkinson Road area. There are a few blocks of houses down there that don't fit with the others. I was also told by my Dad that a few bombs dropped on what is now Barnes Park extension and I think you can still identify the crater areas (I believe it was a farm in those days). My Grandad was an ARP and I believe there were also some bombs fell around Silksworth Lane area aimed at the railway line that was there at the time.
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Think my pics were round the back of the Mill View Club. I know a bomb fell on Dacre Crescent and Francis Street.
 
ok 7th


•Sunderland was one of the seven most heavily bombed towns in Britain during the Second World War, with 267 civilians killed and more than 1,000 wounded.
 
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