Oldham Council is asking residents to recollect their memories of the Blitz and various other bombing raids from World War Two as part of the ‘Oldham Remembers’ campaign.
The Blitz, which loosely translates to the German phrase Blitzkrieg meaning ‘flash war’, was an intense aerial bombing campaign carried out by Nazi Germany against Britain from September 1940 to May 1941.
Within an eight-month period 43,000 civilians were killed, whilst mass destruction was caused to many industrial targets, towns and cities across the UK, including Manchester.
Although it wasn’t during the Blitz, Oldham — a well-known boomtown of the Industrial Revolution — was most notably hit by a German V-1 Flying Bomb on Christmas Eve, 1944.
This sadly claimed the lives of 27 people after it hit a row of houses on Abbey Hills Road. Anecdotes from incidents like these are being welcomed as part of the campaign.
Councillor Cath Ball, Deputy Cabinet Member for Neighbourhoods and Cooperatives with a special responsibility for Oldham Remembers, said: “Many people associate the Blitz just with London but this was far from the case.
“My mum tells me the story of the Manchester Blitz which she and her mum listened to from Oldham, they were very concerned, knowing my grandad was there.
“It’s important that we document these stories so we can preserve the memory of what happened for future generations to come.”
Residents can send their stories to oldhamremembers@oldham.gov.uk where they will be added to the Oldham Stories section of Oldham Remembers: www.oldhamremembers.org.uk
Stories can also be submitted by post to the following addresses: Councillor Cath Ball, 15 Tuns Road, Oldham, OL8 2PT and Zubair Seedat, Community Development Officer, Oldham District Office, Oldham Civic Centre, West Street, Oldham, OL1 1UT.
On the 24th December 1944, I was 6yrs old. We lived on Shaw Road, Lowermoor, and
we my mother and grandmother, heard the V1 overhead, the pushed me under
the dining table to keep me safe.
I remember this very clearly, it was the first time my mother was clearly frightened,
particularly since the sound it was making suddenly stopped, a few moments after
the thump of the explosion could be heard.
Wow amazing memory
My grandma lived on Horseedge st nr Oldham town my Dad told me he was 4 and his brother was 2 and they used to be under a table in the cellar And when the bombs fell they made a screaming sound and my gran would scream every time she heard one dropping from the sky It must have been terrifying Also my grandad was a pow of Japan he was a worker on the death railway and was taken to Japan to be used as a human shield with other prisoners He was 50 miles from Nagasaki when the 2nd A bomb went off it blew the tin roof off the bamboo hut and he needed lots of stitches for a head wound and a Dutch doctor used cat gut and bamboo for a needle to sew him up He survived the war SGNT Ernest Kelly was his name