by Blitzkid » Tue Jan 10, 2023 1:32 pm
The Blitz and Longford
A Swarm of German bombers crossed the Channel, by-passed London and headed to the Midlands, following the ribbon of the canal but as they reached the lochs of Hillmorton one peeled away, took a circular route, dropped height came low across the corner of Ansty Airfield and was now facing the canal and Railway, to try and destroy both he had only span of about thirty yards in which to fly, he did it beautifully, his first bomb overshot the canal bank by abut a yard, his fourth bomb hit the railway fence two yards short of the track itself just outside Shilton station. It was a brilliant piece of bombing, when you see the undulations of the fields. but there was no defence to bother him. This was Aug 1940.
Sept 14th 1940 another swarm of aircraft crossed the channel and headed for the midlands, but this time, again a lone aircraft left the pack at Hillmorton, but crossed over the canal, kept it in his sight's on his left side and dropped his height, only this time it was the Longford power station his target, made his bombing run, and this time he had a large ack-ack gun on his left and also a pom-pom gun was below him as he made his bombing run, the Road T-junction came in sight, he released his stick of bombs, the first missed the T-junction by about ten yards, it hit my Uncle's cottage, square on, demolished it completely and both my relatives vanished. The second and third bombs hit the coal fields that fed the station, as the sirens wailed, but the fourth bomb was smack on, hit the Oxford canal towpath at Sutton Stop, drained the canal for about a mile, a waterfall cascaded into the fields below and the Power station were put out of action for several days, no water for the cooling Towers, all this under duress from the gunfire. The H.E bomb that hit my relative cottage was the first bomb to strike the city in the Blitz. I was eye-witness to both actions.
In June 1945, as the war was finished, bomber command opened it's doors to we airborne for an open day, look round and a flight in a Lancaster bomber, six men to be shown the working of such, straight away there was a rush to see the bomb-aimers 'pit'. By the time we had circled over the channel and headed for the midlands the rush was over and so I had a bird's eye view of the torn city of my own town of Coventry.