MARPLES HOTEL - THURSDAY DECEMBER 12th 1940
The article that is reproduced above was taken from The Times dated Saturday 14th December 1940 (page 2 issue 48799)
On Saturday 14th December 1940 The Scotsman newspaper (page 8) gave the following report
RAID ON SHEFFIELD
Extensive Damage to Property
2 NIGHT BOMBERS DOWN
Returning to their one-town tactics German raiders on Thursday night made Sheffield and the Sheffield area their main target. Damage to property was considerable , but the number of casualties was not large having regard to the scale of the attack.
Cinemas, stores and shops were destroyed and several streets were blocked by wrecked iramcars and the debris of damaged buildings . In some cases churches were hit or damaged by blast and many, houses were made uninhabitable. One church was gutted and schools, banks and and licensed premises were among the buildings damaged. A bomb fell near the entrance to a hospital, but all the patients escaped injury.
An Air Ministry and Ministry of Home Security communique issued last night stated:— " No bombs have been dropped in any area during daylight today (Friday.) The following communique on Thursday night's raids was issued yesterday morning: "During last night the enemy developed an attack on an industrial region in the North of England (later declared to be the Sheffield area.) . " The principal damage was done in one town, where a number of buildings. were destroyed and roads damaged or temporarily blocked. Large numbers of incendiary bombs were, as usual, employed, but the fire situation was soon well in hand. Reports are as yet incomplete, but do not suggest unduly heavy casualties, and elsewhere in the region casualties were very few. In the rest of the country there were some small scattered incidents involving little damage and few casualties. Two enemy bombers were destroyed."
It was later disclosed that the industrial region referred to in the communiqué was the Sheffield area.
NAZIS’ CLAIM
“Sheffield on Fire at Various Places"
The official German News Agency stated yesterday: — "Sheffield was raided by formations of German bombers, which, from early yesterday evening, dropped bombs of the heaviest calibre on the town. The bombers accurately aimed their bombs at the extremely important armaments factories of Sheffield.
The crews of the first returning waves of aircraft reported that after the first few hours of the attack Sheffield was on fire at various places. An eye-witness report quoted by the Agency claims that a factory producing special steels was among the targets attacked. It is declared to have been hit by two heavy bombs. According to this report machinegun fire coming from night factories was observed.
The fires at Sheffield, the Agency adds, were seen gradually to grow into a 'sea of flames’. Many explosions were observed."
Reading the reports, sixty years plus after the event, the first and most striking feature of the articles is the paucity of information about the bombing and its consequences. But, given wartime restrictions and censorship imposed on newspapers by the Ministry of Information, this is understandable. But what is more disturbing is the Air Ministry and Ministry of Home Security's deep desire to downplay the effects of the raids the raids on the civilian population. Their communique issued on the 13th December was almost dismissive of the raid. I am sure that anyone who read the reports in the papers AND who had experienced the raids would have found the official German News Agency's a lot closer to the truth than that issued by the UK government.
The intensity of, and devastation caused, by the raids are shown in the figures. Over 660 lives were lost, 1500 more were injured and 40,000 were made homeless. 3,000 homes were demolished with a further 3,000 badly damaged. A total of 78,000 homes received damage. This was what happened - it was a concerted attempt by the Nazi's to destroy Sheffield as a major steel making and manufacturing centre. Papers released after the war reveal that the UK government was obsessed for want of a better word with "civilian morale" They believed that one of the most crucial aspects of the whole war was to maintain the hope and belief of the British people in the final victory over the Nazis. They were deeply concerned about the catasrophic effects that the devastating German air-raids would have on the civilian population and introduced a wide variety of measures to counteract them.
Some were draconian such as internment and imprisonment, some were designed to boost public confidence such as AA defences and some were introduced purely to give the impression that the government was doing something when it wasn't. The communique's of 13th December 1940 fall into this last category.
Sources
The Times dated Saturday 14th December 1940
The Scotsman dated Saturday 14th December 1940
Return to The Marples - 12thDecember 1940
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