The Chronicle (South Tyneside and Durham)
NOSTALGIA Devastating bombing raid on South Shields
NONE of us can fail to have been shocked and appalled by the scenes coming out of Ukraine over the last couple of weeks. That there is a brutal war on the European continent in 2022 simply beggars belief.
Looking back, it’s perhaps also hard to comprehend that during a time period still within living memory, towns and cities on the British mainland were the targets of enemy bombers and suffered devastating attacks and loss of life.
This striking juxtaposition of past and present is the latest image shared with Chroniclelive by photographer and local historian Mick Ray. It shows the aftermath of the infamous World War II bombing raid that brought death and destruction to South Shields in 1941, and the same location today fused into one photograph.
Devastating air raids claimed hundreds of lives during 1941, injured many more, and obliterated buildings and homes in
Newcastle’s East End, North Shields, Whitley Bay, Jarrow, Hebburn and Sunderland.
On the night of Thursday,
October 2, as around 50 German aircraft appeared in the skies over Tyneside, it would be South Shields turn to suffer.
Bombs were dropped on to the Market Place and nearby rows of terraced houses. All hell was let loose. The night air was filled with thudding crashes followed by tremendous explosions as more bombs rained down.
In a sickening direct hit on an air raid shelter, one stray bomb killed several people and maimed many more. A 60ft pillar of flames shot into the darkened sky from a fractured gas main, and machine gun fire swept the streets. By midnight, the raid was over and South Shields’ Market Place and the surrounding area lay in ruins.
During wartime, newspapers like the Evening Chronicle were required to tone down the reporting of bad news, so as not to damage civilian morale or give potential propaganda to the enemy.
But in the final reckoning, 68 men, women and children lay dead or dying, and 117 were seriously injured in the attack. More than 2,000 folk were made homeless.