FAREWELL TO HERO OF BLITZ
A link with history is severed with death at 99 of the last surviving fireman from Nazi air raids on Sheffield
The fireman who helped save city from Nazi raids dies aged 99
THEY WILL still speak of the night Sheffield burned, but now the information will have to come second-hand.
The death of Doug Lightning, one year short of his centenary, has severed a last link with the generation who fought and died as the Luftwaffe rained down bombs on South Yorkshire.
Some 668 civilians and 25 servicemen died, 1,500 more were injured and a tenth of Sheffield’s population made homeless on that night in 1940, a fortnight before Christmas.
Mr Lightning was a fireman of 23, one of just 68 in the city. They hailed him a hero for putting out a raging fire on the Town Hall roof.
He hadn’t been told the city’s communications nerve centre was beneath.
So far as anyone knows, he was the last surviving fireman on duty that night, though other witnesses, children at the time, live on.
His story epitomises the wartime spirit that brought Britain through.
“He talked about the blitz quite a lot and the Town Hall incident stuck out,” said his granddaughter Julie Shaw.
A police inspector took him down to the basement and, to cheering and clapping, told the assembled workers: “This is the man who saved the building.”
“He never forgot that,” said Mrs Shaw.
At his 96th birthday, he recalled the “deafening” sound of the bombs.
“I was scared most of the time and there was the constant misery of being wet through, the heat scorching you and the pain of cut hands from broken glass everywhere coupled with constant hunger and thirst,” he said.
“I’ve never been that knackered in my life. There wasn’t enough men or enough hose to deal with all the fires and it was no good putting a drop of water on this one and a drop on that one so we had to choose our battles carefully.
“I instructed men to tackle the Black Swan pub nearby as it was burning from the top, from incendiary bombs burning downwards, and I was worried the fire would spread to the buildings at the rear of the old Town Hall.
“By concentrating our limited resources for several hours, we did stop these fires from spreading – it was a very small success.
“Many small fires, which could have easily been put out with more supplies and manpower, went unchallenged and burned whole buildings to the ground.”
Gleadless, Moorhead, Park Hill, Sharrow and Burngreave were among the areas worst hit, as the Germans unloaded around 355 tonnes of high explosives and 16,000 incendiary canisters. Every building in Angel Street was destroyed and the shopping district of The Moor was reduced to what one witness described as a tunnel of fire.
Three nights later, around 100 bombers returned, targeting Sheffield’s industrial heartland.
“They were long and terrible nights,” Mr Lightning said.
He joined the RAF as a flight engineer in 1942, returning after the war to the fire service and serving at the old station on Division Street for the next two decades. He also worked as an insurance salesman, bar and restaurant manager and had his own business selling garages.
South Yorkshire’s present-day firefighters will pay him a final tribute with a guard of honour at his funeral.
I’ve never been that knackered in my life. Doug Lightning on his work as a firefighter during the blitz on Sheffield.
THERESA MAY was being typically modest when asked if her election manifesto marked a deviation from the Tory values espoused by Margaret Thatcher and, more recently, David Cameron. “There is no Mayism”, the Prime Minister told reporters at the party’s launch venue in Halifax before highlighting her credentials as a strong and stable leader getting on with the job.
Yet this is a very personal manifesto. On countless occasions, Mrs May used the phrase “every vote for me and my team” while her setpiece speech made no reference whatsoever to the Conservative Party. Unlike her opponents who believe the Labour Party’s residual loyalty is greater than support for Jeremy Corbyn, Theresa May is the Tory party’s best asset and this manifesto does provide the wriggle room that will enable her, if elected with an enhanced Commons majority, to take the tough decisions that will be necessary as Britain comes to terms with issues ranging from Brexit to social care.
As the Budget debacle proved, the PM needs room for manoeuvre as she attempts to balance the books, hence no costings, while reaching out to those families who are ‘just about managing’ and who feel disenfranchised as a result of the forces of globalisation.
And perhaps the most important word of all spoken by the Prime Minister was ‘if ’. As she acknowledged, her laudable vision for a fairer society will only possible if Britain’s exit from the European Union is both smooth and successful. In this regard, it was significant that Mrs May was introduced onto the podium by Brexit Secretary David Davis, who is seeking re-election in Haltemprice and Howden. A nod to the 56 per cent of people in Calderdale and Halifax who voted to leave the EU last June, it suggests he will, in all likelihood, retain this role in the new Government and, hopefully, become a persuasive advocate for this region in the corridors of power.
This is important. Brexit is, in fact, an opportunity to rebalance the economy away from London, and while Mrs May made no specific reference to Yorkshire, the fact she’s committed to moving civil servants moving out of the capital is one u-turn that should be welcomed. Unlike her predecessors, she’s more than prepared to use the levers of state to deliver the ethical capitalism and personal responsibility that are the bedrocks of her vision. Mrs May must now demonstrate how her remedies will work for all as Britain goes ‘forward together’ – the title of her manifesto.