What was accrington like during the war?
 

ok just reading about the canary island munitions factory in accrington i never wud've thought that anything like that wud've been made in accrington.

so hence my question - during the 2nd world war - did accrington play any role in the war effort?

Re: What was accrington like during the war?
 

Accrington like most towns turned some factories over to munation production.
GEC at Clayton built airplane engines and parts.
Howard and Bulloughs (Platts) did some ammunition works

Thats all I can think of at this time in the morning LOL

Re: What was accrington like during the war?
 

Probably a lot cleaner than what its like now ;)

Re: What was accrington like during the war?
 

Re: What was accrington like during the war?
 

Re: What was accrington like during the war?
 

think GEC was then called ENGLISH ELECTRIC.

Re: What was accrington like during the war?
 

They chopped the iron railings from everyones walls.

Re: What was accrington like during the war?
 

I think the moors immeadiatly south of Ossy was one of the last places in the UK to be struck by a V1 flying bomb, at the very end of WW2. Why they were aiming for Ossy, I do not know...it could be it was regarded as a place of vital strategic importance, or maybe it could have been done on the direct orders of Hitler. Maybe he knew something that no one else knew, or still knows.....

Re: What was accrington like during the war?
 

i was gonna say

did the germans ever target anywhere near accrington?

Re: What was accrington like during the war?
 

Was he trying to hit the eyeties?

Re: What was accrington like during the war?
 

The V1 was pretty much a speculative weapon which had no GPS or preplanned flight programme like the modern cruise missile, it was simply aimed in the direction of the target and came down when it ran out of fuel. The Ossy one was probably aimed at Manchester and veered off and overshot.

The Eye-Tye camp, was of course also home to a large number of Krout POW's and the interesting thing was there was a number of AA guns around the perimeter, ostensibly to defend Accy/Blackburn. These tended to be set in serious concrete bases. While there is little trace of the old camp to be seen, I suspect that the concrete emplacements are still buried there, only a few inches under the soil.

Re: What was accrington like during the war?
 

its a shame that they tell u about the accy pals from ww1 but they really dont mention much of accrington during the ww2 and its war effort

Re: What was accrington like during the war?
 

Originally Posted by Tealeaf
Why they were aiming for Ossy, I do not know...


Probably aiming for Gayles place............:D

Re: What was accrington like during the war?
 

The factory at Clayton le Moors, was Bristol Aircraft Works, they made Radial Engines. It later became G.E.C. Howard and Bulloughs made shells, bomb casings and other munitions. Lang Bridges in Exchange St made shells. No explosives were made round here, the nearest place for explosives was at Exton nr Chorley. No deliberate attacks were made on any properties in this area, the houses bombed in Clayton were a result of jerry clearing his bomb racks on the way home. They flew from Germany to Ireland, then across the Irish Sea to Liverpool, some stayed and bombed Liverpool, the rest flew on to bomb Manchester. As to a VI, or Buzzbomb, they didnt have enough fuel to reach Ossy.

Walter

Re: What was accrington like during the war?
 

. They flew from Germany to Ireland, then across the Irish Sea to Liverpool,
why did they fly to Ireland from Germany to get to Liverpool ?, There were no German bases in Ireland .......thats like saying you went to Accy to get to Ossie from Church

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Re: What was accrington like during the war?
 

My dad was an aircraft engine inspector at Bristol Aircraft Co. when I was born (it's on my birth certificate - it says, peacetime occupation "printer's engraver at artificial silk manufacturer"). Before I was born my mum worked, for a time, at the ROF at Guide, Blackburn, making fuses for bombs. Both were targeted by the Luftwaffe but, due to excellent camoflage, weren't ever hit.

I believe there was 1 bomb dropped on Oswaldtwistle, which hit the library. Dad used to say that the German plane was unloading its bombs ready for the flight back, a common practice at the time, and aiming for Oswaldtwistle moors. The general belief that German planes always deliberately targeted civilians was not, strictly, true though my mum used to tell me a harrowing tale about a fighter-bomber straffing the street in Guide and shooting the coalman and his horse, a tale which always made me cry.

The pow camp at Stanhill was only used for Italians until about 1943. By the time I was old enough to have any knowledge of it, it housed German pows (I was born in 43) and I have vague memories of them as they used to go in my auntie's bakers shop in West End when I was very small. They were "the enemy" but, to me, they were just nice men who talked with a strange accent.

I've never heard of a V1 or V2 dropping locally. They didn't have the fuel to get this far North and mostly dropped on London and the South east

Re: What was accrington like during the war?
 

my grandad told me of a plane that crashed onto some land in or near baxenden i think it was a park im not sure,i think it was a german plane but i didnt take too much notice of what he told me

Re: What was accrington like during the war?
 

did any kids from the south or the cities ever come stay around here??

and where abouts in stan hill was that POW camp?

Re: What was accrington like during the war?
 

My Gran, who lived in Buxton Street, had some evacuee kids from Salford. My Mum always said they were "really common"!

The Italian POW camp was on your righthand side as you go along the main road from Ossy towards Knuzden. It was on that open land after Noel's factory, overlooking Blackburn Road. Ted Heath was stationed on the AA batteries during the war.

Incidentally, you can still see the gap in the row of houses where the bomb was dropped in Clayton. It's about two or three blocks after the Crown on the same side, going towards Clayton.

Re: What was accrington like during the war?
 

The early ones - from the middle of June 1944 - certainly did not. However, like most weapons systems, the V1 was enhanced over the following months.

This is a website which appears to be that of a local (Lancashire) historian which mentions the Ossy V1. Possibly because it appears to have carried leaflets and not a warhead, may be the reason for its longer range in reaching Ossy.

http://www.jp29.org/2ar.htm

Re: What was accrington like during the war?
 

That website is by jamesicus who is a member here, you may remember his world war 2 thread from a few years ago, it is still well worth a read now.... http://www.accringtonweb.com/forum/f...r-ii-3711.html

Re: What was accrington like during the war?
 

I thought it sounded familiar.

If I recall, there was also a piece in the Observer a few years back about the thing coming down south of Ossy. Can't pinpoint it, though.

Re: What was accrington like during the war?
 

I would love to see the facts to back up this statement.

The Irish position was officially neutral, (though they where more biased towards assisting the allies than the axis powers),during the second world war
They (the Irish Government), called this period of time The Emergency. Although a few Irish people, (mainly the IRA), thought they may be able to take advantage of the situation and perhaps get a united Ireland if Germany won, over two hundred thousand Irish men and women volunteered to serve in the British forces for the duration of the war many of whom made the ultimate sacrifice fighting for our freedom.

Re: What was accrington like during the war?
 

Yeah...very peculiar. I doubt very much if the German bombing route to England was via Ireland, given the need to maximise payload at the expense of fuel. In fact, in simple terms the Germans used the system of flying along the (radio) beams; when these were intersected by a second, it was time for 'bombs away'.

I think there was one incidence of Dublin being bombed; de Valera (the Irish PM) blamed Churchill, claiming he had tricked the Germans into bombing Dublin.

Re: What was accrington like during the war?
 

I read somewhere that apparently none of the iron from all the railings were ever used to make munitions.

A bomb exploded on Bent Street (behind the Royal Oak) in Oswaldtwistle. My Grandmother was working at Sam Boot's the bakers, now Martin's at 325 Union Road, and the windows cracked with the force.

There was also a prisoner of war camp on Stanhill moor. There was a BBC2 programme, 'The Germans We Kept', about how the prisoners were taken in by the congragation of York St. Methodist Church for Christmas. My family were featured in it. There is a small exhibition about in at Ossy Mills.

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Taken from here:-

Participants in World War II

Re: What was accrington like during the war?
 

My dad worked in Liverpool during the war in the factories there. He was a reserved occupation - he was a farmer in Northern Ireland. And my aunt served in the WAAFs over here she was from Northern Ireland as well. She stayed over here and met my uncle and married him. My dad went home and met my mum.

My mums story of her war was different - she was in Northern Ireland and lived on a farm. She was a smuggler! She used to get on her bike and ride over the border into Eire and come back with stuff. The stories she told me about her smuggling.

They are all dead now and there are times now i wish that i'd written their stories down when they were alive.

Re: What was accrington like during the war?
 

was the ROF in blackburn not making bombs in WW2?.:engsmil:

Re: What was accrington like during the war?
 

I was in Blackpool during the war having been bombed out of London and Manchester and didn’t arrive in Accrington until 1945 when I was just 8 years old.

My thanks must go to Roy for the link to the excellent thread by jamesicus. It brought back so many vivid memories.

My thanks must also go to Thames Television for producing that brilliant series “The World At War”. I bought the series on DVD from Amazon a few weeks back and have been ploughing through each episode. Schools could do with showing the whole series to their pupils as part of the recent history curriculum. It would give the youth of today an insight what their grandparents went through so that they could be educated in English and have the freedom to behave as they do.

Incidentally steve the ROF in Blackburn was nicknamed “The Fuse” so no they did not make the bombs. The casing and fuses yes but no explosives. Unless it was a well kept war secret.

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Pretty please tell us some stories.

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Why do you want to know what it was like in Northern Ireland? How my mum nearly got caught smuggling and dumped the stuff she was bringing back and thought she saw the police so dumped it and 2 days later went back and picked it up when she knew they werent anywhere near?

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Re: What was accrington like during the war?
 

Because the Irish left all their lights on for the Germans to use as guide points navigating to Liverpool, they didnt have to fly in from southern England risking all the flak and night fighters to get to Liverpool and Manchester. Remember they didn't need to fly from Germany, they had bases in France as well, also submarine bases and doodlebug launch pads.
Walter

Re: What was accrington like during the war?
 

[quote=Tealeaf]The V1 was pretty much a speculative weapon which had no GPS or preplanned flight programme like the modern cruise missile, it was simply aimed in the direction of the target and came down when it ran out of fuel. The Ossy one was probably aimed at Manchester and veered off and overshot.

The doodlebug did have a guidance system, it had a small radio receiver built in which controlled the rudder. The Germans transmitted three different signals, the central one which was the supposed flight path, the other two signals were to correct the rudder if it veered off course left or right. The right hand signal (coming from the continent) was jammed by the British, causing most of them to crash in the North Sea.
Walter.

Re: What was accrington like during the war?
 

So the Irish Republic were giving aid to the enemy ? Wonder what Mr Churchill did about that .

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Yes it did have a guidance system but nothing like what you describe, please try to search for real facts to back up your statements.
The truth is out there and often it's easier to find than you seem to think.

Below is how it worked taken from wikipedia

Re: What was accrington like during the war?
 

It may be that on occasion the Germans flew up the Irish Sea, but I have found nothing to substanciate that they flew over Ireland, (in fact they would have been in breech of Irelands neutrality if they had done), (if you look at a map that would have taken them miles out of their way!).

Ireland being a Neutral Country had neither the need nor the obligation to turn out their lights, (just as Switzerland didn't), but it is doubtful that the Germans needed the assistance of the combined Irish 60watt bulbs to guide them over the targets. The Germans had very good radio guidance systems to put their planes where they wanted them to be.

I have tried to find facts to back up the claims you have made, but cannot, I have in an earlier thread asked you for facts but so far you have failed to produce any.

If you could show some reference to your claims, then we would all end up knowing a little more about the history of that period, if however you are only working on speculation and hearsay then you are doing history a disservice.

Please, all it takes is a few seconds on the net to check for the facts, (you have the facilitys in front of you or you couldn't connect to this site), and this will be of great help to the many people on here that would like to learn more about an important time in History.

Re: What was accrington like during the war?
 

Do you call surfing the internet research.

Re: What was accrington like during the war?
 

I don't need to surf the internet. If you believe every thing you see on the internet, then your more gullible that most. I built my first radio controlled aircraft back in the late 1940's. I got the information from and article in the Aeromodeller. IT WORKED. I still have the radio receiver somewhere in the attic.
Walter

Re: What was accrington like during the war?
 

it is quite open knowledge that some of the irish supported the nazis as the royal navy were always stopping ships with arms heading for the ira plus hitler was in coclusion with some of the vatican....fact

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It's a better start than making it up as you go along, which so far seems to be your research. I can't see how the remains of a remote control model in your attic proves anything.

I again ask you for facts to substansiate your claims. that the Germans flew over Ireland to get to Liverpool etc.

If they did that, then we all learn something new, if they didn't then stop corrupting History.

Re: What was accrington like during the war?
 

If you had read the whole thread, you would see that it has already been mentioned that some Irish people wanted the Germans to win.

Re: What was accrington like during the war?
 

Just a couple of quick questions.
If you think I'm gullible for using the internet to attempt to find or confirm a few facts, (though I will never take the word of just one site), why do you expect me to believe the uncorroberated statements that you put on?
Surely because I want you to confirm as fact you're little contribution to the internet I and other members are probably not as gullible as you assume?

Because you seem reluctant to confirm the facts behind your statement can I ask if any other member has found any details of what Retlaw has said about the luftwaffe flying over Ireland?
The reason being if it is true I really would like to know, but I would also hate a post on accyweb to be found by someone and them putting it on another site saying 'Germans flew over Ireland', I saw it on the web so it must be true! If there is no substance to this 'fact'.:o

Re: What was accrington like during the war?
 

[quote=Less]It's a better start than making it up as you go along, which so far seems to be your research. I can't see how the remains of a remote control model in your attic proves anything.

I again ask you for facts to substansiate your claims. that the Germans flew over Ireland to get to Liverpool etc.

They did'nt fly over Ireland, they flew over the Irish sea, all the lights on in Southern Ireland aided navigation. Ask your self why the flight path was over Accrington, Burnley and Clayton, why the dummy buildings on Burnley Moors and on Hambledon Moors in Accrington.

Walter

Re: What was accrington like during the war?
 

[quote=Retlaw]This is what you said in reply #14

You have defended it up until now and suddenly you have changed your tale.

Now I will ask you, not myself because you know I don't,

Why would a flight path from Germany to Ireland then across the sea to Liverpool, (your words), go over Accrington, Burnley and Clayton?

Please treat this as a retorical question I don't want to know, your answer will be just as fantastic as every other statement you have made and in future anything you say will be taken with a pinch of salt.

To the rest of the site I apologise for this going so far off thread we have ended up in never never land, (I bet the Germans flew under that place), So now after wasting all this time can I ask if there is anyone with some real tales to answer Manis original question,

Re: What was accrington like during the war?
 

Yes you are right tealeaf a V1 did indead land near ossy

One V1 that impacted near Oswaldtwistle carried a load of propaganda leaflets. Leaflets from these V1s were also found at Brindle, near Manchester and Huddersfield, Yorkshire.

Air Raids, V1 Flying Bombs & V2 Rockets

sorry Retlaw you are wrong on this point too i did a bit of searching and have found this have a read very interesting

some V1 bombs where launched from aircraft giving longer range

Air Raids, V1 Flying Bombs & V2 Rockets