Giftwrap evokes wartime night of terror

And now, by an amazing coincidence, a donation to Tettenhall Transport Heritage Centre, where Alec is curator, has brought that terrifying wartime night into vivid focus.

Because the donation was wrapped in an old, yellowing, Express and Star from July 31, 1942, which reported on those attacks which left a trail of destruction, claimed a number of lives, and rather naturally stuck in his mother's memory.

"The front page detailed a bombing raid on West Midland towns, but none were named because of censorship," said Alec.

"On reading through the article I realised it was about a bomb which dropped on the Willenhall Road near the end of Coventry Street. I knew all about this because my mother lived in Coventry Street and told me all about it. She knew two of the five people who were killed by the raid."

Alec has been to the scene of the devastation to see for himself where those dramatic wartime events took place.

His mother, then Leah Pritchard – later Mrs Leah Brew – was to draw a map pinpointing where the bombs had dropped.

"It shows she was in their Anderson shelter at the bottom of the garden of 54 Coventry Street, and that there were two other bombs which fell on St Giles Crescent.

"Her father Walter Pritchard, my granddad, was an ARP (Air Raid Precautions) warden. Although there is no family record of him attending the scene, as he just lived around the corner, it is likely that he did. At the heritage centre we have a mannequin dressed as an ARP warden who we call Walter after him.

"That the one volunteer at the heritage centre who knew all about the event was the one to unwrap the old newspaper was a remarkable coincidence."

Alec, who lives within walking distance of the museum, added: "The cutting is already displayed next to our 'Blitz House', together with the print of the original Express and Star photo, and the names of the five people who died in the raid.

"The newspaper was wrapped round a small oak cigarette box – which, it turned out later, dated from 1929 – contained within a cardboard box of assorted items dropped in by someone who did not leave their name, which is something which happens all the time."

The Express and Star story tells how eight people were killed and many were injured in three West Midland towns, and its main front page picture shows the devastation caused by the Willenhall Road bomb, although the location is given vaguely as "a West Midland town."

It left a huge crater in the middle of the road, wrecked nearby homes, and blew a petrol lorry onto waste ground.

The Express and Star report said: "Eight adults and two children, who were trapped in a public shelter, almost on the brink of a large crater cannot express sufficient thanks to a man who, realising their danger, worked feverishly to make a small hole in the earth covering them so they could get air.

"The people in the shelter were Mr and Mrs Thomas Carter, Mrs Anne Russell, Miss Cissie Carter, and Shirley Russell (all of the same address), Mrs Davies and Trevor Davies (3), Samuel Davies and Mr and Mrs Walters.

"Mrs Walters was the most seriously injured, and was detained in hospital with injuries to the forearm and a compound fracture of the arm.

"Efforts to rescue them went on through most of the night in the light of oxyacetylene flares.

"It was a strangely garish scene, with the huge crater in the background, wrecked houses and burning wreckage on one side, and the sounds made by the rescue men as they dug for the trapped people, to whom they spoke encouragingly from time to time."