Wartime Wolverhampton images picked out bombing targets

Our recent feature about how the city avoided the devastation meted out during the Blitz to Coventry prompted Mark Cooper of Blakenhall to send us these aerial pictures of Wolverhampton, at least one of which is, he believes, a wartime German reconnaissance photo.

Happily, although Wolverhampton did not escape the attention of the aerial raiders, it was never the subject of a major raid by the Luftwaffe of the sort which caused so much damage in Birmingham and Coventry.

One of the photos is of the Blakenhall area and shows some of the industries which would have been such juicy targets.

To help get your bearings, in the upper left corner is St Luke's Church, which still stands on the junction of Moor Street and Upper Villiers Street and is now an antiques emporium. The road approaching us diagonally on the left lined by houses is Marston Road, and the parallel road through the factories is Sunbeam Street.

In the second photo, the city centre is towards the upper left, and Snow Hill comes down to a distinctive V-shaped junction.

Mark emailed in to say: "Thank you for the article. I was only born in the November of 1942 so was totally unaware of the devastation in Willenhall Road in August 1942, but my late dad and mum may have as in 1939 they moved to Harrowby Place, Willenhall.

"As a collector of old postcards both post and pre-war, I have a couple of black and white photos taken by German photo reconnaissance planes of the factories in Blakenhall, detailing potential bombing targets, dated 1939 and 1940."

In fact one of them has "Wolves 1930" written on the back which if correct would rule out it being taken in wartime.

Mark said: "It must have been a nerve-racking time for the people living in Hampton and Willenhall, home of the lock making industry, which I have a soft spot for, having been researching material for a book I want to produce in the future.

"I've had them for a while and as I live in Blakenhall, they were of interest to me and my small collection of city postcards.

"I understand they were taken by German spy planes, to verify their future bombing targets, as in Villiers Street there was a ball bearing factory called Fafnir Bearings, later called FAG Bearings, and they made bearings for ships, planes and motors.

"This company was German-owned, and at the start of World War Two all the staff who were German had to leave. Sunbeam motors moved in then. The building still stands.

"As to their origin, I can't confirm but I suppose they were taken on Hitler's instructions as he wanted to blitz Wolverhampton at the time.

"On the rear in pencil, I think are the words 'Wolves 1930' and 'Blakenhall c1940.'"