Air Raid Shelters


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I for one have very serious doubts about the supposed invasion.

 

Good landing beach yes, but its in the middle of nowhere, with wide open skies hence you would need complete air superiority,  and if you want to get to London the Germans intended target you would have to go through Colchester.

 

Colchester has been a garrison town since the romans were around, there was at the outbreak of war a complete division centred there. As an extra precaution the Colchester 'stop line' consisted of 120 pill boxes and defensive positions manned by 2000 home guard purely to close the road to London.

 

Militarily speaking if you knew you were going to be invaded that exactly the place you would want it to happen.

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That list in #1 , must have been a supplemental list as I have just found this from a week earlier . 5th Sept 1939 And then this must be Number 2 list

Whilst searching for something about March St .near the Castle happened on this list in the E.P. from 15th Sept. 1939 Its titled "PUBLIC SHELTERS" .....THIRD OFFICIAL NOTTINGHAM LIST Might be useful

We used to wait at the gates for the girls to come in to walk though to guildford and pull them into the shelter the one near the double gates were the teachers cars used to come in then we could have

Not saying there wasn't some Germans washed up and there may well have been a fire fight but that's a lot different to an invasion.

 

There were Germans wash up at other places and quite a few bodies too I supposed its to be expected with the amount of activity in the Channel back then. Their E boats were very active as witnessed later in the war down on Slapton Sands where several US vessels were sank at night whilst practicing for the D Day invasion.

 

I think we can discount the 'sea on fire' rumour as this happened just down the coast at Orford in WW1 but if I remember correctly this to was 'allowed' to raise it's head again the thinking being if the Germans want to believe then all well and good.

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Well I have read a few accounts of the story of Shingle Street. Ranging from Classified Documents being released early in 1993 stating that it was all rumor, to the account of an eleven year old boy talking to the father of his friend, who says it is true, and recalls taking his tractor onto the beach to collect the German bodies together. There are many more stories for and against whether it is true, all very believable. If it is a propaganda, then a good job has been done. I found reading through the links on google very interesting, as for giving my opinion as to whether I think it is true, I am afraid I can't say, because so many versions from ordinary people or government information are believable.Very Interesting.

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I've posted about the oil production on another thread, but my cousin had a bottle of the first oil to be found at Eakring.  He lived there and was given the labelled bottle when he was a lad.  He kept it in a cupboard for years, until one day he went to look for it and it wasn't there.  Apparently his mum had thrown it away when she was having a clear out.  

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Crankypig, it was a coal-hopper or something like that and It was in the railway yard. I have a photo of me as a youngster with that in the background.  It was a big concrete structure. 

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It was colloquially known as 'The Cenotaph ' and hoisted loaded coal wagons into the air,and then tipped the contents into the tenders of locomotives waiting below. It did away with antiquated cranes with grabs. Every large steam depot had them, and were easily noticed when trying to locate a shed in a strange town. 

This has previously been mentioned in a topic about Netherfield I believe. 

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To resurrect (is that how you spell it?) this thread ...

 

Does anybody know anything about the Players shelters which, I believe, were huge?

 

I worked there for 30 years, but never got to go in them, or even know where the access points were. Very remiss of me. How big were they? Can they still be accessed?

 

 

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Don't know how big Players Shelters were, but my son who lives in Hucknall has an Anderson shelter in his garden, he has covered it in grass and keeps his winter logs in it.

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16 minutes ago, AfferGorritt said:

To resurrect (is that how you spell it?) this thread ...

 

Does anybody know anything about the Players shelters which, I believe, were huge?

 

I worked there for 30 years, but never got to go in them, or even know where the access points were. Very remiss of me. How big were they? Can they still be accessed?

 

 

Just come off the phone with Mrs Catfan's uncle who now in his mid eighties worked at players all his life & he told me the entrances were inside No 1 factory on Alfreton Road & in the yard in No 2 factory on Radford Blvd. Huge massive places he said where you could actually go down in No 1 factory & surface in No 2 factory yard !

Out of interest all Players factories had air raid wardens stationed on the factory roofs during the war. Players bonded warehouse on Triumph Rd was at the time the highest building in that area !

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Did my apprenticeship at Players (Radford) so have been in all the ARP tunnels.  Music while you work was broadcast to the factories from a big valve radio/amplifier deep underground, I think Les Bacon was the operator.  Hopefully there is an image attached of one of the shelters.

 

JPS_ARP1.jpg

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10 hours ago, IAN123. said:

She paid 15 bob for stockings...said she tired of dying her legs with juice from tealeaves and used an eyeliner to simulate a stocking seam...times eh?

My mum used gravy browning! Fine until it rained!

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We had one in our back garden on Hazel Grove, Mapperley. It was full of rubble in my time (70's & 80's) and inaccessible. It was all below surface, and had brick steps down, a flat concrete top, with a slightly raised section/lid which you could just about slide off. I think you'd have been able to stand up under the lid section.

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I remember my aunties Mother-in-law in Chester-le-Street had an anderson shelter in her garden, I loved playing in it when we lived up there... There was a brick & concrete air raid shelter in Trent Bridge school playground. We had a nuclear attack drill & had to go & sit in the smelly thing in 1963 in the Cuban missile hoo-ah... 

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