Altrincham Blitz, December 22/23, 1941

[BlandTree]

A family story is that my grandfather, John STUART, Special Constable 1199, in WW2 removed an unexploded bomb from a shop and put it into a cattle trough.  He received some sort of bravery award/commendation and 'it was in all the papers'.

I cannot find this story in the National Newspaper Archives but Altrincham was bombed on the nights of 22/23 December 1940 and Sale Town Hall was damaged in December 1940 and IF there is any truth in this family story there might be some corroboration in the Cheshire Observer Saturday 01 February 1941 which reports, "The undermentioned members of the Force have been commended during the quarter ended 31st December 1940: ...Altrincham, Special Constable John Stuart,..."

If anyone can find any other information about this, I would be very grateful!

[LizzieW]

I don't remember that, but then I was only just coming up to 1 year of age.    I do remember my mum saying that an unexploded bomb landed somewhere on the Hale/Altrincham border but what year that was I don't remember.  We were supposed to be fairly safe in Hale/Altrincham and at one point a couple of my Manchester cousins came to stay with us for safety.  I suppose as an aeroplane flies we weren't that far from Ringway Airport (now Manchester Airport) so it could just have been a stray bomb dropped either before or after they tried to bomb the airport.

For a similar reason I could imagine that Sale Town Hall was damaged in December 1940 as that was when Manchester was blitzed (and I nearly got caught in that too, arriving just a few days later, although mum told me that the babies in the maternity hospital were put in the airing cupboards at night for safety)

[hepburn]

You'll have seen this?

http://www.rootschat.com/links/01n91/

[AdrianB38]

I wonder if it might have been an incendiary device? Putting an explosive bomb in a trough doesn't seem to help much to me - you'd just get galvanized steel flying about - whereas an incendiary device would surely get put out.

I hasten to add that my experience of bomb disposal has all been on the other side of the television screen.

[BlandTree]

Yes, thanks, Hebburn, the photograph is mine.  The writing is not mine but is from my grandfather's obituary which I sent to the museum.  To be honest I had forgotten that I had sent that, probably more than 10 years ago, so thanks for reminding me!

I don't know what sort of bomb it was, Adrian, and the additional information about the cattle trough (more likely a horse trough in Sale/Altrincham) came from an elder brother who spent time with my grandfather when evacuated there during the war, but I'm looking for verification of the story told to a six year old!