WW2

Preparations for war had been carried out well before Britain formally declared war on Germany on the 3rd September 1939. Fire alarms and air-raid sirens were implemented and tested. More fire-fighting equipment was acquired and an auxiliary fire brigade recruited. Air Raid Precautions were drawn up and practice incidents undertaken.  Air-raid shelters and the evacuation of children were discussed. Decontamination centres and first-aid posts were equipped. Gas masks were issued. Fox’s rehearsed evacuation drills and trained employees in anti-gas and first aid, and recruited a decontamination squad and an auxiliary fire brigade. Men – and women – were recruited as messengers, or to work in report centres. A home guard was formed. Men in reserved occupations joined the Observer Corps and trained in aeroplane recognition. And much more, of course.

Stocksbridge’s firemen were still all volunteers, under the control of the Urban District Council. They lived at home and had jobs, and were summoned by the fire alarm or buzzer to the fire engines, which were housed behind the Town Hall. The Fire Brigades Act had come into force in 1938, allowing brigades to recruit more men and acquire more appliances and  equipment. By the time war broke out, there were 42 men in the Stocksbridge A.F.S., with plans to increase this to 54 members. Sheffield had recruited many more men, both part-time and full-time, and opened more stations.  An A.F.S. was formed in every area, and its members were unpaid, part-time volunteers. Both local brigades and the A.F.S. would be taken into the National Fire Service in 1941.

Penistone Rural District Council asked whether Stocksbridge Council would be prepared to enter into an agreement with them to provide fire services in Langsett. However, they thought the charges that Stocksbridge proposed were “outrageous” and chose to partner with Barnsley instead.

Reuben Froggatt resigned from the fire brigade in 1939 so that he could devote more time to ambulance work, and his replacement was a man from the A.F.S., Harold R. Wright of Langsett Terrace.  At a firemen’s dinner and musical evening held at the Castle Inn, Bolsterstone, in December, Mr. Froggatt was presented with a timepiece as a thank you for his many years’ service in the brigade, and Mr. Wright was welcomed as a member.

One Thursday evening in November a full-scale A.R.P. exercise was held. Twenty incidents were crammed into an exercise lasting two hours. Not everything went smoothly, but it was hoped that lessons could be learnt from this. The fire brigade were called to a “fire” at Marsden Road caused by incendiary “bombs;” they also had to go to St. John’s Road, where the church and three houses were on fire. There was a highly explosive “bomb” blocking the road at Ling Bank and a mustard gas “bomb” at Sitwell Avenue, and casualties at Florence Buildings. Other incidents occurred at Rimington Row, Gibson Lane, Brook Row, Newton Avenue, Cross Lane, Oaks Avenue, Harvey Street, Wilson Road, Ash Lane, Bolsterstone, Hunshelf Bank, Spring Mill Terrace (where in 1940 a bomb really would fall, although it failed to detonate), Glebelands Road and Lancaster Road. The Boy Scouts played a role too, acting as casualties.

A daylight exercise was held in December to ascertain how the A.R.P. organisation would manage in a daytime raid. With many of the relevant people being at work, it was a scaled-back affair, but the response was judged to be good. There were “incidents” all over the area, one of which needed the fire brigade, but it was felt that, important as the exercise was, it was not of sufficient importance to call the men from their work.

And so 1940 rolled around, and with it came an increase in German bombing raids over England. Some bombs fell on Stocksbridge in August, and Sheffield suffered enormously in raids which occurred over several days in December; The Sheffield Blitz.

At the beginning of the year, the regular brigade asked the Council for an increase in pay, from 10 shillings to £1 per year. Councillor Moxon said that the payments the men received were never intended to be seen as a salary, and in the end the matter was deferred. In March three members of the brigade received long service medals from the National Fire Brigades Association and Councillor Horace Bradbury made these presentations to Chief Officer (Captain) Louis Edward Holdsworth (a long service medal and a five years’ bar), Second Officer Walter Tingle, and the recently-resigned Second Officer Reuben Froggatt. Mr. Holdsworth had actually been attached to the local brigade for at least 14 years. At the presentation, Councillor Knowles mentioned the useful work being carried out by the Auxiliary Fire Brigade.

After the awards were made, there was a discussion about the needs of the brigade. Captain Holdsworth explained that three trailer pumps were fully equipped and ready for use and that there was also a 500 gallon water tank. Four lorries were necessary for transport purposes but only one was currently available. The brigade also asked for boxes in which to store the tools and loose equipment belonging to each pump. Captain Holdsworth also said that  there was no protection available for the personnel at the Fire Station and the Auxiliary Fire Station, and recommended that some be provided. It was recommended that a sandbag shelter should be provided in the A.F.S. station and that the main station be protected by sandbags, although this was not initially approved. He added that, in view of the large number of fire brigade members and auxiliaries now using the fire station there was a great need for additional accommodation. The Chief Officer suggested that alterations could be made to the station to provide additional accommodation and make the meeting-room gas proof. It was further resolved that the fire station should be equipped with the necessary mess and canteen facilities to enable meals to be provided for personnel when on duty for long periods and to enable members to be provided with emergency rations if called upon for duty outside the district. Permission was given for sufficient supplies of rations to be kept in the station. A suitable “Fire Station” sign, as recommended by a Home Office circular, was to be provided.

On Sunday 28 April, Lord Harlech came to the area as the Home Office representative to oversee the staging of a major incident. Deepcar had been chosen for a County A.R.P. exercise and the fire brigades attended several “fires” in the area. The scenario was that two enemy aircraft had made successive attacks on Deepcar and Stocksbridge, and dropped four 500lb high explosive bombs, three incendiary bombs and one gas bomb.  There were some direct hits, roads blocked, water, gas and electricity mains fractured, people trapped in buildings and so on. The incident was arranged so as to draw on the services which had agreed to help out in an emergency but which had not taken part in previous exercises.  The idea was that, on this occasion, the damage was so severe that the Stocksbridge services could not deal with the situation on their own and reinforcements were called in from Penistone, Rotherham and Sheffield. Before leaving, Lord Harlech said that it had been an extremely useful exercise, and that the public would be amply protected.

After previous disagreements between Fox’s Works and the Stocksbridge Council about the former’s use of the fire brigade, Fox’s had, for many years, had an agreement with Sheffield Corporation that Sheffield would send their fire engines to the Works in case of fire. This agreement ended in July 1940, and now Fox’s were asking the local council about whether they would agree to help them when required. A letter was sent to the Home Office about this.

Then in the early hours of Friday 23rd August 1940, the War suddenly came a lot closer to home when a German bomber flew over Stocksbridge and dropped several bombs. Five days earlier the first bombs had been dropped on Sheffield, at Blackbrook Road, although there were no casualties. It seems unlikely that Stocksbridge had been particularly targeted – the pilot perhaps saw an opportunity to jettison some bombs after returning from “tip-and-run nuisance raid” on Hull or Bradford perhaps.  No casualties were caused by the bombs and there was no report of the fire brigade being called out, although some locals recalled going to put out a fire on Hunshelf Bank. The local police and the A.R.P. services were praised by the local newspaper, who reported that volunteers from every post in the district were quickly on the job, and that all services sent their required quotas of men and women “who were able to put into practical use the training which they have been steadily acquiring since the outbreak of war.” This is covered in much more detail on my website here:

https://www.stocksbridgetimespast.co.uk/when-they-dropped-the-bombs

Later that month, as fears of chemical attacks rose, in particular the fear that arsenical gas would be used, Wardens were busy fitting Contex extensions to civilian gas masks. This was a shallow tin filter filled with resin-wool, and it was taped to the standard mask to boost protection. Additional stirrup pumps were purchased to fight fires. The Council had received a letter from the Secretary of State about providing cover for Fox’s Works; he thought it perfectly feasible that the Council should take into account the “special risks” at Fox’s when assessing the fire brigade’s requirements; he suggested that they purchase longer ladders, or arrange to borrow them from neighbouring brigades, and other necessary equipment would be sanctioned, such as breathing apparatus. 

Captain Holdsworth resigned in December and was replaced by E. Berwick. This was probably the Ernest Berwick who had joined the brigade in about 1919, succeeding Ernest Jackson as Captain in about 1923.  He had resigned in 1926 because of a dispute with the Council. A 1941 photograph shows a Captain “Sam Berwick” but there was only one male with the surname Berwick living locally when the 1939 Register was taken and that was Ernest. It was not a local name; Ernest had been born in Shipley, West Yorkshire.

Stocksbridge was never targeted in future raids despite the steelworks in the valley bottom. Sheffield, however, was the target in what became known as the Sheffield Blitz, on the 12th/13th and the 15th/16th December 1940. Sheffield author Neil Anderson has published several excellent books on the Sheffield Blitz and there is a link to these at the end of this page.

Neil notes that the ranks of the Sheffield fire service increased to an estimated 1,800 in the Sheffield Blitz. At 12.42am on the 13th December, Sheffield Police Fire Brigade requested assistance from neighbouring fire brigades. Their call was heeded from as far away as Manchester and Nottingham as men and equipment poured into the blazing city. Manned pumps arrived from Mexborough, Wortley, Hoyland, Kiveton Park, Thorne, Wath, Cudworth, Pudsey, Morley, Spenborough, Pontefract, Shipley, Bingley, Keighley, Brighouse, Elland, Holmfirth, Castleford, Mirfield and Ossett. Manchester and Nottingham sent ten pumps each, Bradford sent six, Barnsley four, Doncaster, Wakefield, Halifax and Huddersfield sent three each, and Rotherham, Wombwell, Leeds and York all sent two. The outside help totalled 70 pumps and 522 men.

Neil does not mention Stocksbridge in his list, and when I asked him he said he had not found any references to them helping out. However, it seems that they did attend, although I have been unable to find anything more than two references to this. In his book “History of Stocksbridge,” p122, Jack Branston mentions that “Stocksbridge firemen and their appliances did a great work during the two air-raids that Sheffield had in December 1940.” The South Yorkshire Times (Mexborough & Swinton edition, 9th October 1971, p17) wrote that “firemen and appliances from Stocksbridge attended fires in Sheffield during the two blitzes on the city.”

Neil wrote, “It’s hard to imagine the carnage endured by the fire crews. Many of the pumps, understandably, had difficulty getting into the city at all and had to be guided round gaping bomb craters and blazing buildings. Services were hampered further by the cold December weather that caused water, where it was available, to freeze. Many of these men were simply people in reserved occupations who thought it their duty to help.”  [Forgotten Memories from a Forgotten Blitz, p34]

During his extensive research, Neil interviewed 94-year old Doug Lightening, who had joined the fire brigade in 1939 and who served during the Blitz. He remembered that the air-raid sirens had been going most nights for weeks as the enemy bombers passed over the city on their way to Liverpool and Manchester. “We only had enough hose for two lines from the river although we had water and capacity for eight lines. We were short of hose. This was the case all over town although other areas were short of water as mains were cut off by bombs. My main concern all over town was to stop the fires spreading from the Black Swan and the buildings at the rear of the old Town Hall and Water Lane police station by concentrating our limited resources for several hours. We did stop these fires from spreading, a very small success amongst a sea of fires and explosions. I must confess I was scared most of the time and kept thinking ‘this cannot be for real.’ There was the constant discomfort and misery of being wet through; the heat scorching you and the pain of cut hands from broken glass everywhere coupled with constant hunger and thirst.” [op cit, p31]

Some of the appliances got stuck in bomb craters. In some cases, the crews managed to get them out, but others had to be left because they were too damaged. One pump received a direct hit as it was working and three of the crew were killed and another injured, while another pump was wrecked by the blast of a nearby bomb.

Eight firemen lost their lives during the Sheffield Blitz and are due to be commemorated with a red plaque, 85 years after the devastating bombing raids. A ceremony will take place at Pounds Park in Sheffield city centre on Friday 12th December to unveil the new memorial.  Pounds Park is named after John Charles Pound, Sheffield’s first Chief Fire Officer.

The Sheffield firemen who died on the 12th December were:

• Norman Elliott, 35, worked for the Sheffield Water Company and was working with the fire brigade, died on Union Street

• Arthur Moore, 28, an A.F.S. driver/fireman, died on Burgess Street

• Frederick Parkes-Spencer, 36, a full-time Police Constable/Fireman, died on Charles Street while assisting at the Empire Theatre.

• Stanley Slack, 29, an A.F.S. fireman, died alongside Frederick Parkes-Spencer on Charles Street, having gone into the burning and structurally damaged Empire Theatre to search for survivors

• Tom Stacey, 31, an A.F.S. fireman, died at the corner of Castle Street and Castle Green

• John William Swaby, 38, an A.F.S. fireman (and tram driver in civilian life), died on Burgess Street

• Albert Wallace, a fireman who died on duty during the Blitz

• Alfred Garlick, 30, an Auxiliary Fire Service fireman, was injured on December 12th and died a few days  later on December 14th in the Royal Hospital

Note: Albert Wallace was an A.F.S. Fireman. However, his name does not appear on the Sheffield Fire Brigade Roll of Honour and it is unclear whether he was on duty, or did not report for duty that night. He may have been assisting the injured, or he may have taken shelter from the bombing. This still remains a mystery, and the answer probably died with Albert, but he still warrants being remembered.

The last word on the Blitz comes from the Sheffield Fire Brigade History website:

“The Luftwaffe’s main intention was to destroy the factories along the Don Valley, and according to the official reports the first wave of bombers (Heinkels carrying incendiary weapons) encountered low cloud in the target area. However, this was contradicted by a report in the Sheffield Star which stated that: ‘Conditions for bombing were perfect. There was a full moon in a cloudless sky and a keen frost had whitened the roofs.’ It was also speculated that a Luftwaffe navigator mistook the Moor for Attercliffe Road. (the major arterial road through the industrial belt). Nevertheless, once the first wave of bombers had marked the target area with incendiaries, the second wave of planes carrying high explosives arrived at 9pm and bombed the fires in the heart of the city thinking these marked their target.

“It will probably never be known what the exact objective was of the first and more disastrous of the two raids. In their official communique the Germans claimed to have hit their targets of steel and war works, but, either by accident or design, this is the one thing they did not do. The attack was one on civilians and non-military objects.

“The second raid on the 15th December was actually confined to the East End, but little damage was done to factories undertaking war production.

“Both raids, therefore, were a failure from a military point of view. The civilian population, though shocked and temporarily dazed, did not lose heart, nerve, or confidence. If the object of the raids was to break their spirit they failed; it left the people of Sheffield embittered and a more determined people.”

In 1941 the fire service was nationalised and all local authority fire services transferred to the National Fire Service. This was done under the Fire Services (Emergency Provisions) Act. After WWII new legislation was passed and the Fire Services Act of 1947 took over as the primary legislation dealing with fire services. This returned the service to local authority control.

To be continued ...

SOURCES

Anderson, Neil: Forgotten Memories from a Forgotten Blitz; Sheffield under Nazi attack by the people who were there, published by ACM Retro Ltd. 2012

Anderson, Neil: Defiant! Sheffield Blitz 75th, published by ACM Retro Ltd. 2015

Anderson, Neil: Countdown to the Sheffield Blitz, The Sheffield Blitz Group 2018

Anderson, Neil: Sheffield’s Date with Hitler, published by ACM Retro Ltd. 2020

Available at: https://dirtystopouts.com/collections/sheffield

Branston, Jack: History of Stocksbridge, privately printed

Hardy, Clive: Sheffield at War, published by Archive Publications Ltd., 1987 (with articles and photographs from The Sheffield Star)

Sheffield Fire Brigade History https://sfbhistory.uk/Pages/History/Section06.html