Little happened on the Home Front and many found the evacuations, gasmasks, blackouts and constant public information rather pointless and irritating. Ebbw Vale MP Aneurin Bevan told Parliament, 'the impression is now universal that if the Germans do not manage to bomb us to death the Ministry of Information will bore us to death'. After the fall of France the nature of the war changed. Suddenly Britain was standing alone and the enemy was just a few miles away across the English Channel.
The bombing of British towns and cities began, concentrated on London but extending across much of the country. In June , Cardiff became the first place in Wales to be attacked. The Welsh people were now on the frontline. Swansea suffered the most intense attack in Wales when a raid that lasted three nights in February destroyed half the town's centre.
Those with gardens often built Anderson Shelters to take refuge in but not everyone was so fortunate and others had to use crowded public shelters. In late , Morrison Shelters were introduced, which were not much more than a steel table to hide under inside the house. Others made a nightly trek to nearby rural areas, sleeping in tents, cars or even on the beach. In Wales, Cardiff and Swansea were subject to the most sustained attacks. In Cardiff over the course of the war 33, houses were damaged, over demolished and civilians killed.
The fires turned night into day and could be seen for miles, adding to the impact of the horror. Thirty-thousand bombs were dropped; business premises burnt out; houses demolished and 11, damaged. At the height of the Swansea blitz one woman, when asked where her husband was, replied, 'He is in the army, the coward'.
The docks and industrial works of Cardiff and Swansea made them obvious targets but there were attacks elsewhere too. Ordinance factories, oil installations, mining towns and even rural communities were bombed by orchestrated attacks, lost planes or those just eager to lose their cargo before flying home. Even Caernarfonshire, which was near the flightpath of bombers heading to Liverpool, saw five deaths in bombing raids over the course of the war.
The story of the Swansea's Three Nights' Blitz There is no film footage of the Three Nights' Blitz, so to tell the story of those three terrible nights, we have made this film from contemporary photographs among our holdings.
Swansea was by far the hardest hit and nearly people were killed between and , the majority of them in the Three Nights' Blitz, February , which laid waste the centre of the town.
This is our memorial to the civilian war dead, not just of Swansea, but of Neath Port Talbot as well. The family spent the rest of the weekend sleeping on the floor of Pennard church hall, Gower, where they could still hear the bombing.
My mother and sister were very upset, I don't think I ever went back to the house to see it even. Not only the centre was destroyed by the Three Nights' Blitz. Entire streets were flattened, including Teilo Street in Mayhill, which was set ablaze by incendiary bombs.
These highly combustible bombs caused the most damage, according to Dr Alban. As well as the human toll, the effect on Swansea's infrastructure was devastating, with 41 acres of the centre wiped out and water, gas and electricity mains broken.
But the reaction of the community and the local authority was to set up mobile canteens and find accommodation for the 7, people made homeless. The injured were diverted to workhouse infirmaries to be treated after Swansea General Hospital was bombed. WW2 lessons for university's post-coronavirus role. Regenerating 75 years after Blitz. Panels unveiled at historic venue. Creative future for empty warehouse. Image source, West Glamorgan Archives.
More than 40 acres of Swansea were destroyed by the three nights' of bombing in February Marian Jones was just six years old but can still remember the horror of the bombing. Regenerating 75 years after Blitz WW2 lessons for university's post-coronavirus role Swansea Blitz bombs 'made a screeching sound'.
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