ww2 in gwent

[chase]

hi all this is a subject that  i seem to be drawn to as of lately just wondering if any one has any infomation on ww2 in gwent eg plane crashes ,locations of our defence systems eg barrage balloons ,or could suggest any good books on the war effort in the gwent area

[PHIL YNYSBOETH]

Hi Chase
the obverse place to look would be the internet and Local Library's
Hers something to wet the appetite

newport maesglas gwent
Article ID:  A2023002
Contributed on:  11 November 2003
Incendiary Raid

German Luftwaffe Air Raid on the Great Western Railway sidings Near Maesglas Housing estate.
Circa 1940.
The sidings had among the many vans laden among them a loaded van of none other than Whiskey.
This went up in flames and smoke.

The area depicted in this scene is the old road to the docks.
The Bridge over Main Railway lines to Cardiff and West Wales Countless men went over this bridge in 1939. Marched on their way to the ships before embarking for France.
Before future air raids were to come. The sound of marching feet of countless men.
Throb of engine vehicles towing big guns and machines of war.
Guns and Tanks. Night and day in a continuous stream went the many Soldiers of the British Army.
The B.E.F off to France.
On one occasion Men in ranks were marching and folks would collect to give the boy's smoke.

And to the shock of many a girl friend and wife to see their boy friend or husband marching off to France.

Away at annual Training T.A camp. They were mobilised and had little choice.

The author's cousin was one of these men and later taken prisoner at Dunkirk.

Spent the war in Stalag Luft Three.
Some of the smoke screen contraptions that put up a acrid screen of burnt oil mixed with a water to give out a dense blanket of smoke over the whole area when the docks were expected to be under imminent expected attack.
Local people may look back remember this changed area.
Now very much changed as the road to Comet and the various new trading buildings.
Recently the author returned to walk this area through Maesglas past the Muffler club and on to the old road.
The bridge is now in a rusty condition. And soon I fear will be dismantled along with the ghost of past footsteps of generations who once trod this way.
But no footsteps of the past can be heard.
Remain now only a scene captured in a paint on a canvas reached from link to my site on this page if you wish to view.
===============
Home of Mar Davies. Incendiary Bombed.
Also during this raid the house three doors away from Author had a direct hit with an incendiary bomb on house at 110 Maesglas Avenue Newport Gwent.
Mrs Davies. Also Depicted in a painting was rescued from the flames. Brought out from the house by volunteer local Men in the A.R.P.
Many Men from the Maesglas Area trained to become fire fighters and rescue workers in those war time years.
Maesglas="[Greenfield]"Nick Name "MOSCOW" for its left views of red flag flying high.
The incendiary bombs were scattered over this area of the estate on what was a residential area.
Though we were just children at the age of thirteen and fourteen.
In an eagerness to take part and be considered to be helping to do ones bit.
Would accompany the neighbour on duty patrol of fire watching in the area.
The night of the incendiary attack. The men of the A.R.P. had done a good and effective job at containment of the bright burning incendiaries by a swift dab of a bag of sand on the offending bright light of the burning bomb. That would in know doubt be a guiding light for the droning aircraft above.
Possibly we were in hindsight more of a hindrance in our innocence of youth and inquisitiveness to see the bombs burning brightly when one lifted a sandbag.
This inquisitiveness not only took the young.
Often elder people would flock to observe bomb damaged buildings and would go out watching the planes caught in the searchlight and the shell bursts and shrapnel flying and whining every where.
This attack by the German Luftwaffe was their part in effort to demoralise the British spirit before the final attack of the German forces on this Country.
Far from it even though short of food and night attacks with lack of sleep.
One often would hear of some town in the country having a harder time.
We were so cemented together in our unity of the defeat of our then foe.
A nation of British we stood together.
Mrs Davies was rescued from the burning house and the fire extinguished.

 

[150aceboy]

Wow ...........  Phil what great info there fella, i really enjoyed the read mate, very interesting 
Ace 

[jaseboy]

wow phill very intresting mate!

[Chef Geoff]

I wish I could remember all the stories told to me as a child by my Mother, I grew up in Cwmbran and can remember being told how a (supposed) cow was blown up a tree on the mountain by a German bomb, and how the Indian lancers would ride in all their finery down Trussel Road, they were billete on the Polo Grounds at New Inn (not sure if that's how they got their name) and how the American GI's were segregated, the black GI's being billeted at the top of the Black Bird Pitch, Llantarnam.
I shall have a think and see what else I can remember.

[PHIL YNYSBOETH]

Its strange init

I know more about the Roman Invadion of wales then i do about The last World war in the valleys

THE CWMPARC BOMBING

On the night of April 29th/30th.1941 the small mining village of Cwmparc was devastated by the bombs of Hitler’s Luftwaffe, an event that survivors of that night of terror will never forget. The reason why this small Rhondda settlement was targeted will never be known, but some theories suggest that possibly a bombing mission planned for Swansea or Port Talbot had failed, causing the German bombers to offload their bombs on their way home. Whatever the reason for the raid the result brought devastation and death to this small close-knit mining community. Most of the bombs fell on houses in Treharne Street and Parc Road, and the resultant death toll was twenty-seven men, women and children. One of the most poignant aspects of the raid was the death of three young evacuees from London. The three, 13-year-old George Jameson, his 11-year-old brother Ernest, and his sister Edith lived at 14 Treharne Street, had been sent to Cwmparc as a place of safety in order to avoid the dangers of the London Blitz. Another victim was Ivor Wright, a member of the local Home Guard. Ivor had seen a parachute floating to the ground, and believing it to be a German parachutist ran to confront the ‘invader’, it was however a German incendiary bomb dropped attached to a parachute, which killed him instantly.


Cotemporary reports in the local paper, ‘The Free Press and Rhondda Leader’, describe how when the air raid warning first went off residents expected a boring wait in the air raid shelter until the all clear should sound. Indeed many did not even leave for the shelters as the sounding of the siren was a common event and until that tragic evening had heralded nothing more than an uncomfortable period in an air raid shelter. This time however it was different as the paper’s correspondent describes,
‘…suddenly, with horrifying unexpectedness, there was heard a clutter like the rattling of a thousand machine guns in simultaneous action. There were queer noises of objects falling on the roof, and outside in the street was a din of shouting . . .   The scene was one such as could only exist in the wildest imagination. Incendiary bombs had been dropped and more were still falling, blazing brightly in their hundreds, and many little houses in the main street were already in the incipient stage of being afire’.
The writer goes on to describe the heroic efforts of the emergency services in extinguishing the incendiaries as they landed and recovering the dead and injured from the debris. However just as everything seemed to be under control, ‘The air became frightful with the drone of returning raiders, and the first of two high explosive bombs fell’, these bombs completely demolished two houses and damaged extensively many others. Many of the accounts describe the many acts of heroism and bravery of the rescuers on that night, and in the days following, tunnelling through ‘mountains’ of debris to reach those trapped beneath.


Following the war in November 1948 a memorial service was held outside the Cwmparc Library and institute commemorate the sacrifice of the 27 victims of the raid. An illuminated two faced clock and a plaque to those who had died in the Second World War was unveiled by Colin Harries a 14 year old schoolboy from Treharne Street, who had been saved that night from a bombed house.

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