Residents asked to recall their blitz memories
Date published: 20 December 2017
Oldham Council
Oldham Council is asking residents to recollect their memories of the blitz and various other bombing raids from World War Two as part of the Oldham Remembers campaign.
The blitz, which loosely translates to the German phrase blitzkrieg, meaning ‘flash war’, was an intense aerial bombing campaign carried out by Nazi Germany against Britain from September 1940 to May 1941.
Within an eight-month period 43,000 civilians were killed, whilst mass destruction was caused to many industrial targets, towns and cities across the United Kingdom - including Manchester.
Although it was not during the blitz, Oldham - a well-known boomtown of the industrial revolution - was most notably hit by a German V-1 flying bomb on Christmas Eve, 1944.
This claimed the lives of 27 people after it hit a row of houses on Abbey Hills Road.
Anecdotes from incidents like these are being welcomed as part of the campaign.
Councillor Cath Ball, Deputy Cabinet Member for Neighbourhoods and Cooperatives, with a special responsibility for Oldham Remembers, said: “Many people associate the blitz just with London, but this was far from the case.
“My mum tells me the story of the Manchester blitz which she and her mum listened to from Oldham, they were very concerned, knowing my grandad was there.
“It is important that we document these stories, so we can preserve the memory of what happened for future generations to come.”
Residents can send their stories to:
They will be added to the Oldham Stories section of Oldham Remembers:
www.oldhamremembers.org.uk
Stories can also be submitted by post to the following addresses: Councillor Cath Ball, 15 Tuns Road, Oldham, OL8 2PT and Zubair Seedat, Community Development Officer, Oldham District Office, Oldham Civic Centre, West Street, Oldham, OL1 1UT.
