MERSEYSIDE AT WAR • 1939-1945

© Luther Pendragon 1992
A Liverpool Echo Video
Sponsored by Royal Mail

[@paulinekirkham7945]

My dear dad was in the Merchant Navy mother who was engaged to him at the time said it was a miracle he survived and came home at the end of the war. My mum and him told my brother and I how Liverpool was indeed bombed to he'll but came through. I am very proud of our Liverpool roots and my parents generation.

[@MarkHarrison733]

Stalin's useful idiots.

[@trevormason1732]

Best city and people in the uk.

[@clairelongshaw4068]

Proud to be a Scouser and proud to know of our City’s history. Our spirit as a city, and as a people, is unbreakable.

[@JamesRichards-mj9kw]

We should have cut off all funding for Liverpool after the Toxteth riots. Brian Clough and Sir Bernard Ingham told the truth about the fans.

[@clairelongshaw4068]

@@JamesRichards-mj9kw God bless you. You sound quite triggered. Jealousy is one of the deadly sins. Sticks and stones and all that. My Scouse Nanna would describe you as a person who’s ’all fur coat and no knickers’. She’d be right too. Enjoy your day 😘

[@JamesRichards-mj9kw]

@@clairelongshaw4068 So glad about the fans.

[@clairelongshaw4068]

@@JamesRichards-mj9kw you know nothing. I understand that knowledge is power. You wallow in your self idiotic grandiosity, it suits you. Nothing you say or do, could possibly trigger me. I know the truth, end of. When truth and justice are on your side, you find an inner peace. You’ll never know that feeling, I do. ❤️

[@JamesRichards-mj9kw]

@@clairelongshaw4068 Mark David Chapman should be knighted. We fought the wrong enemy twice.

[@stordytime]

Such a brilliant documentary!!! My Grandad was in the Merchant Navy in both the first and second world wars. During the Battle of the Atlantic, two of his ships were torpedoed and sunk. He miraculously survived both. My Dad meanwhile joined the Army at age 15 by lying about his age and fought in N Africa and Europe till the end of the war. The eldest of my Dad's sisters worked in munitions in Liverpool while the younger sisters wee evacuated to North Wales. My Grandmother stayed in Lawrence Gardens, throughout the war just off Scotland Road. My Mother was a young nurse at The Royal Infirmary and I remember her telling me that she and her friends heard, through word-of-mouth, that Mill Road Maternity Hospital had been hit. They literally dropped everything and made their way to Mill Road to do whatever they could to help. She described the scene as horrifying. God bless them all.

[@MarkHarrison733]

Stalin's useful idiots.

[@ShaunPeterKelly]

I was a toddler 3 1/2 years old, I have vivid memories of bombs dropping all around our house, dad was working nights at Gladstone dock, we were in our home made shelter when an enormous bomb destroyed 4 houses a few doors away, ours lost all the slates off our roof and blew in all the windows. Soot coming down the chimney nearly choked us to death.

[@stephenholmes1036]

My grandfather was a Stevedore sent to Liverpool he was 1 of the 4 brave men killed when the SS Malakan blew up. It was due to those 4 mens bravery only 4 people were killed in Huskisson No 2 dock. The blast threw him onto the Liverpool overhead railway he died 2 days later.

[@gavinbutler5219]

Very moving documentary.

[@colinjones6072]

Can't believe some of the sickening comments obviously didn't have any of those brave men and women in their families. My family were there, proud of them.

[@JamesRichards-mj9kw]

They were worthless.

[@kdlofty]

My grandad (William Joseph Loftus) was a merchant seaman. I remember my late dad telling me that my grandad missed his boat by two minutes seeing my nana (it had literally just cast it's lines off as he got to the dock). So they put him on the next boat. The original boat he should've been on got torpedoed of Nova Scotia and he lost all his mates. There but for the grace of god.....

[@Mr.SLovesTheSacredHeartofJesus]

Thank GOD.

[@kdlofty]

@@Mr.SLovesTheSacredHeartofJesus When I said "there but for the grace of God" it was a euphemism. When you said "Thank GOD", I appreciate and respect your opinion and point of view, but in my opinion I wouldn't thank "god" for anything with regards to the war and the absolute living hell that people went through. No "God" would ever allow any of that to happen and then demand that you worship him.

[@caz4777]

I knew Dr. George Seymour Swan, ex Liverpool England. He was serving in Liverpool during World War Two, and received the King's commendation for his part in the rescue of Annie Done and Florence Bithell after the Well Lane bombing of 1941. He gave me an account of the event. He said that when Winston Churchhill visited Liverpool, he asked to see the two girls. His reply was "I'm sorry Sir, you can't see them". He said he got an autograph from him. Dr. Swan died at Sydney Australia in 1988 aged 92

[@manusha1349]

Bless the wartime generation, what amazing stuff they were made of! ❤🇬🇧

[@willdwyer6782]

Most of us in the US only know Liverpool as the hometown of the Beatles. John Lennon got evacuated to Scotland to avoid the blitz, but Ringo Starr spent some time in bomb shelters as a baby. Paul McCartney and George Harrison were born after the blitz.

[@paulgilmartin9673]

My dad was 9 living in Liverpool when this started

[@walterkronkitesleftshoe6684]

Dad was born in Bootle 1919. He was called up for the RN in 1939 and during the next 6 years only got home to Liverpool once. Mum was born in 1926, had just finished school and worked at Barker and Dobson's, then fire-watching in the evening, she always remembered the bombing of "Durning Rd technical College" in Nov 1940 that resulted in the deaths of 166 people. By 1944 she was working in "Rowe Brother's engineering Ltd" in Marybone, assembling air to ground rockets for the RAF ground attack aircraft. They married in 1957.

[@JamesRichards-mj9kw]

Liverpool did not get anywhere near as much as it deserved.

[@walterkronkitesleftshoe6684]

@@JamesRichards-mj9kw Now now James, your mental illness is now pushing you to overstep the bounds of common decency.

[@clairelongshaw4068]

@@JamesRichards-mj9kwDivvie

[@JamesRichards-mj9kw]

@@clairelongshaw4068 The Blitz was in response to the RAF bombing cities and towns in Germany.

[@JamesRichards-mj9kw]

@@walterkronkitesleftshoe6684 Churchill began civilian bombing, as J.M. Spaight confirmed in his 1944 book "Bombing Vindicated".

[@janegallagher6162]

My mum and her two sisters, and their aunts, cousins endured this time.e. mum was nine and she shared how her and her mum and sisters would sleep in their Anderson shelter. They were sent away for a short period. What a remarkable generation and community. My aunt told me after the bombings, they'd get up the next day and the bus to work, there could be 2 or three house close by blown out, at least the windows. God bless them all.

[@JamesRichards-mj9kw]

Stalin's useful idiots.

[@mikedixon9089]

My dad lost his brother robert dixon sunk by a uboat ss orapesa he was 16yrs old 😢

[@JamesRichards-mj9kw]

Churchill had made all civilian ships legitimate targets during World War I.

[@flynnterry9848]

My mum and dad met I town , dad was on a warship and boxed in the city also a nd became a popular FELLA at the stadium. Paddy flynn. He was great fella . Mum and dad lucky to get through this terrible time In history. God bless Everyone BACK then .👍🙏🙏🙏

[@junesmallwood4921]

Amazing that they lived through that situation. And they kept their spirits up .

[@grahamthebaronhesketh.]

They bombed our Chippy!

[@stephenodonnell619]

End of the world, lol

[@frankhornby6873]

Yeah, the Fokkers bombed ours too!....

[@susanmason6476]

MY CITY MY HOME ❤

[@louis-8728]

My Granddad and Great Granddad were in the navy. That’s all I know sadly hahah.

[@peterwhitaker4038]

does anyone know that Roscommon street off Netherfield road in Everton was once the home of the guy called Stanley who entered history fame by coming across Dr, Livingstone 'i presume' in Africa.

[@walterkronkitesleftshoe6684]

John Morton Stanley was born in Denbigh North Wales.

[@peterwhitaker4038]

@@walterkronkitesleftshoe6684 yes he was born in Denbigh but came to Liverpool like most do. His name was Henry not John I believe

[@walterkronkitesleftshoe6684]

@@peterwhitaker4038 He was born as John Rowlands in Denbigh, his birth certificate recorded him as a "bastard" due to his abandonment by his young unmarried mother. His father died before he was born, but he was raised by his paternal grandfather in North Wales till the age of five when his grandfather died. He then spent the next 10 years in the "Union workhouse" in St Asaph. From there he then travelled to the US where he struck out to find his own destiny...so I suppose that he may have stayed in Roscommon St for some short while. My great grandparents lived in Higham St off Roscommon street 100 or so years ago. I don't think they knew him :)

[@peterwhitaker4038]

@@walterkronkitesleftshoe6684 fascinating. Thankyou

[@stephenodonnell619]

My mother's house was blown up whilst she was hiding under the stairs, I remember her saying that her hair was like grey wire.

[@OllyO-gt8pg]

i live on the other side in wallasey and we get to see the pools waterfront more than the scousers lol.

[@frankhornby6873]

The Fokkers blew our chippy to bits!...Natzi Fokkers!....

[@JamesRichards-mj9kw]

We fought the wrong enemy twice.

[@sophiabee8924]

How disrespectful. Shame on you.

[@colhughes3892]

No mention of the ira bombs that were planted in 1939-40 in liverpool ?

[@JamesRichards-mj9kw]

We should have cut off all funding for Liverpool in 1981.

[@irenejohnston6802]

Who's "we"?

[@JamesRichards-mj9kw]

@@irenejohnston6802 The government.

[@susanmason6476]

Who the hell are you, what a coward .This city is one of the greatest cities .so make all the comments you want Liverpool will turn the other cheek .

[@manuelhung7571]

You mean the 'government' that spent countless ££millions££ rebuilding London after the war and spent hardly anything to rebuild Liverpool after the War?

[@CARLIN4737]

just women talking heads about how poor and hungry they was. Not a great watch.

[@JD-uq8iy]

Just a random comment with no real point , not a great comment .

[@Incredible14U]

@@JD-uq8iy I guess the men were away fighting mostly. The women and elderly men defended the city. Hence why the women were mostly in the video. My Dad lived on Scotland Road. He served in the Merchant Navy during the war. He said the Germans dropped incendiary bombs. The kids would approach before they went off with sandbags and put out these before they exploded. The Lufftwafa after bombing the docks would shoot up the civilian areas and drop bombs onto civilian homes so they had a lighter load to return to Germany.

[@philconlan6328]

Gobshite

[@jamesbetara]

War isn’t all about glory in battle y’know. Welcome to the reality of WWII for the ordinary folks in Britain…

[@sophiabee8924]

Brighton and Hove, such a poxy place.

[@user-xq6sj3jk5x]

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