| 49 mins 49 secs of 52 mins 00 secs | ||
| format 16mm | colour black & white | sound silent |
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| To access the complete film please contact the Yorkshire Film Archive | ||
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SHEFFIELD AT WAR (1940s)
download descriptionThis film came to the YFA as part of a large collection of films from Sheffield Local Studies. Unfortunately no other information came with the film, so there is no exact date for the film or information on who the filmmakers were. The visit of King George IV and Queen Elizabeth to Sheffield was on January 6th 1941. Presumably the film of the various drills took place later on that same year. The YFA also has more film of the King and Queen visit to Sheffield taken by Edward Bellamy, who filmed extensively during the war in Sheffield, including the War Weapons Week, Wings for Victory, Holiday Week and Salute the Soldier Week. See also Holmfirth Tradesmen's Trip & Blitz in Sheffield (1940s) and New Towns for Old (1942)
The King and his Queen consort had previously visited Sheffield not that long before on the Oct. 21st 1937, and the YFA has this on film too. They also visited Hull, which was equally hard hit, later on in 1941 – see King and Queen visit Hull (1941). This visit to Sheffield in January 1941 followed the devastating bombing raids on Sheffield on the nights of Thursday 12th and Friday 13th of December 1940. Sheffield of course was an obvious target for bombing raids with its large steel and engineering industry, mainly turned over to munitions production during the war – see the Context forMunitions Factory (1940s) and for the Rotherham based Hickling Family during the War (1940s).
Sheffield had been hit by bombs dropped by Zeppelin raids during the First World War, in particular on 25th September 1916, when bombs falling in Attercliffe and Burngreave killed 28 people and injured 19. At the beginning of the Second World War anti-aircraft guns had been put in place to try to force the German planes to fly higher, thereby reducing accuracy (which was in any case extremely bad on both sides). By December of 1940 Sheffield had 27 heavy anti-aircraft guns at Shirecliffe, Manor and Brinsworth – there were also guns stationed around the city, see Hunshelf Gun Site(1940), another Edward Bellamy film, and the Context for this on anti-aircraft guns.
In addition there were also searchlights, which could dazzle bombers, and 72 balloons, whose cables, as seen in this film, could bring down a plane. But in truth the defences were not up to preventing serious damage. In his chapter on ‘Sheffield at War’ in Binfield et al (References), Philip Healy provides a detailed account of the bombing raid of December, where the bombs fell and what the damage was. Apparently the raid was codenamed ‘Schmelztiegel’ (crucible), and consisted of 336 aircraft, out of an allocated 406. They flew from the south up Britain, thereby making it difficult to know what their intended target was.
Reading through the list of places hit that Philip Healy gives, it would probably be easier to list the places not hit then those that were. But among the latter hit on the first raid, at 7.00pm on 12th were: Norton Lees, Gleadless, Abbeydale, Brincliffe Edge, Owlerton, Moorhead, Glossop Road, Park Hill, Millhouses, Sharrow, Broomhill, Crookesmoor, Walkey and Burngreave. More places were hit later on the same night. In the city centre this included the Moor, the High Street, Commercial Street, Haymarket, Exchange Street, and Campo Lane.
Reading through the list of places hit that Philip Healy gives, it would probably be easier to list the places not hit then those that were. But among the latter hit on the first raid, at 7.00pm on 12th were: Norton Lees, Gleadless, Abbeydale, Brincliffe Edge, Owlerton, Moorhead, Glossop Road, Park Hill, Millhouses, Sharrow, Broomhill, Crookesmoor, Walkey and Burngreave. More places were hit later on the same night. In the city centre this included the Moor, the High Street, Commercial Street, Haymarket, Exchange Street, and Campo Lane.
Philip Healy goes into more detail: “The fires in the city centre were out of control. Every building in Angel Street was bombed or on fire, King Street was an inferno, and the heat in the C&A building was so intense that the wall buckled. Thus Walsh’s Store caught fire from surrounding buildings at 4.30am after the raid was over.” (p 244) The strength of the heat is clearly evident in this film which shows a mass of twisted and mangled steel structures. In addition to damage to buildings, the Neepsend gasworks was hit as was Jessop Hospital, and the water supply badly affected. The single worst incident was bombing of the Marple Hotel where only seven of the 77 people sheltering there escaped alive. Over the course of that single night 335 tons of high explosives and 16,452 incendiary canisters had been dropped. Although the anti-aircraft guns had fired off 3,700 rounds, no German planes were shot down. The raid the following night was smaller, hitting other parts of the city, especially the industrial areas, including Brown Bayley, Hadfield’s and English Steel.
Needless to say, the clear up operation and emergency work that followed was huge. Over half of the city’s 150,449 houses were damaged, with 2,906 destroyed or beyond repair. Half the city was left without electricity and many areas were without gas and water for some weeks. Figures on the numbers that were killed or injured as a result of the raids vary widely, with the highest put at 693 killed (by Sheffield newspapers); the lowest at 502, according to the Civil War Dead Roll of Honour (Binfield, p. 247). 134 were buried in a mass grave in City Road Cemetery on 20th December 1940. Fortunately for Sheffield, other cities were mainly targeted after these December raids, although Sheffield was hit again on 14th March, 8/9th May, and lastly on 12th October, 1941.
With the outbreak of war gas masks were issued free to all, and everyone was legally obliged to carry them around at all times (although this was far from being implemented, and dropped off over time). Mustard gas, which was almost odourless, had been used a great deal in the First World War, with many soldiers having died or been injured in gas attacks. It was the British that first mooted gas poisoning as a weapon, in the Crimean War, but was rejected as contravening the laws of civilised warfare. These laws weren’t in fact put into place until the Hague Conventions of 1899 and 1907, respecting the Laws and Customs of War on Land. This did not stop them being used extensively in World War One, first by France, and then much more by Germany with their more advanced chemical industry, although Britain soon joined in.
The efforts of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) to enforce the Hague Convention during the war proved ineffective. There were several types of gas in use: first chlorine then phosgene, mixed in to make it more effective (more was breathed in), to form so-called "white star". Mustard gas came later, in September 1917. These became the main ones though bromine, chloropicrin and nerve gas were also used occasionally. To combat this soldiers at first used cotton wool dipped in bicarbonate of soda, or even urine, before filter respirators (using charcoal or antidote chemicals) were introduced, greatly reducing the effectiveness of gas attacks.
Nevertheless, it continued to be used after the war ended, by among others the British in Iraq. Winston Churchill, the then Secretary of State for War and Air, declared, I do not understand this squeamishness about the use of gas. I am strongly in favour of using poisonous gas against uncivilized tribesI do not understand this squeamishness about the use of gas. I am strongly in favour of using poisonous gas against uncivilized tribes." (References) The ICRC continued to press for outlawing poisonous gas after the war ended and this led to the adoption in Geneva in 1925 of the Protocol for the Prohibition of the Use in War of Asphyxiating, Poisonous or other Gases and of Bacteriological Methods of Warfare. Nevertheless, Italy used mustard gas in its conquest of Abyssinia (Ethiopia) in 1935.
Neither side used gas as a weapon in the Second World War for fear of retaliation (although large stockpiles of nerve gas were found in Germany when the allies occupied in 1945). However, Churchill also issued a secret memo during the Second World War stating that poison gas should be used if necessary or if it would help end the war sooner by one year. See also the Context for Malton Evacuees.
Neither side used gas as a weapon in the Second World War for fear of retaliation (although large stockpiles of nerve gas were found in Germany when the allies occupied in 1945). However, Churchill also issued a secret memo during the Second World War stating that poison gas should be used if necessary or if it would help end the war sooner by one year. See also the Context for Malton Evacuees.
Although both theWomen’s Auxiliary Air Force and the Home Guard feature in other films, Sheffield at War has some relatively rare scenes of them both in training. Women were active in many defence and emergency services during the war, as well as doing most of the munitions work and working in the Women’s Land’s Army. The Women’s' Voluntary Service worked in fighting fires, clearing rubble, guarding damaged buildings and assisting in rescue work. Women could join the Civil Defence or Women’s Voluntary Service – which had one million members by 1943 – and later the Women’s Home Guard Auxiliaries for administrative duties. There was also the Auxiliary Territorial Service, which by July 1942 had 217,000 women members – see also Formation Of The Homeguard (1944) and Hunshelf Gun Site (1940).
The German’s hoped to break civilian morale through their bombing raids, especially in the early days of the blitz. The British Government were also very concerned that this could happen, and in this concern they were perhaps right – see again the Context for King and Queen visit Hull (1941). Yet Philip Healy reports that there had been no panic or mass exodus in the wake of the bombing in Sheffield. As Jörg Friedrich shows in his graphic account of the horrific bombing that British Air Command carried out on Germany, the tactic of breaking civilian morale is seriously misconceived. It was only after the end of the war that area bombing was made illegal, and this incorporated into the Geneva Conventions. However, each year brings with it thousands of more civilian casualties in wars. It is perhaps hardly surprising that Sheffield hosted the second World Peace Congress in November 1950. This initiative, coming from the Soviet sponsored World Peace Council, was entangled up in the cold war. Yet even as we head into the 21st century, it is still arguable as to whether there is any effective world body to put an end to the atrocities of war.
References
Clyde Binfield et al (eds), The History of the City of Sheffield, Vols. 2&3, Sheffield Academic Press, 1993.
Jörg Friedrich, The Fire The Bombing of Germany, 1940 1945: The Bombing of Germany, 1940-1945, Columbia University Press, 2008.
Juliet Gardner, Wartime: Britain 1939-1945, Headline, London, 2004.
Arthur Marwick, The Home Front: British and the Second World War, Hudson and Thames, 1976.
F. Habashi, ‘The social responsibility of scientists – Two historic lessons’, CIM Bulletin Vol. 97, N° 1076
Winston Churchill's Secret Poison Gas Memo
