Did anyone have any family in the WW2 Middlesbrough Train Station Bombing?
- Thread starter Juninho10
- Start date
Doom_On_Horseback
Well-known member
Not here, but my dad told me a story over xmas that I was unaware of. My grandmother always maintained that a low flying Luftwaffe fighter opened fire on the playground she was playing in during the war in Port Clarence. I know that it was war but that shocked me.
Didn't a German fighter straffe Durham Road in Stockton?
tonybiriyani
Well-known member
My uncle, who was a kid at the time was thrown down the steps outside the station by the power of the blast.
WoodallServices
Well-known member
My mother was a kid and she said they saw the aircraft come out of the clouds and drop its bombs.
Doom_On_Horseback
Well-known member
Wasn't aware of that. I'd love a list of places that were. I don't know again how true it was, but there was always a story that the Victoria bridge from Thornaby to Stockton had many bullet holes in it for years after the war from Luftwaffe fire.
FartingGnome
Well-known member
My ma told me that she was walking along Greenwood Road in Billingham when the plane flew over and she heard the attack. Adds up - if you look at Greenwood road it points at Middlesbrough station, marker for a bomb run I suppose.
There is a very spooky story of reincarnation attached to the bomber shot down in South Bank.
A young Middlesbrough lad in the 1980,s claimed he had flown the aircraft from a base in Norway. He described the cockpit exactly, the crew and the fact that he lost a leg in the crash. He described the base that he took off from and the unique washing facilities. All of this checked out. This was before the plane wreck was discovered in the 90,s. He gave his German name and rank and from that German relatives were found and collaborated his story. Photos are avaliable of both the pilot and the young man. All this is easy to find on Google.
A young Middlesbrough lad in the 1980,s claimed he had flown the aircraft from a base in Norway. He described the cockpit exactly, the crew and the fact that he lost a leg in the crash. He described the base that he took off from and the unique washing facilities. All of this checked out. This was before the plane wreck was discovered in the 90,s. He gave his German name and rank and from that German relatives were found and collaborated his story. Photos are avaliable of both the pilot and the young man. All this is easy to find on Google.
Redwurzel
Well-known member
A dornier was shot down in South Bank and it took many years later to recover some of the wreckage and the bodies of the crew, who were given a proper military funeral by the RAF abd buried in Thornaby. The crash was in a site that was inaccessible because of industrial equipment and railway lines.
Ref Railway station bombing, I read about a Middlesbrough women visiting a jewellers in Germany in the 1960s and been asked where she was from. When she said Middlesbrough the guy serving said he knew Middlesbrough as he had bombed the railway station in 1942.
Ref Railway station bombing, I read about a Middlesbrough women visiting a jewellers in Germany in the 1960s and been asked where she was from. When she said Middlesbrough the guy serving said he knew Middlesbrough as he had bombed the railway station in 1942.
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My dad recalls it was 11am - daylight raid - he heard them and reckons the plane dropped its bombs and then flew off for home.
Eziozi’s Ghost
Active member
I have never heard that story before.
Interesting.
My dad, who was around 14, watched that plane come down near South Bank Coke Ovens.
He lived just along the street from the Junction pub, which stood at the foot of the wooden bridge that went over the railway lines to Smiths d*ck and the Coke Ovens.
He seemed to think that this plane was the one that bombed Middlesbrough Railway Station.
He said nobody rushed to see if there were any survivors.
I also recall a conversation I had with an old guy years ago now dead I’m afraid, who said he witnessed a German airman parachuting onto the Eston Hills.
I don’t know which action it involved.
But another chap told me of plane debris that was scattered across the top of the hills near ‘Pit Top’.
Anyroad....
He told me that one of the parachutists was a very very small man almost midget in size.
He was told that he was probably a gunner on the plane who was small to enable him to fit into a small space to fire the guns.
He was laid on the ground curled up like a ball.
Anyway apparently he was dead by the time he landed due to being badly burned, but there was hell on because bigger kids had got to him before the Police.
His revolver was missing out of his holster
Police knew one of the kids had took it.
It was never recovered.
I think he got buried at the Thornaby Cemetery off the A66.
There are a few Germans in there.
The bomber crashed near the wilderness. The bodies of some of the crew were recovered at the time and buried in Thornaby. One body was missing, it was only discovered over 50 years on. One of the crew had been mis-identified, so the headstones were swapped. It's pretty clear if you go to the cemetery in Thornaby.
One of the aircrew buried there died on his birthday.
GazBoro
Well-known member
That could have been the Junkers that crashed on Barnaby Moor. The guy who bailed out ended up in the woods at Flatts Lane, his parachute only partially opened so he never survived.
The rest of the crew never got out and went down with the plane, their bodies were never found. The crash site is still visible to this day, and every few years someone puts a wreath on the wire fence next to where it crashed.
For those interested, you can find the location by copy/pasting the coords into google earth. 54°32'43.52"N 1° 7'31.91"W
Junkers Ju88 on the Eston Hills, Middlesbrough.
http://www.yorkshire-aircraft.co.uk/aircraft/yorkshire/york41/4ugh.html
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Hap
Well-known member
It landed on key railway sidings that were so badly needed, that the site was never fully excavated and by the next day they were busy fixing the track. One crewman, the radio operator, was never recovered and most of the wreck was buried underground. Date 15/01/42, aircraft Do217, Thornaby graves Lehnis, Richter and Matern. Missing Maneke.
GazBoro
Well-known member
It really is spooky. The guy who claimed all that before the plane was re-discovered, was later murdered a few hundred yards from the crash site!
The uncanny case of Carl Edon
https://www.gazettelive.co.uk/news/local-news/uncanny-case-carl-edon-3857619
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Hap
Well-known member
Yes, that's spot on. My Dad watched this come down from a position close to Teesville Primary School. 30/03/41, JU88 4U+GH was heading back from a photographic mission over Manchester when 2 Spitfires picked it up. It came down in a peat bog not that far from the monument.
Three crew not recovered. Gunner Steigarwald baled out but his chute didn't open. Buried at Thornaby.
It's interesting to me, because of my Dads story, but very sad really.