Norwich Air-Raids

During the early months of the war itself, numerous air raid warnings were sounded in Norwich, including one on the very day that war was declared; ten months elapsed however before the city experienced an actual attack.

A considerable number of bombs had been dropped before that date in neighbouring areas, but until June 1940, one month before the first Norwich raid, the only casualties appear to have been a few farm and wild animals killed, with quite minor damage to property.

Lowestoft was the first place in this part of East Anglia to suffer loss of life through a German bombing raid.

The city’s death-roll for the year amounted to sixty-one, of whom twenty-six were killed on the 9th July during the first raid which Norwich sustained.

9th July, 1940. At about 5 p.m. eleven bombs of the whistling type were dropped by a Dornier 17 and a Junkers 88; they included several incendiaries which fired part of a warehouse on the Salhouse Road (just beyond the city boundary) and high explosives which fell both on Boulton and Paul’s Riverside Works and on Carrow Hill.

19th July, 1940. At about 6.15 a.m. a lone enemy raider dropped a stick of bombs which damaged or destroyed the following places- 78-80, Bull Close Road; the garage of the Cat and Fiddle inn, Magdalen Street; 33-35, Botolph Street; 172, St George Street; 45-47, Pitt Street; and (by fire) the Norwich Aero Club rooms just beyond the city near Heartsease Lane. Although the sirens were not sounded, there was but one casualty - an old lady who was taken to hospital and died some days later.

30th July, 1940. At about 6 a.m. a number of bombs dropped by a single enemy raider caused some damage and casualties, Victoria Terrace, Pegg’s Opening, being the scene of several deaths, as four or five of the houses collapsed and there had been no warning sounded. Other places involved included the printing works at Colman’s; houses in Argyle Street and Compass Street; 68, Ber Street; the Omnibus Station, Surrey Street; and in front of 25-27, Surrey Street (below). The portico of the last-mentioned place was blown to pieces, but as it possessed some historic and artistic interest the fragments were collected together with the hope of effecting a restoration after the war. Unfortunately they were destroyed by fire in a later raid as they lay in the builder’s yard.

On the 2nd August, 1940, a deputation from the Norwich City Council met representatives of the Ministry of Home Security in London regarding the sounding of sirens whenever an air attack upon the city seemed imminent, and urged that the system of air raid warnings should be adjusted so as to make this possible. The deputation was assured that active and urgent consideration was being given to the matters which they had put forward, and that adjustments would be made in the light of experience.

10th August, 1940. Just after 6 p.m. three bombs were dropped on the city, one falling upon a timber shed at Carrow Works. Little damage was caused.

20th August, 1940. At about 6 a.m. a number of incendiary bombs were dropped, falling in Surrey Street; Davey Place; outside the Guildhall and at the Home and Colonial Stores, 40a, Magdalen Street. The latter shop suffered most, with a shattered plate glass window, some of the contents being destroyed. Damage otherwise was negligible.

At the same time as the above incident, a search was conducted in the gardens of the Bishop’s Palace following statements which suggested that a bomb might have fallen there. The investigation centred upon a disused well, formerly covered in, which was located about ten yards from the north transept of the Cathedral. Excavations to a depth of nearly thirty feet were made without any sign being discovered that was suggestive of a bomb having fallen there.

27th October, 1940. At about 6 p.m. a number of high-explosive bombs fell around the outskirts of Norwich. A bungalow in Orchard Close and another in Furze Road were demolished.

11th November, 1940. Several incendiary bombs fell in the early hours of the morning causing small fires in the Thorpe Hamlet district, but all were extinguished with little difficulty.

2nd December, 1940. Just before 6 p.m. bombs from an enemy aircraft fell in Norwich, demolishing 49, St John Street and 49, Bracondale. Damage was also caused to the Orchard Tavern, 38, Mountergate. A bomb which fell in the Cloister Garth (right) of the Cathedral did no damage beyond shattering some modern glass. There were several fatal casualties.

11th December, 1940 (early). A single enemy aircraft dropped bombs at the foot of Carrow Hill, demolishing 10, Dunston Cottages. One of the occupants was killed and another injured.

21st December, 1940 (at night). A high explosive bomb was dropped in Rye Avenue, Mile Cross. It fractured the water and gas mains and broke a number of windows, but caused no casualties.

4th February, 1941. Bombs fell during the night damaging Boulton and Paul’s Riverside Works, and at Plumstead Road damaging a number of houses and bungalows. Two persons were killed and a few injured.

18th February, 1941. A single raider caused considerable damage when it dropped a heavy bomb of the whistling type at Vauxhall Street at about 5.15 a.m. Many houses, shops and other business, premises were destroyed and eight people were killed and 12 injured.

27th February, 1941. During the morning several bombs were dropped on Barnard’s factory, Salhouse Road. Some damage was caused to the building but there were no casualties.

30th March, 1941. Bombs dropped during the night by an enemy aircraft did little damage. They fell on Caernarvon Road and at the back of 130, Earlham Road occupied by Mr W.J.Finch, then Sheriff of Norwich. Nobody was injured but one of the occupants at the latter address had to be dug out of the wreckage.

2nd April, 1941. A number of heavy bombs were dropped in the Riverside district during the afternoon, killing one of Steward and Patteson’s draymen whilst at work. The raider also machine-gunned houses and other buildings, but little material damage was caused. A party of workmen escaped unscathed when a bomb fell fifteen yards from a surface shelter in which they had just taken refuge. A large fragment of bomb crashed through the roof of the Shirehall (right) and fell into the courtroom during a Quarter Sessions sitting but nobody was hurt.

5th May, 1941. Enemy aircraft dropped high explosive bombs during the night which destroyed some houses in Bury Street and blew out the fronts of other houses on Unthank Road. At the same time a few incendiaries were dropped in another part of the city, one falling on the roof of St Michael at Pleas Church, but the fire was extinguished before any serious damage was done. There were several casualties, three of which were fatal.

7th May, 1941. During the night bombs were dropped on the Larkman Lane Estate killing a Mr and Mrs Britcher and three of their six children. The other three had to be taken to hospital. Although many other houses were damaged only one other person was detained in hospital. A newly erected school on this estate and a Mission Church also suffered.

10th May, 1941. At about 2.30 a.m. five bombs were dropped in a line in the Cecil Road area; there were no serious casualties. A flat in Lady Betty Road was demolished by a direct hit, and houses in Cecil Road were damaged by a bomb which fell near the A.R.P. post at the junction with Grove Walk. Another fell at the rear of the house of Mr Clifford White (Sheriff 1941-42).

Furniture in every one of the eleven rooms was twisted and broken but in spite of this nobody was killed and only three people required hospital treatment. The panelling from one of the upper rooms of this house (which dated from the early 17th century) had for a number of years been preserved in the Keep of the Castle Museum. During the same incident several semidetached houses on the nearby Long John Hill also sustained considerable damage.

30th July, 1941. A stick of bombs was dropped near Marl Pit Lane, Dereham Road during the early hours of the morning. Apart from the uprooting of a tree no material damage was done.

8th August, 1941. Late at night eight bombs were dropped near Church Farm, Eaton, but failed to explode.

From this date until the heavy raid on the city of the 27th April, 1942, Norwich enjoyed a period of quiescence; a good many air raid warnings were sounded throughout this time but no incidents of note occurred.

Bombed by enemy aircraft on some twenty-seven occasions during the period dealt with above, Norwich suffered hardly any damage throughout that time in-so-far as its antiquities were concerned. The majority of the raids were carried out by single enemy aircraft - those that came during daylight hours approaching the city under cover of heavy cloud. The brunt of these attacks was borne by houses and shops.

Equally vicious raids were being carried out at the same time upon such towns as Exeter, Bath, Canterbury and York, which, like Norwich, could hardly be counted as military objectives. Indeed it appears that they were deliberately selected from the famous Baedeker Guidebooks in which they were starred as cultural centres containing many places of historic and archaeological importance, and bombed as a direct response to Britain's bombing of the historic German city of Luebeck on March 28.

27th April, 1942 (at night). Considerable and widespread damage was done in various districts, mainly in working-class and residential areas, during a raid which lasted for well over an hour and which commenced with the release of many flares over the town. Anti- aircraft fire was not particularly heavy but this was apparently due to the pressure of R.A.F. night fighters whose machine-guns were heard.

Tracer bullets were also seen. Several hundreds of small houses, new and old, were more or less heavily damaged, but as the raiders concentrated more upon the residential areas rather than the city proper, the majority of the famous old buildings of Norwich escaped serious damage.

From the heavily attacked areas many made their way at the height of the raid for shelters on the outskirts of the city. With bombs screaming down on all sides, firemen worked feverishly to control the conflagrations. Five units from neighbouring towns assisted the Norwich Fire Service. One of the worst hit areas was that of Heigham Street, the Westwick Depot (above) being one of the many buildings in that district which were reduced to a mass of rubble. The firewatchers there were killed.

The former Orchard Tavern (right) was also destroyed.

The upper floors of the Grapes Hotel (left), a late Georgian house by St Giles’ Gate, were gutted.

But it is useless to record odd incidents - a page could be filled merely by listing the names of the places which were either destroyed or damaged in varying degrees. In all parts of the areas attacked the scene was the same on the following day - houses and shops demolished or severely damaged, and the streets deep in broken glass, tiles and masonry.

29th April, 1942 (at night). Norwich was still in the first stage of its efforts towards restoring some sort of order after the sharp attack made by the enemy during the night of the 27th when on the Wednesday it was again the target for a reprisal raid.

This time the people were ready for it, and practically every family went under cover. Anderson, Morrison and street shelters must have saved the lives of hundreds of the inhabitants of working and middle-class houses during the re-enactment of Monday night’s scenes in different parts of the city. Incendiaries caused much of the damage - one of the largest areas affected in this manner incorporating Curls’ department store at Orford Place, and both sides of Rampant Horse Street (right) as far as but not including St Stephen’s Church.

A warm tribute was paid to the Norwich people for the way in which they stood up to their grim ordeal, and to the Civil Defence Services, the Town Clerk and his department, the Chief Constable, the Fire Service, and all auxiliary services, by Messrs.Shakespeare and Strauss, the city’s Members of Parliament, who also expressed admiration for the way in which the matrons of the various hospitals had evacuated patients to the basements.

During this, the second heavy attack on Norwich, it was estimated that 45 tons of bombs were dropped, including 112 high explosives and numerous incendiaries. The death-roll amounted to 69 and there were 89 seriously injured. Public funerals of many of the victims of both raids took place at the Norwich Cemetery on the 4th, 5th and 7th of May. The Bishop of Norwich, the Dean, the Lord Mayor and other notabilities attended the first of these ceremonies, and the address was given by Dr Gilbert Laws of St Mary’s Baptist Church.

1st May, 1942. In the early hours of the morning many incendiaries were dropped, chiefly in Heigham Street, Duke Street and St Andrew’s Street.

9th May, 1942. Enemy raiders who were over Eastern England during the early hours of the morning scattered their bombs over a wide area, many being dropped at the village of Stoke Holy Cross about three miles south of Norwich, although one was also dropped upon the boiler house of the Norwich Public Assistance Institution, injuring nobody. The aircraft were cruising in the vicinity for a considerable period, and were obviously harassed by the heavy anti-aircraft barrage. Two were eventually destroyed. One in East Anglia and the other near its base in Holland.

Four wards of the Norfolk and Norwich Hospital, the main operating theatre, the Leicester Nurses’ Home, as well as two smaller residences occupied by the staff, formed one of the major conflagrations, whilst not far off the large stores of Bonds of All Saints Green and Ber Street, together with the Thatched Assembly Rooms (right) suffering a similar fate.

Archaeologically, Norwich lost more in this than in any previous raid. Ecclesiastical buildings which suffered were the church of St Michael at Thorn in Ber Street, and of St Paul’s, both of which were burned out.

St Julian’s Church in King Street (left) had almost everything excepting its north wall and porch completely annihilated by a high explosive bomb.

Other buildings attacked and burnt included 20 Timberhill formerly the Star and Crown PH. 70 and Kett's at 72 St Giles Street (below) were similarly lost; as was Heigham Grove House, the City Maternity Home just beyond St Giles’ Gate on the south side of Earlham Road.

Although a considerable part of Morgan’s brewery in King Street was badly damaged, their offices in the 17th century Howard House came through almost unscathed.

One of the three raiders destroyed was a JU 88, shot down by a D.F.C.Squadron Leader flying a Spitfire; the JU was sighted by the pilot ten miles off the coast. Both aircraft opened fire but the German soon abandoned the fight for evasive tactics. Five quick attacks were made by the Squadron Leader with cannon and machine-gun fire and after the third burst the JU 88, with pieces falling from it, dived towards the sea. Suddenly it began to climb again, so the Spitfire pilot, closing to one hundred yards, fired two more bursts. There was a blinding flash and the JU went straight into the sea.

Nearby, the lecture hall of the Independent Labour Party’s premises at St Gregory’s Alley was badly damaged and the sleeping quarters of the brewer at Bullards in Coslany Street were destroyed. In the same raid a plane believed to be a fighter-bomber released its missile so that it fell in the back garden of a house in Rowington Road.

Some of the houses whose doors and windows were shattered by the blast had been similarly damaged on three previous occasions. A wooden building used by Boy Scouts was demolished and the debris from it, together with a big shower of earth and stones from the very large crater, was scattered over a wide area. Most of the residents took shelter and there were no casualties.

2nd August, 1942. A small number of enemy raiders made another attack on Norwich early in the morning and showered incendiary bombs as well as a few high explosives during the course of a short sharp raid. Several fires were started, mainly in business premises, and there were five fatal casualties. Trevor Page, the house furnishers, had their premises in St John Maddermarket as well as on one side of Exchange Street largely destroyed by fire, and in the same block Back’s wine shop (Exchange Street) and Frost’s tool shop (Lobster Lane) (right) were also involved. In St George Street the upper part of the rear of the extensive premises of Gunton Sons and Dyball, ironmongers was fired, and here a caretaker was trapped in a lift and subsequently died.

Another boot and shoe factory in a different part of the city which was also burned out was Hurrell’s of 96 to 100 Magdalen Street (left). Their offices were housed in a fine old Georgian mansion, the front of which had been modernised early in the 20th century. The residential district of Napier Street, which had already suffered badly in the April raids, was hit once again by a number of high explosives, and several families were rendered homeless.

13th August, 1942. A small number of enemy aircraft unloaded their bombs on the city during the night, causing only slight damage and no casualties. The raiders, which first dropped flares, were harried by fighters and subjected to heavy fire from ground defences.

A number of high explosive bombs which fell in a working-class district caused damage to Mousehold Avenue Infants School as well as to some houses nearby, but many fire bombs which also dropped in the vicinity of houses on the outskirts of the town burned themselves out harmlessly in fields and gardens.

The whole incident was over in a matter of seconds. Among buildings hit were the engine room of Frazer’s Joinery Works at St Martin at Palace Plain, and Batson and Webster’s factory at Fishergate (where were most of the casualties). The remainder of the stick fell in a back garden at the rear of Boots the chemists in Magdalen Street (close by the Old Meeting House) and in the centre of an old house – 3, Calvert Street (right) - which had been gutted by fire in a former raid.

Ancient dwellings on the opposite side of Calvert street (below) were also considerably shaken.

On the 12th October, 1942, His Majesty the King paid a surprise visit to the city in order to see at first hand the extent to which Norwich had suffered during air raids, and to inspect members of the Civil Defence Services who had done commendable work during and after the attacks. Several hundreds of men, women and boys, representing a score of branches of the Civil Defence Services, paraded outside the City Hall. So well had the secret of the visit been kept however, that few of them were aware that it was the King himself who was to make the inspection. During a 25 mile tour of the city His Majesty visited the Norfolk and Norwich Hospital, the Cathedral and the Services’ Club. Accompanied by the Lord Mayor (Mr J.H.Barnes) he motored through no fewer than forty-eight different streets including some in which extensive damage had been caused to residential property by the raiders.

19th October, 1942. At about 11 a.m. another raider dropped some bombs on the city and certain damage to property was caused. There was also one slight casualty. One of the bombs which fell in the Jenny Lind Children’s Playground, Pottergate, demolished the end and part of the roof of the small building used by the Seventh Day Adventists. The shell of St Mary’s Baptist Sunday Schoolrooms, burnt out some months ago in a previous raid, was hit, as was the building in Westwick Street adjoining St Lawrence’s Church to the west, used by Edwards and Holmes as a shoe factory since the April raids when their works on Drayton Road had been destroyed. The adjacent church of St Margaret had its windows shattered and was otherwise shaken by this bomb.

3rd November, 1942. At about 8 a.m. a raider flew over Norwich and opened up with its machine-gun. Bombs (all of which failed to explode) were dropped in the Cattlemarket, All Saints Green and at the Surrey Street ‘Bus Station.

5th December, 1942. Enemy aircraft flew over Norwich at about 1 p.m. taking advantage of the cover of low cloud. Anti-aircraft defences and fighters went into action. A few bombs were dropped by the Heartsease Inn but no damage was done.

1st January, 1943. During the afternoon an enemy raider dropped a stick of bombs on North Heigham, a congested area of small houses in Norwich which had suffered in previous raids. Two houses collapsed and one was partly wrecked by blast, but there were no casualties as the inhabitants had all managed to reach their shelters before the bombs fell. Another bomb tore a hole in the south wall of St Barnabas Church, a building erected early in the 20th century. The fine east window lost several panes of glass and the roof was damaged. The church schoolroom and a number of houses nearby also suffered from blast. Other bombs which were dropped on the outskirts of the town did little damage and hurt nobody.

The worst incident was undoubtedly in St Andrew’s Street (seen to the left in this 1937 westerly view from the cathedral spire) where the large clothing factory and warehouse of F.W.Harmer was burned to the ground - a fate which might have been shared by the new Telephone Exchange opposite had not its windows been bricked up some time previously as a precaution. Three persons had to be admitted to hospital, one of them seriously hurt. Two houses on an out-lying estate suffered from a direct hit by a bomb of the canister type, which caused a fire, and there was similar damage in other parts of the town - to a doctor’s residence and a public house. A pilot of a squadron which had shot down at least thirty-six Nazi aircraft and damaged many others was responsible for the destruction in ten minutes of two of the three enemy machines which were brought down during the course of this raid.

7th October, 1943. In a small raid which took place during the evening some high explosive bombs were dropped which caused slight damage to the railway.

6th November, 1943. A small raid was carried out on Norwich by enemy aircraft between half past ten and midnight. Firebombs were dropped in the Unthank Road district causing one or two outbreaks which were soon brought under control. Another bomb fell in Morse’s the rose-growers grounds on Bluebell Road. One man who was slightly injured constituted the only casualty.

22nd April, 1944. At about 10.15 p.m. a number of enemy planes followed allied aircraft back to their bases near Norwich. No bombs were reported to have been dropped but one of our planes was shot down in flames, crashing near Eaton Road on Daniels’ Nursery Gardens.

8th September, 1944. Further evacuees arrived in Norwich.

September and October 1944. During these two months the rocket-bombs fell in Norfolk. Although one or two fell very close to Norwich (notably on the golf course at Lower Hellesdon) none fell within the city boundary. Statistics in regard to this type of weapon (as far as the county was concerned) show that four were the most to fall in any one day, and the worst incident caused was at Rockland St Mary where twenty-one children and a woman were injured.

24th November, 1944. Whilst returning to its base in difficulties, an American plane flew low over the city during the afternoon. Its wing-tip struck the tower of St Philip’s Church in Heigham Road (left) causing slight structural damage to the building but sufficiently upsetting the craft to cause it to crash. As his last act the pilot managed to manoeuvre the machine so that it avoided a row of houses in Heigham Street and landed instead on some vacant ground near the railway. All the crew were killed. A bronze plaque to commemorate their gallantry was affixed to the houses so nearly destroyed and was unveiled by General E.C.Kiel, Commanding General of the 8th Fighter Command, U.S.A. Air Force in November 1945.

The Norwich air-raid casualty list amounted to 340 killed and 1,092 seriously injured. A total of 681 high explosive bombs were dropped within the city boundary during the war.

Information concerning the amount of repair work which was necessitated by these raids was contained in a detailed report made by the City Engineer to the Housing Committee of the Corporation and the following summary appeared in the Norfolk News dated January 6th, 1945:

“Materials were supplied by the Corporation through central stores which operated for some time from sheds and other temporary buildings set up at the Barker Street Depot. For distribution purposes sub-stores were set up in houses in various parts of the city and were staffed by workmen who carried out their task with considerable success. At one time over 160 contractors were operating in the city and under the terms of the contract had to be paid weekly.

“The total cost of the work occasioned by all raids during April 1942 and since was approximately £1,060,000 of which £280,000 was for materials and haulage. Other work, such as repairs to roads and sewers, was carried out by the City Engineer’s department as well as over 2000 removals of furniture, whilst 850 loads of furniture were stored.

“Industrial Establishments, offices and business premises and public buildings - Totally destroyed 80; not repairable 129; badly damaged but repairable 258; moderate damage 508; total 975.

”First-aid repairs were carried out to 29,398 houses, this figure including 3511 houses damaged a second time, and 144 damaged a third time. More substantial repairs were carried out to 24,811 houses. Of the 2697 badly damaged houses the local authority has repaired 2326 and 228 have been or are being repaired privately.

“Repairs were done to 23,450 ceilings, 2300 chimney stacks and 19,850 doors and window frames. Glass used to repair windows totalled 610,000 superficial feet.”

Photos: post-war reconstruction of Orford Place
Curls (Debenhams) Department Store, 1953-55