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Just before midnight the Luftwaffe arrived and scattered explosives and incendiaries across the city. There was considerable panic as 4,600 houses, the museum and Town Hall> were damaged. Casualty figures were often obscured in wartime to deny the Germans propaganda material but post-war records suggest 65 people were killed that night and 260 injured, 56 of them seriously. http://www.applied-technologies.co.uk/ljcc2002/cityofleeds.htm The worst raid was on 14 March 1941, when shortly before midnight high explosives and incendiaries were showered over the city. The telephone system was put out of action immediately, the waterworks and gas supplies were affected... some damage to the City Museum and the Town Hall, 4600 houses damaged (100 of them beyond repair) and 65 or 64 dead, 56 or 57 seriously [injured] and 202 or 203 slightly wounded. Owen A. Hartley, 'The Second World War and after' in Derek Fraser (ed), A History of Modern Leeds, P443 A bomb damaged the Town Hall (shortly before its clock struck midnight on 14 March 1941) and the City Museum. Those who passed the smouldering museum after the raid recalled a scattering of mounted butterflies from the collections. A dug-out boat that to life when Giggleswick Tarn was drained was blown into aqbout 45 pieces (later to be painstakingly reassembled for exhibition in a special case with art-work to evoke the original setting). W.R. Mitchell, A History of Leeds, P143 Newspaper Office hit, not clear which one. A chip shop on Burley Road was hit, and there were UXBs in Hanover Square. An air raid shelter outside the Market Hall was hit. Wellington Street was a major target: it had City [railway] Station, a goods yard & timber yard. A sweet shop on the street was hit. Quarry Hill Flats, which had a goods yard in front of it, were hit. A gas main nearby was severed & the heat from the explosion/fire caused stained glass in a nearby [which one] church to melt. The part of the Town Hall that was directly hit was the Judges Chambers. Documentary film, Leeds At War
What the Nazis claim - Leeds Named in Communique To-day's German High Command communique makes these claims:- ... Also in various important war works in Leeds the dropping of high explosive and incendiary bombs caused big fires. Yorkshire Evening Post, 15/03/41 Night Attack on N.E. Town Showers of Fire Bombs Newspaper Office Hit Great Work by Fire Squads Up to a late hour last night the raiders appeared to be concentrating their attack on two or three places, while nuisance raiders dropped their loads over a wide area. ... The offices of a Northern newspaper were hit by incendiary bombs. The staff carried on in the cellars with the preparation of the next day's issue. Yorkshire Post, 15/03/41 This Morning's Latest News: Night Attack on North-East Town One of the main hotels in the town received a direct hit from a high explosive bomb. Considerable damage was done to the top floor, but no one was seriously hurt. Early in the raid a high explosive hit the entrance to the emergency receiving department at a hospital. Some casualties were just being received when a bomb fell near. Doctors and nurses worked throughout the raid... Members of the hospital staff went out during the raid and rescued three men from a building in the vicinity. One of the men was blinded. Yorkshire Post, 15/03/41 |
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