May 3/4 1941 - Direct hit on air raid shelter kills 107. Aircraft info needed please.

[Peter Bolger]

Hi...hoping your collective expertise can help us piece together the events of May3/4 1941.

A single bomb from a lone German bomber scored a direct hit on a public air raid shelter in North Shields (near Newcastle upon Tyne). 107 people were killed -it was the worst air raid disaster in NE England during WWII.

The air raid alert was sounded at 11.12pm on Saturday May 3rd - the bombs (4 recorded) fell at midnight.

We're struggling to find info about the aircraft involved and how to go about finding out.

A single aircraft - nuisance raider?
Flying from where - France - Norway?
Which bomber unit would be most likely?
Heinkel He111 or Junkers 88?

Any help/pointers/ideas gratefully received.

For information about the air raid please visit: http://www.northshields173.org

thanks
P

[John Beaman]

Doesn't After The Battles The Blitz have this information?

[Peter Bolger]

Thanks John...I'll see if I can lay my hands on a copy...a bit expensive to buy.

[Larry deZeng]

Peter B. -

Volume 2 of the Blitz triology covers the night of 3/4 May 1941 on pages 579-84. Almost all of the coverage is on the Liverpool area and merely mentions in one sentence that Tyneside and Tynemouth received extensive damage and that a public shelter at Tynemouth took a direct hit with "some 76 casualties." That's all it says. The narrative states that 441 Luftwaffe bombers participated that night and the absence of detailed German records makes it impossible to identify which units bombed what. But a possibility might be I./KG 53 because one of its Heinkel 111s was shot down by a night fighter over Norfolk at 1:04 a.m., just an hour after bombs fell on Tynemouth. The Norfolk crash site makes sense for a unit assigned to bomb along the East coast as opposed to the West coast. Additionally, 3 of the crew of 4 were captured so there undoubtedly are British ADI(K) interrogation reports available at the British National Archives from this crew in which mention of their target almost certainly is made.

L.

[Chris Goss]

II/KG 1 operated against Hull that night.I/KG 53 was operating against Liverpool (as did all the others that came down on land that night)

[Larry deZeng]

Could we have a source on the II./KG 1 information? Is the source below wrong, or did II./KG 1 bomb Tynemouth as an alternate target, or did a couple of Ju 88s stray off course?

According to the source below,
II./KG 1
3.5.41: bombed Liverpool and Birkenhead with 17 Ju 88s night of 3/4 May.

Spohr (Hptm.) - “Kriegschronik des Kampfgeschwader 1 ‘Hindenburg’”, a 78-page manuscript c.late 1944/early 1945. Hptm. Spohr belonged to Geschw.Stab/KG 1 and used all KTBs and Anlagen. In: BA-MA Freiburg RL 10/529; NARA WashDC T-971 roll 50/f.965-1056; AFHRA Maxwell AFB Karlsruhe Collection K113.408-3.

[Chris Goss]

Luftflotte 3 Einzelmeldung but I will have a look to see exactly what it says

[Peter Bolger]

This is fantastic guys...much appreciated.
Eye witness reports of the disaster mention a single aircraft only. Is there any sense in a nuisance or opportunistic raider (the bombs map v close to known targets)?
Or is it more likely to be a stray or straggler en-route elsewhere.
Patience please with my lack of knowledge... So...flying from where with what as the target. And a Ju88? It would be incredible if the downed plane was responsible for the disaster.

[Chris Goss]

The 3 that were recorded as crashing on land had been or were going to attack Liverpool

[Peter Bolger]

Thanks Chris... So where does that leave us in your opinion re the Tynemouth bombing?
If an East coast raid originating from France with Hull as the main target then this plane seems way off?
Was Luftflotte 5 involved at all...a straggler plane from Norway makes more sense. Just musing there.