Liverpool in the Blitz
Simon Jones describes ‘Spirit of the Blitz: Liverpool in the Second World War’, a new exhibition created by National Museums Liverpool which opens at the Merseyside Maritime Museum on July 10th.
That Liverpool even had a Blitz will come as a surprise to many. Yet what Churchill described as ‘the worst single incident of the war’ occurred during an air raid on the city in November 1940. An explosion from a parachute mine caused the collapse of a technical school in Durning Road, bursting the boilers, and killing 166 of the people packed into the basement shelter.
Liverpool was targeted by the Germans – and badly hit – because it was a port town. The city had become a lifeline to Britain during the Battle of the Atlantic and the convoys were controlled from an underground command centre beneath a 1930s office building. The food, fuel, weapons and troops that came in to Liverpool saved Britain and made possible the liberation of Europe.
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