GORTON STREET GAZETTE A bomb exploded in Gilda Brook Road Eccles, killing 12 including a family with three children. Another hit a house in Monton Road, killing three children and a sailor home on leave. Power and telephone lines were cut leaving amateur crews of local residents using hand pumps to fight fires in the streets where they lived and attempt to recover the bodies of their neighbours. The injured were treated by candlelight. The second wave targeted the hundreds of fires ignited by the earlier attack and the bombing was relentless until dawn. At 6am Manchester Cathedral suffered a direct hit and at 6.30 am the all clear was eventually sounded. The attack continued the following night with bombs raining down on Firefighters who were still attending to burning buildings from the previous night’s raid. Trafford Park and the Docks were targeted with bombs falling across a wide area including Eccles New Road. Manchester Royal Eye Hospital and Salford Royal were both hit by and school boys worked in stretcher parties to evacuate the patients. In Hulme, the Manley Arms pub was obliterated killing 14 people attending a wedding party. Shortly after midnight on Christmas Eve, the all clear siren sounded. More than 31 acres within a mile of Albert Square lay in ruins. There would be few silent nights. In the months that followed both cricket and football grounds in Old Trafford would be wrecked by bombing raids. At Barton a parachute mine hit the roof of the Power Station but failed to explode. With a fierce fire raging metres away, Naval Lieutenant Denis James Patrick O’ Hagan rendered the mine safe by boiling out the explosive with steam from a railway locomotive, an act of ingenuity and bravery for which he was awarded the George Medal for gallantry and devotion to duty. O’Hagan was to undergo commando training and survived the D-Day invasion of Normandy to make it home to Canada. Remarkably, Barton Power Station and Eccles RFC both survived the war - as evidenced in this photograph taken in March 1947, a few months before the club moved to its new home at Gorton Street for the 1948 season. As we gather to celebrate Christmas this year let’s reflect on those who suffered and battled through the atrocities of a blitz 79 years ago so we might enjoy peace and our way of life today.
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