‘Dreadful’ night when bodies lay everywhere in UK city street | UK | Travel

Teilo Crescent, an ordinary street in Mayhill residences in Swansea, has a destructive history. When examined more closely, some features that have a more modern appearance give clues to the tragic history of the street. Otherwise, this typical street was the environment of one of the most shocking events in Swansea’s history.

Only one night, more than 20 relatives, friends and neighboring people who lived on this small settlement lost their lives. These horrifying losses occurred during what is known as Blitz three nights, whose scars are still visible today.

Initially, Luftwaffe was thought to target Swansea’s port and ammunition plants, while the terrible reality was the burden of destruction of the city center and neighboring roads, Wales online.

During three nights, 230 people were killed and 397 people were injured between 19 and 21 February 1941. A look at Swansea’s wounded records of wounded times has repeatedly reveals the name Teilo Crescent.

Reflecting the horror of the conflict, the majority of the dead were 14 -year -old John Buckley and ordinary citizens to 65 -year -old Florence Kate Cratchley.

In total, 24 calm, plus six firefighters and civil defense workers, a terrible evening – Thursday, February 20, 1941 – died there.

In 2001, while talking to the South Wales Evening Post, 71 -year -old Barbara Griffiths, who celebrated the 65th anniversary of the attack, gave a touching statement of his own experience that night.

He said: “31 I lived with my parents at Teilo Crescent. It was a friendly place and we had a very happy time before the war.

“I was at Townhill Junior School, and the night before the raid was killed by a stray bomb that hit the end of Teilo Crescent. This Wednesday night was the first night that became Blitz.

“Thursday was a very cold day and I came home from school to discover that there was no water. It was very cold, everything was frozen.

“We jumped at 7 o’clock at 7 o’clock with Raid Siren, and my father dived into the Anderson shelter built by James Griffiths until half of the sloping garden. My mother and I was there, but my father insisted on going with some men who would fight the fires with what wasn’t frozen.

“We begged him not to go to him, but he told us to stay back in a short time. The bomber was coming to the wave after the wave. The noise was terrible. When the aircraft engines drone, when the bombs fell, he whistled and then the explosions.

“Most of the evenings were in the shelter for hours. The bombing never stopped. It looked like an explosion behind each other.”

“Half of them were blown into the street and half of them stretched to a pile of rubble. I was scared. We all had. As I ran, gathered together and semi -squat, I hurry the lane.

“When we went there, we were thrown into a great shelter of the Kenwood family. Miss Kenwood was great. He took all of us under his wings.”

He explained that the sad scenes that witnessed during those crazy escapes have been with him since then, especially the image of the father of the children who contained them.

“At the end of the road, we met with the father of the boys. There was a piece of skin that held his arm to his body. It was terrible.

“He did not believe he was neither he nor his wife Anderson. We learned later that he was killed.

“The Williams family, next to them, her husband, wife and daughter were killed. Teilo Crescent was like a battlefield. There were bodies everywhere – in fences and grooves.

“I’ve never seen anything like this. There were not many people moving on the street as we were on our way. There was no shout, there was no scream. It was strange.

“After all the hours of turmoil, he was strangely calm for a short time. While sitting in his shelter with Mrs. Kenwood, most people were asking them? Why did the Germans do this to us?

“Teilo Crescent,” What did we do to them? I kept wondering where my father was and I remembered the words ‘I will return soon’, but it wasn’t. He never came back.

“When we put us in the safety of our shelter, we never noticed that we saw it last or we would hear it.”

“In the light of the day, my mother went to look for her, but they had taken their bodies until then. I couldn’t find my father’s body for about 11 days. My cousin was the police husband who described my father’s body.

“There was too much exploded bombs because we haven’t been allowed to go back to the street for a long time. My mother and I went to stay with my father’s sister on the monastery street in Waun Wen. The next night, we were still shocked when the bombing planes came back.

“After that, my cousin sent me down to stay in Carmarthen for a few weeks. When I came back, I went to Waun Wen School. But the memories were fresh as usual in Teilo Crescent. It was like a battlefield. The whole street was doing such bombing things?”

“I still have two friends from my Teilo Hilal days. Joan and Olive Davies. His father was also killed. “

“When my mother told me that we were at the door of the Lewis Lewis store in High Street. I couldn’t cry because I thought people would look at me. Two years before I cried.

“We lived in Gower Road, Sketty, and my kitten consumed the house and had escaped. I cried and cried. Strangely, he helped me release all my pent up feelings.

In 2018, we chatted with Teilo Crescent resident Jolie Ivey, who once hosted the Voyzey family and lost their two sons in a tragic way. He explained: “When I first moved, I made a search and discovered something from the history of the house. Two died, really very sad. It was really interesting, but it was very humble.

“My grandmother was actually living in Teilo Crescent at the time, but she was one of the lucky ones. As far as I know, there’s no one who lost the family.”

“We are just your normal street and a great place to live. There are many families and we are all friends here. This is a great community.”

In an interview with Swansea historian Gerald GABB, Teilo Crescent has suffered tremendously in an interview: “The other streets in the town suffered very badly – the streets of goat, Fisher, Waterloo were almost destroyed.

“But thank God, in 1941, less than a time in the center lived, so they were mostly stores, offices and other business buildings.

“Elsewhere, people’s homes were absolutely shot, shot with the wounded – Mount Pleasant, St Thomas, Port Tennant, Hafod, Bonymaen, Llansamlet, Manselton, Brynhyfryd, Ffynone, Sketty and many other areas – but Teilo, I think the worst one.”