There are a few holes holes in our understanding of the Air Raid story. Probably the deepest lies in the identification of the aircraft which bombed the shelter. What type of plane was it? Where did it fly from? Was it part of a wider operation that night? Can we actually identify the exact plane and crew?
The North East Diary 1939-1945 shows that on 3/4 May 1941 at 23.30, 7 bombs were dropped on a variety of locations in rural Northumberland and at 00.10 (10 minutes after Wilkinsons was hit) 2 HE bombs were dropped on Gateshead and further HE bombs on Lynemouth.
When the site was first researched in 2000 we contacted local Luftwaffe expert and author Bill Norman who (taking on board eye-witness accounts that it was a lone aircraft) suggested it may have been a nuisance raider and most likely to have been a Junkers Ju88 bomber. In the absence of Luftwaffe records Bill’s opinion is more than likely correct, however given the sporadic activity listed above perhaps there was a small planned operation involving several aircraft?
We wondered in the intervening years whether or not further information had come to light to help answer some of the questions above.
To get the ball rolling we posted an information request on the excellent 12 O’Clock High! – Luftwaffe and Allied Air Forces Discussion Forum.
You can follow the debate here
http://forum.12oclockhigh.net/showthread.php?t=44266
Of course if you have any information or have links to experts who can help, please let us know at info@northshields173.org
image: Bundesarchiv, Bild 101I-363-2258-11 / Rompel / CC-BY-SA 3.0 [CC BY-SA 3.0 de], via Wikimedia Commons
