GERMAN bombers rained down death and destruction on East Lancashire during the Battle of Britain, which began 70 years ago this week.

16 people were killed during bombing raids on our area by Hitler’s feared Luftwaffe squadrons.

The familiar sound of air-raid sirens could be heard across the area as towns and villages were hit as bombers targeted nearby major cities, such as Manchester and Liverpool.

Peter Dawson, 82, of Rostle Top Road, Earby, had been to the local cinema with his friend when they heard a dull thudding sound.

He said: “We were walking home and suddenly we heard about five of them.

“We didn’t know what they were.

“The next day we went to see what had happened and there was a huge crater in the middle of the road.

“There was a hell of a commotion. All the military and Home Guard were there.

"We used to go to the top of the hill and see the glow of Manchester on fire,” he added.

Bombs brought carnage to Crown Street, in Darwen, on Monday, October 21, 1940.

Three bombs fell behind a house, killing six people immediately and demolishing houses in Crown Street and Holme Street. The seventh victim died later.

In Chatburn, three people died and five were taken to hospital in another devastating attack on October 30, 1940.

And three people were killed when a bomb landed on a house in Fielding Terrace, Altham West, in June 1940.

A ‘screaming’ bomb was dropped on Blackburn, on August 30, 1940.

It smashed into a house in Bennington Street, but the occupants were unhurt.

The 67-year-old woman, whose husband slept through the explosion, jokingly counted her lost dentures as a war casualty.

However, the next day a whistling bomb hit Ainsworth Street, in the middle of the town, where the last trams and buses were being drawn up.

The driver of one tram died from shock, and the conductor died almost three weeks later from his injuries.

The RAF clinched victory over the Nazi flyers by the middle of 1941, but it was not without the loss of more casualties, who will never be forgotten.

Click on the link below for a map of all the bombs dropped on East Lancashire during World War II, with details of the damage caused.