Eric Leaver on the Darwen air raid

AVIATION enthusiast Mr R Whittle, a pensioner, of Heaton, Bolton, asks when was the daylight air raid on Darwen during World War Two, how many were killed, was it the only time the town was attacked and is he right in believing that Blackburn was never bombed at all?

Looking Back has fired off the answers to him . . . that it was around 10.30am on October 21, 1940, when a Nazi plane dropped three bombs on Darwen town centre, flattening several houses in Crown Street and Holme Street and killing six people instantly. A seventh died from injuries five months later.

The attack came less than 48 hours after four bombs came down on Alice Street and Police Street and near Woodfold Mill and Hollins Paper Mill, damaging several houses, injuring one person and causing several minor casualties.

The Luftwaffe's final attack on Darwen came on October 26, 1940, when one bomb was dropped on the moors near Lord's Hall, doing no damage.

In all, there were 11 air raids on Blackburn and its surrounding area in 1940-41, starting on August 30, 1940, with the destruction of a house in Bennington Street and followed by the worst incident the next night when a bomb dropped on town-centre Ainsworth Street caused two deaths, injured another eight people and wrecked two shops.

But can readers answer Mr Whittle's final question: were any American troops stationed in Blackburn or Darwen during the war?

Certainly, many Yanks invaded Blackburn's pubs and the town's Tony's New Empress Ballroom but, apart from those from the American bomber base at Warton, near Preston, were any actually billeted in East Lancs and, if so, where?

Converted for the new archive on 14 July 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.