Looked at your website with great interest especially the section about broadweir august 28th 1942,on that note i was wondering if anyone had anymore information such as survivors or where i can get hold of the video footage as my partners grandmother was according to information received by her a victim in this terrible raid...would love to hear from anyone who maybe able to help .... many thanks

I too would like ANY info on this event. One of my relations was killed in this bomobing...she was pregnant and on her way to anti-natal clinic. She left behind a husband and son.

I remember the raid on Broadweir. I was a pupil at St Judes School at the time and remember the teacher calling one of the children out of the class. His mother had been killed in the raid. I believe his name was Bird. There is a video you can buy on the Bristol raids. I am not sure if that particular raid is on it but I would imagine it would be as it was a significant event that covered a large part of Bristol.

August 28 1942

Of all the single acts of frightfulness recorded against the Luftwaffe on this city, perhaps the most dreadful of them all happened on this day. At 9.20 in the morning, when the city was going about its business, one horrible blow was struck, without warning. Flying at over 20,000 feet, a German fighter-bomber aimed a 500-lb. bomb at the heart of the city.

It struck Broad Weir near the junction of Philadelphia Street. exploded on impact, and caused dreadful damage. Worst of all, three buses loaded with passengers were set on fire instantaneously. Of those who lost their lives, many were women, but several children too were trapped in the blazing vehicles.

Despite their prompt arrival, the fire services could do little; by then the ‘buses were just twisted chassis. There was no time to give any warning, it all happened so suddenly. The casualties totalled 45 killed, 26 seriously wounded, and 30 with slight injuries. It was the biggest death-roll of any single incident. Damage was done to the thoroughfare, and to the 16th-century gabled building's of Taylor’s, the printers in Broad Weir. Amid this single tragedy, its horror and pathos long remembered, the stoicism of the Bristol people was typified by two of them - a man and a woman, The latter, 93 years of age, was found sitting in her kitchen quite unconcerned, with part of her little shop in ruins. All she wanted from her rescuers was a glass of water. And the man? His home was about to collapse at any moment, but he would insist on going back into it to collect his life’s savings.