Was John Lennon born during an air raid?
By Rod Davis, a member of
John's original Quarrymen.
I
have frequently read in books about John Lennon that he was born in the Oxford
Street Maternity Hospital in Liverpool on 9 October 1940 at around 6.30pm during
a heavy air raid - a detail which
is sometimes attributed to John's Aunt Mimi. I have long wished to check this
out as during our appearances as the Quarrymen we occasionally find ourselves
debunking Lennon myths and trying to propagate a version of events which is
usually less colourful but more accurate.
Liverpool
(and the rest of Merseyside), with its miles of docks and warehouses was a prime
target as a major port for transatlantic shipping
bringing supplies from the
USA and elsewhere. It was also a major centre of manufacturing, especially
shipbuilding and rubber and it also housed the Naval Headquarters for the
North-Western Approaches. The unmistakable outline of the Wirral peninsula
between the River Dee and the Mersey was an invaluable guide to the bomber
navigators. There are many photographs of the terrible wartime damage suffered
by Liverpool and St. Luke's Church in the city centre which was badly bombed,
has been left unrestored to this day as
a memorial. As a boy growing up in the city in the late forties and early
fifties I recall there were still huge bomb sites awaiting redevelopment.
Short
of the official records of bomb damage in Liverpool or records from the fighter
squadrons or the anti-aircraft defences of Merseyside, or even Luftwaffe data
which must surely have existed at some period and maybe still languish in some
forgotten filing cabinet, the most accessible source of
information concerning Merseyside is the "Liverpool Echo" -
Liverpool's evening newspaper, original copies of which are available for study
free of charge at the British Library's Newspaper Archive in Colindale in North
London not far from the Royal Air Force Museum.
Consequently
I decided to investigate copies of the "Echo" dating from early
October 1940 to see how the "Echo" reported on air raids, fully
believing that the hand of the wartime censor would have been at work so as to
prevent the German air force generals from learning of the effects of their
raids without having to risk reconnaissance aircraft to assess the damage.
I
drove to the Newspaper Archive on a Tuesday afternoon in September 2006 and I
was fortunate to find a free slot in the tiny car park and went inside to the
Registration desk. Having checked on the Internet before I left home I was
equipped with documentation to prove my identity in the shape of my passport and
the clerk soon issued me with a Reader's Ticket. I was directed to one of the
old wooden readers' desks equipped with a lectern to support the huge bound
volumes and I completed a Request Form for the Liverpool Echo of October 1940. I
was told that it would take about 45 minutes for the volume to be delivered to
my desk so I spent some time browsing around the books on the shelves and
enjoyed an unexpectedly good coffee from the vending machine.
On
returning to my desk the two-inch thick October-November volume was waiting for
me. I lifted it carefully on to the lectern and gingerly turned the yellowing
pages. The Echo was unusual in that the front page in those days did not carry
the main news but was covered in small advertisements for Theatres, cinemas,
concerts etc and the main headlines were on the back page.
As
I scanned the articles for details of bombing raids the following caught my eye
on page 3 of the Tuesday 1 October
edition:
"A
Useful hint from a BBC talk" with the intention of deadening the noise of
falling bombs found quoted in an advertisement for Vaseline:
"Both
my wife and I have found it very helpful to damp down noise by putting cotton
wool in our ears… some people find it a good thing to smear some Vaseline on
it."
I
smiled to myself at the ludicrous mental image of people with cotton wool in
their ears to help them to sleep with bombs exploding all around them but I was
quickly sobered up when I read the following on page 4:
"A
person who is buying his house through a building society must continue to pay
his installments even though his house is destroyed." The article went on
to urge the government to step in and improve the situation. Bad enough to
struggle pay a mortgage in wartime, but to have to continue to pay it after your
house has been destroyed……..
However
on page 6 I found what I was looking for in the shape of an interview with a
local Anti-Aircraft Commander which ran:
"The
Commander revealed that last night enemy raiders made a determined attack
immediately after dusk of Merseyside but they turned tail before the defences
and went back without reaching their objectives, many bombs dropping into the
sea……"
"During
the night two did get through…….however the raiders last night did no
serious damage….."
"It
is true… that during the last six weeks when Merseyside has been attacked in
earnest, anti-aircraft fire has been able to keep away from vital areas
approximately 60 per cent of the raiders. This of course has resulted in a large
number of bombs being dropped in outlying districts……"
It
seemed as though perhaps the official line was to report the raids but to play
down the damage caused. Not to report them at all would certainly have destroyed
the Echo's credibility with the cynical Liverpudlians, who could see the
evidence of the raids with their own eyes. We can also note that Merseyside is
mentioned by name.
The Wed 2 October edition also refuses to be more specific about the
target areas, talking about "the Coroner of a North-west Port" and
"air raids over a North-west area….", followed by "What
is believed to be a lone raider caused casualties, some fatal, when high
explosive bombs were dropped in the middle of the shopping and cinema area of an
industrial town in the Merseyside area last night."
Whether
these references are to Liverpool or some other port is of course impossible to
determine although other reports mentioning Liverpool specifically might suggest
that Liverpool was not the "North-west port" referred to here.
However
by Tuesday 8 October the "Echo" starts to name names:
Page
6: "Liverpool had another air raid this morning when enemy aeroplane
engines were heard overhead. Defending fighters were heard roaring after the
raiders and apparently they succeeded in chasing them off. No bombs were
dropped."
The
edition of Wednesday 9 Oct leaves no
doubt as to the location, which adds credibility to the idea that the censor is
not wielding his red pencil too wildly and that the Echo is reporting incidents,
or at least locations, with a certain degree of accuracy even though an article
about the shooting down of an enemy aircraft is more likely to raise morale than
one about serious destruction
wrought by the raiders.
Headline:
"Nazi shot down on
Merseyside after fight over river - 11 minutes of thrills."
"The
enemy plane brought down by fighter aircraft in the Merseyside area yesterday
afternoon was a Junkers 88 which appeared suddenly out of the clouds near
Liverpool and was met by bursts from anti-aircraft guns in an industrial
area."
The article goes on to explain how one British and two Czech pilots shot down the plane, which crashed near Eastham locks on the Manchester Ship Canal.
No conjecture is offered as to why this aircraft appeared over Liverpool all on its own in the afternoon, a suicidal error as it turned out.
On the back page there is a photo of the aircraft with the caption:
"You can see this soon,
Merseyside raider shot down yesterday afternoon."
"The plane is to be placed on public view in Liverpool next week in connection with the War Weapons drive for £10,000,000. This will be in addition to the Messerschmitt to be shown on the St. George's Hall Plateau."
On page 5 there is a column entitled "The night's raids" which reports:
"The Air Ministry and Ministry of Home Security stated this morning:
Late
yesterday evening enemy aircraft made attacks on several towns in the South and
South-west of England……."
"London and "Essex" were mentioned in the statement, there was damage to a "London Hospital", the "Headmaster's house at a famous public school in the Home counties was demolished. None of the boys was injured."
" Between 40 - 50 incendiary bombs were scattered on a hillside in Mid-Wales last night. They did no damage."
"On the outskirts of a North-west town last night a high explosive bomb was dropped between a works canteen and a warehouse without injuring anyone. Very little damage was done to property and all workmen were back at work this morning."
Then I turned to the edition for Thursday 10 Nov in which I would have expected from the Echo reports I had already read, to find details of raids on Merseyside which had happened in the previous 24 hours, the day on which John Lennon was born.
This edition contains almost two full columns concerning bombing activities, half of which was devoted to British raids on German, especially Krupps armament factories. The rest was about German bombing in the UK. There was no mention of Liverpool or Merseyside by name, just one incident "in a North-west town". However 40 London districts were mentioned as having been bombed.
An official German communiqué also dealing with events on Wed 9 October was quoted as saying:
"From dawn to dusk reprisal attacks by light and heavy bomber planes were carried out in endless succession against the British capital…..The heaviest damage was to docks in the Thames loop….."
So
it would appear that according to both the Echo and the German communiqué that
there was no air raid activity over Liverpool on Wed 9 October, the day John was
born - only one incident "in a
North-west town". In view of the Echo's apparent willingness to name
Liverpool when the city is actually attacked, it seems likely that this incident
took place elsewhere.
The Echo of Thursday 10 October continues with the story of the German Junkers 88 bomber which was shot down on the afternoon of Tuesday 8 October under the following headline:
Captured Nazi flyer a
Merseyside "Regular"
"At least one of the German airmen shot down at Bromborough on Tuesday afternoon was, it can now be revealed, a regular visitor to Merseyside and was making his fifth bombing journey here……."
In
the Echo of Thursday 10 October there is no specific reference to a bombing raid
in Liverpool on Wednesday October 9th - the day John was born. There were
however raids on Thursday 10th which were reported in the Echo of
Friday 11 October on page 8 under the headline:
"Raiders split up by Mersey defences - only a few got through"
"The raiders came in waves and it is estimated that altogether thirty or forty were engaged in the attack during the night."
And on Page 3:
"Escapes in Liverpool
raids - Many bombs; few casualties"
"Two hospitals, a convent, a home for elderly people and a cinema all narrowly escaped serious damage when enemy raiders were over Merseyside last night and this morning."
Maybe here propaganda rears its ugly head in this possible example of selective reporting in an attempt to arouse the indignation of readers against the German bombers who seemed to be targeting only the innocent and the helpless.
There
then follows a whole column of details of escapes, naming those who were
involved but avoiding mentioning in which district of Liverpool they lived.
The edition of Sat October 12 continues to report the action:
"North Wales gets
thrilling air spectacle - Liverpool incidents"
The article tells how 3 German Dornier bombers were shot down. There are two columns of details of local raids on the night of 11/12 October.
And on page 3 in the "Births Column" of the Sat October 12 edition was the following entry:
Lennon - October 9th,
in hospital to Julia (née Stanley) wife of ALFRED LENNON, Merchant Navy (at
sea) a son. 9 Newcastle Road
It obviously took a couple of days for someone, maybe Mimi, to get to an Echo office or a newsagents to place the advertisement.
Conclusion:
Assuming the reporting of
the Liverpool Echo is accurate and the way in which they reported raids and
incidents which did take place, an absence of such reports for Wed 9 October
leads me to the conclusion that John was NOT actually born in an air raid. There
is, of course, no doubt whatsoever that Liverpool was suffering a spate of air
raids at the time, witness the "30 or 40 aircraft" reported by the
Echo as having attacked the city on Thursday 10th October.
© Rod Davis, Sep 2006