During World War Two, Swansea was subjected to a number of air raid attacks by the German Luftwaffe. The city was identified by the Nazis as a legitimate strategic target due to its importance as a port and docks. One of the more intense attacks was that of the Three Night’s Blitz, which took place eighty years’ ago between the 19th and 21st February 1941. During those three nights, approximately 230 people were killed and 397 injured.
Students and staff of the University College of Swansea (now Swansea University) were not far removed from the horrors of the air raids. Engineering Lecturer J.Selwyn Caswell worked as an Air Raid Precaution Warden during World War Two. In this clip, Caswell’s daughter Margaret describes the measures her father took to keep his family safe.
Swansea Market was one of the many buildings that suffered severe damage from the Blitz. Margaret describes a visit to the Market after the bombs had done their damage.
Students of the University College of Swansea refer to the Blitz in the Students’ Union newspaper DAWN
While DAWN ran from 1927 to 1968, this edition, published in May 1941, is the only Swansea University student newspaper from the War years to exist in the University’s archive collections.
DAWN often features poems, short stories and creative writing pieces written by past Swansea University students – including this piece from the May 1941 newspaper entitled ‘Air Raid’ by ‘J.H.’
Evidence of the devastation caused by the numerous air raids and that of the Three Night’s Blitz on Swansea could be seen for the many years that followed. In the following clips, English students Mary Morgan and David Painting describe the landscape of Swansea in 1947 and 1950.
Find out more about Swansea commemorations of the Blitz – including this film created by West Glamorgan Archive Service, which has used photographs of the Blitz from their archive collections.
References
Photographs
Courtesy of West Glamorgan Archive Service
Audio Clips
All interviews by Dr Sam Blaxland, Voices of Swansea University 1920-2020. © Swansea University
Margaret Jones (Ref: C0001/32)
Mary Morgan (Ref. C0001/15)
Dr David Painting (Ref. C0001/55)