By PHILIP WALSH

I FEEL I should place on record for local historians, some of the events during the war in the area.
I did not keep a diary but the memories paint a vivid picture in my mind.
I am now aged 86 but the traumatic times we experienced are still crystal clear in my memory.
Prior to joining the RAF in February 1941 with my work pal Ken Leeming, I was employed at the Brockhouse Factory in Crossens as a metric driller, making steel washers for war employment. It was very hard and dirty work, doing 84 hours a week, with no days off for £3 a week.
This was at the height of the German blitz bombardment of the Liverpool and Bootle Docks costing the lives of 5,000 citizens in Liverpool and 1,800 in Bootle.
Britain stood against the Nazi might alone in those days.
Liverpool was our only remaining port in England handling all our supplies from America.
The Scouse dockers and their families were “the bravest of the brave”, keeping this vital link for our survival open in the Battle of the Atlantic.
I love the Scouse for preserving this lovely town of Southport. That is why I enjoy our union with Sefton. I should also like to pay tribute to the brave workers in the Brockhouse Factory at Crossens during the time of the blitz.
There were three lights in all departments of the factory to warn the workers to take shelter in the bunkers at the rear of the factory. But even when the light went red and with bombers overhead the workers never quit their jobs. Men and women carried on regardless of the danger with red lights flashing and sirens wailing.
Our luck held out until the middle of December, 1940. I think it was the eighth of the month. The red warning light went on, but on this occasion eight high explosive bombs landed, destroying the Hartwood Hosiery Factory adjoining Brockhouse.
This small building was utterly demolished and I do not know what happened to the fire watcher on those premises.
Two bombs exploded in the Brockhouse Factory causing the death of one young apprentice in the tool room. The other missile dropped on the paint shop, causing injury to a number of painters. It was a tragedy for the young lad and his parents but thank God there were no other casualties. In fact I consider it a miracle that hundreds of other workers survived without injury. Fire bombs exploded on the, then, open grassland at the rear of the factory. Fifty incendiary bombs dropped on Rufford Road, Crossens.
A delayed action bomb dropped on a newsagent’s shop, exploding two days later at the corner of The Crescent and Rufford Road.
I was lucky that night. I was saying goodnight to a girlfriend on Shakespeare Street.
When the bombs exploded the noise was terrific and the night sky turned red. We just clung to each other as the bombs fell with a screaming note of high pitch.
We were more than two miles away but it was a cold night and the sound appeared to be yards, rather than miles, away.
We were informed after the war in a casual report that 43 deaths were accounted for in Southport, with 197 injured.
No mention was even given of the brave Brockhouse workers who never quit their duties.

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