OLD TRAFFORD BOMBED

On March 11, 1941, MANCHESTER UNITED'S home ground of Old Trafford was badly damaged during Nazi Germany's brutal bombing campaign on the UK during World War 2. The Manchester Blitz still remains one of the most sobering memories of the war, with the German Luftwaffe’s reign of terror, lasting for months on end. Ordered by Adolf Hitler, the German bombardment of the English industrial city killed an estimated 684 people almost half of those killed in,  Manchester during the war and injured more than 2,000. 

The Old Trafford Stadium was hit by a bomb that was aimed at the industrial complex of Trafford Park. Seats were wiped out and the main roof collapsed. Another photo shows the entire concourse obliterated, the roof caved in and windows smashed. The stadium was not rebuilt until after the war, reopening in 1949, so United played at Manchester City's Maine Road stadium until then. 

Among the buildings hit in the heart of the city were Manchester's Free Trade Hall, the Royal Exchange, Smithfield Market, Chetham’s Hospital, the Gaiety Theatre and St Ann's Church. Local Manchester lad, Robert John Alexander, was only a teenager when he witnessed the attacks on Trafford Park in 1940, but his memories are relived in the Imperial War Museum’s sound archives. He said: “We all had shelters, ours was built in the backyard, about two by six foot and an escape part of it three-foot square tapered to the outside so you could push it out, if you were buried in.  We had a paraffin stove and lamp, tea and blankets, flasks of tea and coffee ready, sandwiches and blankets and that’s where we were on the first night of the Manchester Blitz. “It was the first time the Blitz was made of incendiaries, you’d never seen fires like it.” Detailing the devastation, Mr Alexander continued: “The firefighters and locals were not trained to fight fires like that, and they’d never seen anything like it.  During the night, an incendiary fell on our house. It burnt itself out in the backyard, we doused it out with the sand. “Everyone had to have a bucket of sand in their house for this very reason." Mr Alexander revealed how the fires raged on overnight. "The first night we reckoned was the firebomb night when everything was burning."  The first match at the "repaired Old Trafford stadium" was played on August 245 1949 with a 3-0 "Derby" victory over Bolton Wanderers.