THE widely held belief that Worcester suffered only one significant German bombing raid during the Second World War has now been discounted by the surprise revelations of a Worcester News reader – 71 years on.

The seven deaths and devastation to nearby housing inflicted by the 500lb bombs dropped on the Meco factory in Bromyard Road on October 3, 1940, have been fully documented down the years.

But now comes dramatic photographic evidence that another significant, if less deadly, bombing raid also left its mark on Worcester in the same year.

A lone German aircraft aimed its bombs towards the major railway marshalling yards at Shrub Hill – but instead they struck a large house in Highland Road at Rainbow Hill and left craters in the nearby recreation grounds at Brickfields.

It is thanks to Philip Williams, of Kings End Road, Powick, near Worcester, that we are now able to reveal the untold story of this other enemy attack as he has provided evidence of the raid – a photograph of the bomb-devastated detached house at 5 Highland Road.

He was a boy of three at the time, living with his parents Harold and Dorothy Williams next door at 3 Highland Road.

Mr Williams said: “Alas, I can’t remember anything of the actual event, certainly not the explosion, only sitting on our stairs and seeing my parents open our front door to the suddenly homeless family from No 5. They were given shelter by us for a few days until they were re-housed.

“Unfortunately, I have no recollection of their surname and I think they were tenants at No 5.”

Mr Williams believes it was an isolated bombing raid aimed at the strategic Shrub Hill marshalling yards, which were then extensive and heavily used – but clearly the bombs strayed wide of their target.

He said: “My older brother Peter remembers seeing two bomb craters in the nearby King George V Playing Fields afterwards so we are convinced there must have been at least three bombs dropped.

“The raid was in the late summer or early autumn of 1940, perhaps around the time of the Coventry blitz.

“The photograph of 5 Highland Road in a wrecked state has been in our family as long as I can remember and was probably taken by my father. When you look at the scene it’s quite remarkable that no one was killed or injured.

“We had a few tiles blown off our own roof and I could see the telltale signs of the repair job for years afterwards.

“The destroyed property at No 5 was pulled down by the city council not long after the raid, and my father rented the cleared land from the owner for several years, keeping chickens, growing vegetables and picking fruit from the mature orchard trees. New housing was built on the site in the mid-1950s.”

Mr Williams originally e-mailed your Worcester News to ask if we had any record of the Highland Road bombing in our archives but we did not and had believed until then that the Meco raid was the only significant Second World War enemy attack on the city.

He has searched in vain for newspaper reports of the Highland Road bombing and believes it may have been official policy at the time not to cause public alarm by press reports.

Mr Williams’ father Harold was in the Worcester City Police Force – PC 24 – from 1925 until about 1952.

“I have two wartime recollections of my father. One was of him hurriedly packing a case to join other police converging on Coventry after the blitz,” he said.

“I particularly remember that he did not take his familiar steelpointed city police helmet, but put on a flat hat issued specially for use dealing with the aftermath of bombings. We could see the orange glow from Coventry in the sky on the horizon from the highpoint of our home at Rainbow Hill.

“The other memory is that my father, as with the rest of the city constabulary, had to report for duty whenever the air-raid siren – perched on top of the Worcester Cathedral tower – sounded.

“However, my father complained to his chiefs that he could not always hear the cathedral siren so one was specially erected at Rainbow Hill close to our home. I’m sure the neighbours must have blessed him for that!

“Another memory is of being out with my mother when we saw a German plane flying over and firing its machine guns at the Perdiswell Airfield.

“I was about four at the time and most upset at being rushed inside for safety.”

Harold and Dorothy Williams retired to Upton-upon-Severn from Highland Road in 1964.

Philip Williams worked as a civil engineer in the water industry.