On the night of April 29th/30th.1941
the small mining village of Cwmparc was
devastated by the bombs of Hitler’s Luftwaffe,
an event that survivors of that night of
terror will never forget. The reason why this
small Rhondda settlement was targeted will
never be known, but some theories suggest that
possibly a bombing mission planned for Swansea
or Port Talbot had failed, causing the German
bombers to offload their bombs on their way
home. Whatever the reason for the raid the
result brought devastation and death to this
small close-knit mining community. Most of the
bombs fell on houses in Treharne Street and
Parc Road, and the resultant death toll was
twenty-seven men, women and children. One of
the most poignant aspects of the raid was the
death of three young evacuees from London. The
three, 13-year-old George Jameson, his
11-year-old brother Ernest, and his sister
Edith lived at 14 Treharne Street, had been
sent to Cwmparc as a place of safety in order
to avoid the dangers of the London Blitz.
Another victim was Ivor Wright, a member of
the local Home Guard. Ivor had seen a
parachute floating to the ground, and
believing it to be a German parachutist ran to
confront the ‘invader’, it was however a
German incendiary bomb dropped attached to a
parachute, which killed him instantly.
Cotemporary reports in the local paper, ‘The
Free Press and Rhondda Leader’, describe how
when the air raid warning first went off
residents expected a boring wait in the air
raid shelter until the all clear should sound.
Indeed many did not even leave for the
shelters as the sounding of the siren was a
common event and until that tragic evening had
heralded nothing more than an uncomfortable
period in an air raid shelter. This time
however it was different as the paper’s
correspondent describes,
‘…suddenly, with horrifying unexpectedness,
there was heard a clutter like the rattling of
a thousand machine guns in simultaneous
action. There were queer noises of objects
falling on the roof, and outside in the street
was a din of shouting . . . The scene was
one such as could only exist in the wildest
imagination. Incendiary bombs had been dropped
and more were still falling, blazing brightly
in their hundreds, and many little houses in
the main street were already in the incipient
stage of being afire’.
The writer goes on to describe the heroic
efforts of the emergency services in
extinguishing the incendiaries as they landed
and recovering the dead and injured from the
debris. However just as everything seemed to
be under control, ‘The air became frightful
with the drone of returning raiders, and the
first of two high explosive bombs fell’, these
bombs completely demolished two houses and
damaged extensively many others. Many of the
accounts describe the many acts of heroism and
bravery of the rescuers on that night, and in
the days following, tunnelling through
‘mountains’ of debris to reach those trapped
beneath.
Following the war in November 1948 a memorial
service was held outside the Cwmparc Library
and institute commemorate the sacrifice of the
27 victims of the raid. An illuminated two
faced clock and a plaque to those who had died
in the Second World War was unveiled by Colin
Harries a 14 year old schoolboy from Treharne
Street, who had been saved that night from a
bombed house.