Blog 295 – A WW2 Story: Why Cliff Joined the RAF, Part 1 – 4 July 2025

My purpose is to give hope to those who have lost hope. Without hope, we remain lost in the Shadow Lands.

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A panoramic view of bomb damage in Liverpool; Victoria Monument in foreground, the burned-out shell of the Custom House in middle distance

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Another panoramic view of the bomb damaged Liverpool, looking towards the River Mersey.

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The Liverpool Blitz started before Cliff joined the RAF.  The first bombing raids on Liverpool occurred on the 9th of August 1940.  German air raids then became a regular feature of life in Liverpool. Cliff joined the RAF on the 27th of September 1940.  There is an unmistakable connection between the bombing raids on Liverpool and Cliff’s RAF enlistment.

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Cliff’s younger brother Eric was aged just 9 when the Liverpool Blitz started.  He was a “runner” for the Air Raid Wardens.  He carried messages written by the Air Raid Wardens to whoever the messages were addressed to.  His job was to physically run to deliver the messages.  It was a very dangerous job because the Wardens were always trying to get help for people who had just been killed or wounded by bombs.

Would you feel comfortable if your 9 year old son had a job attending the ruins at bomb targets?

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This information comes from National Museums Liverpool.

The port city of Liverpool and surrounding areas were key targets for German bombers during the Second World War, 1939-45. In Merseyside more than 4,000 civilians were killed, 10,000 homes were destroyed and 70,000 people made homeless during air raids. Although the docks and city centre were the main targets, residential areas also suffered enormous damage. Nearly one third of the houses in Liverpool were damaged or destroyed. Worst hit was the town of Bootle, next to the port’s biggest docks. Already heavily bombed in earlier raids, Bootle only had about 15% of its houses left after the attack. Liverpool itself suffered the second highest number of civilian deaths in air raids in the country and, due to censorship, press reports often didn’t tell the whole story. The bombing of Merseyside during the Second World War reached its peak in the seven night Blitz of 1-7 May 1941. This ‘May Blitz’ was the most concentrated series of air attacks on any British city area outside London during the war. It caused massive damage to the city centre, the port and the entire area.

According to National Museums Liverpool, Bootle was the “worst hit” town.  

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Josey lived at 13 Northfield Road, Bootle.  To walk home from the Seaforth Sands Station on the Overhead Railway, Josey walked up Knowsley Road.

Cliff lived at 18 Date Street Seaforth.  To walk home from the same Seaforth Sands Station on the Overhead Railway that Josey used, Cliff walked up Seaforth Road.

Seaforth Road and Knowsley Road were within easy walking distance of each other from the Seaforth Sands Station on the Overhead Railway.

Seaforth was the next suburb north after Bootle.

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Wiki gives some detailed information about the Liverpool Blitz. 

The first major air raid on Liverpool took place in August 1940, when 160 bombers attacked the city on the night of 28 August. This assault continued over the next three nights, then regularly for the rest of the year. There were 50 raids on the city during this three-month period. Some of these were minor, comprising a few aircraft, and lasting a few minutes, with others comprising up to 300 aircraft and lasting over ten hours. On 18 September, 22 inmates at Walton Gaol were killed when high-explosive bombs demolished a wing of the prison. 28 November saw a heavy raid on the city, and the most serious single incident, when a hit on an air-raid shelter in Durning Road caused 166 fatalities. Winston Churchill described it as the "single worst incident of the war". The air assault in 1940 came to a peak with the Christmas blitz, a three-night bombardment towards the end of December. Christmas blitz A series of heavy raids took place in December 1940, referred to as the Christmas blitz, when 365 people were killed between 20 – 22 December. The raids saw several instances of direct hits on air raid shelters; on 20 December 42 people died when a shelter was hit, while another 40 died when a bomb struck railway arches on Bentinck Street, where local people were sheltering.[4] On 21 December another hit on a shelter killed 74 people. The bombing decreased in severity after the new year.

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Cliff had personal involvement in the Liverpool Christmas Blitz.

Although Wiki refers to the destruction at Bentinck Street where the railway arches were used as a makeshift bomb shelter, it does not mention the bombing of two separate air raid shelters located in Muspratt Road during the Christmas Blitz.

Cliff carried “survivor’s guilt” over the destruction of the two separate Muspratt Road shelters.  He sheltered in both of them immediately before they were destroyed in the Christmas 1940 German bombing raid.  

When I visited the location of the two Muspratt Road air raid shelters on 20 August 2019, there was not even a plaque to mark the location where so many people died to satisfy the lunatic vanity of Hitler. 

Because of its triangular shape, Muspratt Road intersects with Seaforth Road twice.  This is a photo of its intersection with Seaforth Road at the closest spot to the A 565.  Nothing marks the deaths that took place here in the destruction of the air raid shelter.  This was the first shelter Cliff took refuge in on his way home for Christmas.

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By helping others to heal We help ourselves heal Like Cliff did, give abundant Love Always

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Courage is the only way that we can ever create the Paradise that should be here on Earth.

Hatred does nothing but perpetuate the Hell we have already created in our world 

My astonishingly poor parents were also astonishingly brave.

Do not abandon people just because they are ill.  Try and help those in need.

Bravery multiplies with use.  

No matter how poor we are, we can always find courage.  Courage is free but its value cannot ever be calculated.