Stamford Local History Society

October 31st 1940 - The Luftwaffe Comes to Stamford.

An eyewitness account.

Nicholas J Sheehan. 2024

In 2024, eyewitness Dorothy Pridmore recalled the early moments of the attack on the town 84 years previously.

‘I was 13 years old and a pupil at Stamford High School. I was at Stamford Railway Station waiting to take the train to Oakham to meet my parents on my way home from school to Seaton where we lived.

It was a cold winter’s day and I had taken shelter in the waiting room when I heard what I thought were hailstones hitting the railway tracks. They were actually bullets being fired from the German plane as it approached the town from the direction of Leicester. After a train passed through the station, schoolboys went onto the tracks to retrieve the bullets.

No-one was hurt and I was able to cross the railway bridge to the westbound platform to catch my train.’

More information regarding the events of that day can be found in Articles under the title ‘The Luftwaffe Comes to Stamford’

A print version can be downloaded HERE