It was four years after the Sheffield Blitz — the devastating December 1940 attacks that left thousands homeless — and the Nazis were losing on every front.

By Christmas 1944, German cities were in ruins from Allied bombing, the Soviet Red Army was closing in from the East, and Paris had been liberated just months earlier. But Hitler had one last surprise in store for Sheffield.

On Christmas Eve 1944, a V1 rocket — one of Hitler’s infamous "Doodlebugs" — fell on Beighton, in what is now Rother Valley Country Park.

Sheffield had long been assumed to be out of range of these flying bombs, which typically hit London and the South East. However, this particular rocket was one of a number carried aboard a modified German bomber, launched over the Lincolnshire coast, and headed towards Manchester. It fell miles short of its target, exploding over Beighton and causing widespread destruction.

The blast damaged approximately 150 buildings in the nearby Killamarsh area, shattering windows, and leaving terrified residents convinced they were reliving the horrors of the Sheffield Blitz.

Miraculously, no casualties were reported — but the explosion was a stark reminder that, even as the war neared its end, Sheffield was still under attack.

The forgotten raid is just one of dozens of air attacks chronicled in Neil Anderson’s ‘Countdown to the Sheffield Blitz’ which is just back in print. The book details every single raid on Sheffield throughout WWII, from the first air raid siren in September 1939 to the final bomb – the V1 rocket - on Christmas Eve 1944.

Neil Anderson, author of ‘Countdown to the Sheffield Blitz’, said: “Sheffield’s Blitz wasn’t just two nights in 1940. The city endured years of air raids, and this V1 rocket attack in 1944 was the chilling final chapter. The war was almost over, but the bombs were still falling. This book tells the full story of what Sheffielders went through — moment by moment.”

Sheffield's Moor area in the aftermath of the blitz of 1940.

The V1 and V2 rockets were Hitler’s so-called "wonder weapons", designed to spread fear even as the Nazi war machine collapsed. While Sheffield avoided death and injury in the final raid, Manchester suffered heavy casualties from the attacks..

‘Countdown to the Sheffield Blitz’ brings together rare photographs, first-hand survivor accounts to tell the complete history of the city in the war.

The Sheffield Blitz killed and wounded over 2,000 people and made nearly a tenth of the city homeless on the 12th and 15th of December 1940. Over 300 planes attacked on the first night with nine hours of sustained bombing.

The biggest single loss of life took place at the Marples Hotel in Fitzalan Square.

The book is available here: https://dirtystopouts.com/products/countdown-to-the-sheffield-blitz

It is also available from all good book shops.

Sheffield’s final Nazi terror: New book chronicles forgotten V1 rocket attack