Mayor backing campaign to honour victims of Blitz

Sylvia Dunkley visited the site of the Marples Hotel in Fitzalan Square on Friday, where around 70 people lost their lives in a direct hit from the Luftwaffe at 11.44pm on December 12, 1940.

She met Neil Anderson, author of Sheffield’s Date with Hitler, who is leading the memorial campaign which gained cross-party support at the Town Hall earlier this year.

The fund’s first aim is the creation of a Sheffield Blitz Memorial Trail – a series of plaques across the city marking buildings bombed during the raids.

The first plaque will be unveiled on the side of Atkinsons department store on December 11.

Nearly a tenth of the city was left homeless following two Luftwaffe raids in December 1940 that killed and injured 2,000 people.

Mr Anderson said: “The plaques will help to educate people about the impact of the Blitz, what the city and its people went through and why the city centre looks as it does today as so much of it had to be re-built.”

He added that the fund wanted to create a permanent Blitz archive and offer audio tours in the future, as well as raise money for a permanent memorial.