Hull blitz: Children's WW2 letters read out for 80th anniversary

Moving letters written by children who lived through Hull's blitz feature in a new film, read out by modern schoolchildren from the city.

The short film has been made to mark the 80th anniversary of the worst night of bombing in Hull in May 1941.

German air raids killed about 400 people in the city between 7-9 May.

David Alcock, one of the people behind the project, said he hoped the children involved felt "a connection to the past" and to the 1940s letter writers.

Hull suffered its first World War Two daylight raid in June 1940 and its last attack was in March 1945.

The majority of bombing raids on the city took place during 1940 and 1941.

In 1942, Hull schoolchildren aged 10 to 14 were asked to write essays in the form of letters about living through the heavy aerial bombardment of the city.

Each essay was titled "What happened to me and what I did in the air raids".

The original letters were to record the children's bombing experiences for the Ministry of Information, which focused its research on just two cities - Birmingham and Hull.

Hull History Centre and Hull Museums' Heritage Learning made the new film featuring these essays held at the centre and voiced by modern day local primary school children.

Martin Taylor, the city's archivist, said the film project had "helped understanding and there was a great deal of interest in schools".

The film was the first of three looking at the impact of the blitz on Hull, he added.

David Alcock, from Heritage Learning, said: "There's always something that happens in history you can learn from."

People killed: 1,200

People injured: 3,000

People homeless: 152,000

Houses damaged: 86,715

Source: A North-East Coast Town - T Geraghty