Great Hall
The Baedeker Raid
Damage to York North Engine Shed sustained during the Baedeker Raid, 1942. Science Museum Group. Image no. 1994-7245_B23_555.
Stories are hidden in every inch of the Railway Museum site. As we turn this corner, on the far side of the Great Hall, we find ourselves by the key to discovering what was undoubtedly one of the most significant dates in York’s railway history. Did you spot the small plaque on the ground to our right? It begins to paint us a picture of the events of Wednesday 29 April 1942, the day the Second World War came devastatingly to the city.
In the two and a half years since war was declared, York had done well to avoid any major attack. But after British air forces heavily bombed the historical German city of Lübeck one month earlier, the Nazi leadership looked to retaliate, targeting English cities with similar cultural heritage such as Exeter, Bath, Norwich and York. These became known as the Baedeker Raids, taking their name from a series of famous German travel guides available at the time.
It had just gone half past two in the morning when the first Luftwaffe pilots flew overhead. Imagine the panic as planes dipped in and out of sight, the shadows of bombs falling from the sky, obliterating buildings in a single swoop.
The railway had nowhere to hide. With extensive passenger and goods lines, sidings and an engine shed, it was one of York’s most obvious military targets. And so, looking at the catastrophic scene on your phone, is it surprising to learn that this is the exact spot in which the photograph was taken? The flattened building was York’s former engine shed, and the destroyed locomotive at the centre of the frame is ‘Sir Ralph Wedgwood’, which we can see referred to by the plaque at our feet.
Knowing what happened on this extraordinary day allows us to reflect on the importance of York’s railway, not only to those that lived and worked here but to the greater war effort in general. As we look around the Great Hall in its current setting, we must take a moment to think about the Baedeker Raid, so we may begin to appreciate what it is we are left with today.