Readers' Letters: West Street Wall was 'to fool the workers and not the Germans'
By Gwyn Griffiths 27th Aug 2021
By Gwyn Griffiths 27th Aug 2021
Dear Sir,
I see Brian Silvester has raised the old myth about the wall in West Street. He claims, like others without real facts, that "the houses were painted to fool German bombers during the Second World War into thinking it was a housing site".
But that isn't true, they were painted to make the workers think they couldn't be seen so that they would remain at work when they heard aircraft.
The wall stood as a monument to management exploiting gullible workers and had it been retained it should have had a large sign to that effect - but given Mr Silvester's political history I don't think he would have approved of that.
Crewe Works was clearly visible from aircraft, which those who pay attention will know because a Luftwaffe intelligence photo of the site (see above) has previously been published locally.
This shows that the layout of the site is very obvious by the long curve of West Street and the position of Queens Park with it's obvious oval boundary.
It was taken in September 1940 and after notes were added it was given out in June 1941.
At full size it even has notes about what some buildings were used for such as the Erecting Shop and Boiler Shop being clearly noted.
Yours faithfully,
Steve Bratt
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