Miscellaneous

Birmingham Small Arms (BSA) and Singer Motors: misc_bsa&singer340

This German Luftwaffe map is dated October 1940 and specifically identifies the Singer Motorcar Works as a potential target for bombing. Also on the map can be seen; the BSA Small Heath works, the Great Western Main Line, Tyseley Locomotive Depot and Carriage Shed, part of Bordesley Goods Yard and the private railway line serving the Singer Motors Works. All these locations were repeatedly bombed during the Second World War.

After the German air-force carried out a major air-raid on Birmingham during the night of Wednesday 20th November 1940, they took high level aerial photographs to assess the bomb damage caused to the site. This photograph has been annotated with numbers identifying where damage had occurred and appears to show that the most significant damage affected the BSA Waverley Road Works (numbers 1, 2, 3 and 4) and that the Singer Motors Works at the top of the photograph was relatively unscathed.

Robert Ferris

back