Available from local bookshops (Keel Row) and libraries ...at £9.99
82 year old Ron Curran's recently published North Shields - The Bombing of a Town includes several pages on the Wilkinson's tragedy. Ron was 12 years old when the war started. He recalls....
"My mother, Winifred, used to work in a factory beside the Fish Quay. Whenever there was an air raid alert, they would go inside the Wilkinson shelter. But on this particular day in May 1941, they walked all the way home when the bombing started.
We found out later that the factory was hit and more than 100 people had died. My mother could have been there. She was saved because she did not go into the shelter that day. The following day we went to look at the wreckage. It was appalling. We were being kept away and I remember looking at the scene through someone's locked arms.
There were a lot of people around, including the Home Guard, and everyone was just silent as the bodies were brought out. There was a terrible loss of life."
The book is a welcome addition to the local history of the town, although there are some issues with the number of dead reported at Wilkinsons. It's a good read and well illustrated.