AS the sun rose on May 5 in 1941 Barrovians had to come to terms with a town which had been left in tatters from a series of nightly German air raids.

Homes had been damaged or destroyed 75 years ago and the town's Central Station was a pile of broken stone and twisted metal.

Even the station's memorial to the dead of the First World War had shrapnel damage - as did the 1846 steam locomotive Coppernob which had stood by the station in an elaborate glass case.

A weekend of bombing - the first in Barrow since the early hours of April 16 - had left destruction across a wide area.

Bombs had fallen on Baldwin Street, Hawcoat Lane, Exmouth Street, Priors Path, Undergreens Road and Priors Path.

There were also plenty of unexploded bombs to deal with - and thousands of broken window panes and roof slates.

Anyone paying their three-farthings to read the North Western Evening Mail between May 3 and 5 in 1941 would struggle to find any written evidence that much of barrow lay in ruins and that 17 people were dead. 

Wartime censorship even stopped the long lists of deaths in the public notices from giving any indication of what caused them. 

The May 3 edition mentions that a mobile canteen had been sent to Barrow and that £30,000 had been made available to relieve air raid distress in the North-Western Region. 

The Monday, May 5, front page talked mainly about Belfast but hinted at damage closer to home saying: "Bombers were also reported over the North-West of England coast."

In case anyone needed reminding, Bettys fashion shop in Dalton Road told readers that the blackout was from 10.30pm to 5.41am - where windows needed to be covered to avoid presenting a target for bombers flying overhead. 

The front page on May 6 was almost entirely devoted to foreign war news.

Inside it was stated that work was in progress to provide more air raid shelters in the town - 1,000 extra spaces had been created in the past month. 

Three pictures of the bomb damage to houses were published on May 8 bearing only the caption: "Damage to property in recent air road in North-Western town."