Air raid sirens to sound out in Sheffield for special Second World War memorial service

Members of the Sheffield and District Joint Council for Ex-Service Associations will gather in Barkers Pool for a ceremony on Tuesday, September 3.

People have been asked to gather from around 10.30am, with the service getting underway at around 11am.

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Pat Davey, chairman of the group, said: “We are hoping to have quite a lot of ex-service personnel there for the half-an-hour service.

“It will be something quite special because Sheffield will hear the sound of the air raid sirens going off for the first time in many years.”

The start of the Second World War is generally held to be September 1, 1939, beginning with the German invasion of Poland, with the UK and France delaring war on Germany two days later.

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The exact date of the war’s end is also not universally agreed upon. It was generally accepted at the time that the war ended with the armistice of August 14, 1945 (V-J Day), rather than the formal surrender of Japan, which was on September 2, 1945 that officially ended the war in Asia.

Air raid sirens last sounded in Sheffield in December 2015 to commemorate the 75th anniversary of the Blitz.

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Residents also joined in a ‘black out’ across the city 75 years to the minute after bombs started dropping in Sheffield city centre.