When I started researching this article I had no idea that the Women’s Royal Army Corps (WRAC) Association had campaigned for proper recognition of the role played by women in the armed forces in the Second World War.
In May 2023 a press release was put out by the Association and South Leeds Life published a copy but having done my research I thought I might as well submit the article for print.
Of the many War Graves in Holbeck Cemetery there is only one to a servicewoman who was killed in the Second World War; this is to an ATS girl, Vera Mann.
Vera was born in 1920 and was the daughter of William Mann (1896-1947) who was described as a chimney sweep and Minnie Reynolds Mann (1890-1968), housewife. The family lived off Beeston Hill at 6 Fulham Terrace, Hunslet and the 1939 Census shows Vera working as a shop assistant at a fancy goods store.
In 1942 she joined the Auxiliary Territorial Service (ATS) as a private with the service number of W/154541 she is buried in Holbeck Cemetery with the Grave number of 8526.
In 1943 Vera was in Great Yarmouth when it was subject to an air raid. On the morning of the attack 27 young women had been exercising and were just marching back to their billet at Whitfield House which was a large hostel at 8 North Drive.
A low-level daylight attack by 18 Focke-Wolf Fw190 aircraft of II/SKG10 took place at 8:45am on the 11 May 1943. This was a frontal attack out of the sun and early morning mist the raiders crossing the coast just north of Britannia Pier and attacking the northern part of the town and exiting over the Winterton area.
The raid was only detected about a minute before the attack and fourteen 500kg high explosive bombs fell in various scattered residential areas in the north of the town.
Whitfield House received a direct hit from an HE bomb as the ATS girls were taking shelter there. The building was totally destroyed, one girl was taken out alive, but 25 of the ATS girls were killed on the 11th and one is recorded as dying on the 13th to make the total up to 26.
The youngest to die was Lillian Grimmer who was only 18. This raid was the worst of the war on Great Yarmouth with a total of 49 killed and 41 injured. It is reported that one of the raiders was shot down by anti-aircraft fire while a Mustang shot down one when it intercepted them.
The site of the destroyed building is now occupied by a swimming pool for the Burlington Palm Hotel and in 1994 a Memorial Plaque recording this tragic event and listing all the names of those who lost their lives was unveiled at the Hotel by Lady Soames, youngest daughter of the wartime Prime Minister Winston Churchill.
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Thank you for taking the time and care to research this tragic situation about the young women who were killed in the Second World War , my mum served in the Wrens during the Second World War and was very proud of her time in the Wrens
My Grandma lived next door to Vera Mann and inherited a set of Brandy glasses after her death. I still have one of these glasses and treasure it.