War & Conflict

Bolton's industry has been the target of bombs during the First and Second World Wars. This section describes how air raids and  other events from history going back to the Civil War have affected the town. In some cases the reactions of people to acts of aggression can be surprising, or their memories can be confused. The following accounts show examples of these events and peoples reactions to them.

Zeppelin Raid on Bolton

Bolton first became an air raid target during the First World War. As chance would have it the zeppelin that carried the bombers had been blown off course. Their original target had been Derby so the pattern of targets that the zeppelin aimed for was fairly random, and in fact it was residential areas that took the brunt of the attack.