ON August 31, 1940 a second heavy bombing raid came crashing down onto Blackburn within 24 hours during the Second World War.

Just before midnight a single bomb struck Ainsworth Street in the town centre where the day's last trams and buses were being drawn up.

The driver of one tram died from shock and his conductor died later from his injuries.

The bomb wrecked two shops and smashed the fronts of several others.

Three trams and four buses were also damaged.

The previous day a bomb hit a house in Bennington Street, but everyone inside was unhurt.

A tailor, William J.Charnley, owner of the shop on the corner of Cort Street, left a notice in the wrecked business telling customers the business had been 'blown around the corner'.

One theory was that the German bomber pilot had seen electric flashes of the overhead tram wires and had mistaken them for gunfire, and dropped a bomb in reply.

We can see in the picture men and women had moved pieces of rubble into neat piles in the street so traffic and pedestrians could use the street.

16 people were killed during bombing raids on our area by Hitler’s feared Luftwaffe squadrons.

The familiar sound of air-raid sirens could be heard across the area as towns and villages were hit as bombers targeted nearby major cities, such as Manchester and Liverpool.