This is about that same Bomber that destroyed Dunn St School as per Peter Cook's photo.
On the 2nd of July 1940 during WW2 my Uncle George Dent was in his mother in laws back garden in Tyne View Terrace that overlooked the river and heard the sound of a large aircraft coming from Bill Quay area. It was a German Dornier Bomber flying low over the river avoiding being shot down. As it flew past level with the garden Uncle George clearly saw the Pilot wave. Thinking about it all these years later the German Pilot was under orders from Goering & Hitler and just doing his job the same as our RAF men bombing Germany.Recently I found that the Luftwaffe Pilot’s mission was to destroy the Tyne’s three Bridges’ (King Edward, High Level & the recently built Tyne Bridge) using High Explosive bombs. Two bombs went into the river, another hit Hawthorn Leslies Engineering works on Forth Banks and another hit the ‘Spillers Flour Mills’ killing 13 Spiller’s workers.
The Dornier then headed down river and flew past ‘Tyne View Tce’ in Hebburn to evade our guns. It dropped 3 bombs on Jarrow killing 14 and injuring 120. Most casualties occurred in Princess Street. The Dornier then reached South Shields, where our guns near the North Marine Park shot it down..