AN EXHIBITION in Wirral is being held to mark 70 years since a maid from Prenton became the first civilian casualty of the Blitz on Merseyside.

When the German Luftwaffe brought the Second World War to the shores of Britain in 1940, bombs rained down on Liverpool and Wirral.

The first bombs on August 9, 1940, claimed the life of 30-year-old Johanna Domenica Mandale, who was working for a Mr Bunney at a house in Prenton Lane.

Between the summer of 1940 and the summer of 1941, nearly 4,000 people died from the attacks on Birkenhead and Wallasey, Liverpool and Bootle.

The seven-night Blitz from May 1 to 7, 1941, was the most concentrated series of attacks on any area outside London.

Fort Perch Rock, in New Brighton, is commemorating the anniversary with 70 Photographs, 70 Years, which illustrates the devastation wreaked by the Blitz and tells the stories of those who lived through it.

The exhibition will run until next spring.

Curator Doug Darroch said: “The exhibition is our way of paying tribute to the bravery of the people of Merseyside and remembering those who lost their lives.

“Apparently there was no siren to warn that there was a raid before the bombs fell in Prenton, killing Johanna Mandale.

“Unfortunately, we don’t have any photos of her. She was just the first of many thousands of people to lose their life.”