Quick Quiz: "During the war..."

[Legion]

Name the honour(s) achieved by Aston Villa during WWII.

Thread will be moved to Villa Memories once the correct answer is posted.

[newtonsballs]

League North Cup Final?

[Legion]

That's one of them.

[Leighton]

A complete stab in the dark. Did the womans team (if it existed then) win the Womans FA Cup of something?

[Legion]

Don't think so.

[cdbearsfan]

Worcester Infirmary Cup, Birmingham League Cup, Keys Cup... all 1941-1942
Football League War Cup 1942-3
Football League (North) Cup 1943-4

[Legion]

Worcester Infirmary Cup, Birmingham League Cup, Keys Cup... all 1941-1942
Football League War Cup 1942-3
Football League (North) Cup 1943-4

Nearly.

[cdbearsfan]

Did we win a league as well? Maybe Birmingham League?

[dishy]

was it the Victoria Cross for taking out the German 3rd army in the Ruhr valley in  '45?

[Legion]

Did we win a league as well? Maybe Birmingham League?

Correct. Impressed.

[Brian Taylor]

In revenge for them sinking HMS Aston Villa in May 1940 with loss of 270 lives..and we refused to Sieg heil yer man in 1938.
Mam worked in Witton Lane munitions factory which was a bit of a target at the time so there were not a lot of floodlit games back then.
and most of team were in the forces..except for special dispensation

[dave.woodhall]

Mam worked in Witton Lane munitions factory which was a bit of a target at the time so there were not a lot of floodlit games back then.

That and not having floodlights until 1958.

[cdbearsfan]

Did we win a league as well? Maybe Birmingham League?

Correct. Impressed.

Confession time. I cheated. I have a book called "Midlands Soccer at War". It lists all the results but, strangely, doesn't give final league positions so I guessed the league one.

Small Heath were actually pretty good at the time so maybe Hitler invading Poland wasn't all bad! Shame the Heathens had to tarnish our ground though.

[cdbearsfan]

Some stand-out results from the era...

1940-1
Hednesford 6 Villa 1
Revo Elect 8 Villa 4
Villa 8 RAF (Bradford) 1
Villa 6 West Brom 1

1941-2
Revo Elect 1 Villa 5
Worcester 1 Villa 8
Villa 8 Hednesford 0
Villa 7 RAF Hednesford 0
Villa 19 (nineteen!) RAF (Lichfield) 2
Villa 9 RAF (Lichfield) 0
Villa 6 Wolves 1
Villa 14 RAF (Hednesford) 1

1942-3
Villa go back to playing league clubs, all from the Midlands.
West Brom 6 Villa 2
Villa 8 West Brom 2
Villa 2 West Brom 6

1943-4
Villa 4 Wolves 1
Villa 4 Walsall 4
West Brom 5 Villa 4

1944-5
West Brom 1 Villa 5
Coventry 0 Villa 6
Villa 6 West Brom 2
Villa 6 Walsall 1
Villa 5 Birmingham 0
Villa 7 Leicester 2
Villa 9 Coventry 2
Villa 4 Wolves 4
Derby 6 Villa 0

1945-6
Full league returns split into North and South. Villa finished as 'South' runners-up to Blues on goal average. We also got our record attendance (76,558) for the FA Cup Quarter-Final, 1st Leg against Derby. Being Villa, we lost it. It was the only year that the FA Cup was played over two legs.

[SteveN]

In revenge for them sinking HMS Aston Villa in May 1940 with loss of 270 lives..and we refused to Sieg heil yer man in 1938.
Mam worked in Witton Lane munitions factory which was a bit of a target at the time so there were not a lot of floodlit games back then.
and most of team were in the forces..except for special dispensation

Small world, my mom worked there as well, we were talking aboout this the other day and how spooky it was walking home to Perry Common alongside the cemetery in total darkness.  I'm surprised there were any floodlit games then.