PLYMOUTH |
The Encyclopaedia of Plymouth History |
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PLYMOUTH BLITZ - THE APRIL RAIDS
Unknown to the people of Plymouth at the beginning of April 1941, the Plymouth Blitz had three more nights to run. After the air raids of the nights of March 20th and 21st 1941, many thought that the worse was over. There were raids on April 8th and 15th but they were small in comparison. Monday April 21st/Tuesday April 22nd 1941 The evening of Monday April 21st was fine and cloudless, ideal weather for a piece of accurate bombing. Plymothians were enjoying the spring evening, totally unaware that on the airfields of France the Germans were preparing 120 aircraft for an attack on Plymouth. [1] How people must have dreaded 8.30pm in those days. Although Pat Twyford claims the sirens went off at about 9.30pm, Gerald Wasley says the raid started at 8.39, when the pathfinders arrived over the City and dropped their flares and incendiaries. This time the Devonport end of the City was the main target. [2]
There was
very little left in Fore Street, Devonport, The Royal Navy suffered that night, when ninety-six sailors were killed when a bomb penetrated the basement of Boscawen Block at the Naval Barracks. Only seventy-eight bodies were ever recovered, the remainder burnt beyond recognition. Johnston Terrace School was totally destroyed. [1] The following morning, the Western Morning News appeared as usual. It was only six pages but it was up-to-date. It was also something of a miracle as it had been produced in the building in Frankfort Street, encircled by buildings on fire and with bombs crashing down all around it. Once again the building survived a terrible onslaught, but luckily no direct hit. The raid had lasted for six hours, yet the BBC that morning announced that the raid had been 'short and sharp', a statement they were later forced to amend. [2] One has to feel for the Plymouth lady whose story was told in the Western Evening Herald on the evening of Tuesday April 22nd 1941. The previous morning she had been told that her son in the Royal Naval Volunteer Reserve was officially classed as "missing". 'She bore that news bravely enough,' told the newspaper, 'but then during the night she was alone when the house was bombed to the ground. This morning, standing outside the mass of wreckage and debris that was once her home, she saw the telegraph boy coming up the street. He stopped and silently handed her the wire. It told her that her husband was dead'. [3] Another incident reported that evening was the returning home of Mrs G Pengelly, who had been away recuperating from a serious illness. When the air raid started later in the evening she and her husband and their 9-years-old daughter, Sheila, went into their Anderson Shelter but it received a direct hit from a high explosive bomb and all three were killed. 'The house, though badly damaged, is still standing', the Herald said ironically. [3] A similar situation befell a pub landlord who left his home to extinguish an incendiary bomb and was killed by a high explosive bomb. His house remained intact. [3] Several incendiaries hit the New Palace Theatre but were thankfully extinguished. The show being staged that week was called "Light Up and Smile" but luckily there was no audience on the premises. [3] Tuesday April 22nd/Wednesday April 23rd 1941 An even heavier raid, if it were possible, took place the following night, Tuesday April 22nd-23rd, and once again Devonport was the main target. At around 11.30pm the Devonport Telephone Exchange was hit and the Air Raid Precaution's control centre beneath Devonport Market was destroyed, severely hampering communications. But bombs did fall elsewhere in Plymouth. That night, for example, saw the City's major disaster, when an air raid shelter at Portland Square, just opposite the City Museum, sustained a direct hit. Seventy-two people were killed outright. [1] [2] The Most Holy Redeemer Roman Catholic Church at Keyham was destroyed during this raid. [4] Wednesday April 23rd/Thursday April 24th 1941 Devonport suffered yet again during the night of Wednesday April 23rd and it was remarked at the time that a fire could spread down a street as fast as a man could walk. [5]
Blitzed houses in Goschen Street, Keyham Barton. That night saw the last effort to publish the Western Morning News in Plymouth. At midnight it became clear that this would no longer be possible and the staff and printing plates were immediately transferred by road to the Exeter office of the Express and Echo. The Western Evening Herald continued to be printed in Frankfort Street as the work was carried out during the more peaceful daytime. [2] Monday April 28th/Tuesday April 29th 1941 There was then a short respite until the by now familiar pattern of events took place on the night of Monday April 28th. The enemy planes were actually over the City when the alarm was sounded and on that night the main targets were the North Yard of the Dockyard, St Budeaux, Camel's Head, and Torpoint, where forty-three sailors were killed at HMS Raleigh. [1] At the Royal Naval Armament Depot, Bull Point, six laboratories, a small arms ammunition store and many other buildings were damaged. The main office building received a direct hit from an high explosive bomb, resulting in the deaths of 46-years-old Mr Alexander McMillan McHutcheon, an Armament Supply Officer who came from Argyllshire in Scotland, and 42-years-old Mr Joseph Wilson, a Messenger who lived at Somerset Place, Devonport, who were both on fire watching duty. [6] Saltash also became a target that night and twelve fire engines were taken across on the Saltash Ferry to assist the small, local brigade. [1] Tuesday April 29th/Wednesday April 30th 1941 Devonport, Milehouse, Keyham and Saltash were the main targets the following night, Tuesday April 29th. Devonport High School for Girls received a direct hit, the gasometer at Keyham Gas Works was set alight, the Great Western Railway's locomotive number 4911, "Bowden Hall", took the blast of a bomb that landed nearby at Keyham Station, which brought rail services into and out of Cornwall to a halt, and over 100,000 books were destroyed by fire at the Central Library in Tavistock Road, Plymouth. [1] However, the worst was now over. Pat Twyford recorded in his diary for May 1st: 'A raid-free night -- and blessed sleep. Was that sleep good!' The raids continued but the Plymouth Blitz was over. [2] Sources:
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