Bournemouth raid 1943.

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This is a fascinating thread about an awful incident; thanks to all those who contributed. By the way, any one heard from Crumpp?!
 
Whoa!!! What a donkeyhole. Never knew why, just saw 'banned' under his name in some other threads.
 
I was born and raised in Poole just a few miles from Bournemouth and have had an interest in the war ever since being a small boy. One thing that I always remember from growing up was the unwillingness of those who were around at the time to talk of such events as the bombing of The Metropole Hotel, yes they would talk of the war but not of the killing. So imagine my surprise in the 1980's when I chanced upon a wartime picture of my favourite pub The Gander on the Green (now known as the Christopher Creeke) in ruins after a catastrophic air raid. I had been a regular at this pub for quite a while by this time and while I had heard of the Metropole having been bombed I had no idea of the scale of lives lost or that the Metropole had been rebuilt and re-named the Gander on the Green, neither had any of the other regulars or bar staff that I knew. I haven't visited this pub in years but from memory there is just one small plaque saying only that a German bomb destroyed the original building and offers no more detail other than that, to me it is a shame that people no longer remember the loss of life that occurred but then I understand and respect that people at the time didn't want to be reminded of it every day. My mother and other older relatives now find it easier to talk about these times and have told me that German raiders would often attack in this fashion sometimes dropping bombs and sometimes flying down the streets machine gunning whoever was about, in one such attack my mums cousin was killed on Poole Quay. I think that some and probably a lot of what happened back then has been forgotten about due to wartime reporting restrictions, people were also warned not to talk of such things and didn't do until years later. One thing I have been told by a number of people is that the Germans had a way of knowing the place was full of Airmen. Just as a side note the rest of the old Metropole site is now occupied by a KFC with offices on top.
 
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Very interesting thanks. Could you tell me one thing though, did the Metropole hotel occupy the current site of the present day KFC and was the centre of the bomb blast on the site of the current Wetherspoons pub?
 
KFC occupy the ground floor at the narrow point and HSBC around the corner . Wetherspoons looking at pictures from 1943 occupy floors to the left within the devastated building. The buildings of a lesser height adjacent to the bombed building are still standing and the upper floors are as they were on that day. Next time I pop in for jar I will take a picture I feel a thirst coming on, my next door neighbour has just gone down for one but as it is midwinter Yes late May and the weather is bitter I will leave it till next week.
I did bump into a chap this morning who was messenger for the ARP Heavy Rescue Team based in Kings Park and he was on the cliff top and watched them come in at wave top level climb up over the cliffs at Southbourne and sweep at low level towards the town and he swears there was only 9 planes wing tip to wing tip and I never saw 20 odd ( as some reports state) either from my back garden but as they were so low only a lower amount as he said.
He also said they were so low the Bofars could not angle down to hit them. He then made his way back to Kings Park to join his team who were dispatched to the Metropole .
 

I appreciate that this is a bit of a gap, but I'm pleased to see the thread still running!

Following on from my comments above, I managed to contact Mike Edgington some time ago, to ask him about the possibility of a new print run of his book. Since then, there have been one or two tentative attempts at costings, but in the end a new 'hard copy' print run simply isn't commercially viable....

Having said that, it seemed a terrible shame that the huge amount of information that Mike has collected about Bournemouth's wartime history should not see the light of day again....Especially the details on the Commonwealth and US troops stationed here from 1942 onwards.

Having discussed that with Mike, I'm pleased to report that he has agreed to allow the publication of a free online version of the complete original book.
To make that a reality, I have just completed the transcription of the complete text into a PDF document, and the whole book is now available to download from here:

Bournemouth and the Second World War - M.A. Edgington


Please remember that this edition is for educational and recreation purposes only, and should not be used for ANY commercial gain. That was one of Mike's preconditions for online publication.

If you do quote any of the text, please acknowledge the source.

(Incidentally, the number 'JP137' in the webpage URL listed above refers to another Bournemouth wartime incident. The MOORDOWN HALIFAX MEMORIAL website is dedicated to the commemoration of those who lost their lives, when RAF Halifax bomber - serial number JP137 - crashed into a Bournemouth suburb, in March 1944).

I do hope you find something of interest in both that website, and in Mike Edgington's excellent history of Bournemouth in WW2...

Roger Shore
 
What a fantastic booklet!! I loved reading it!

Amazing. 208 civilian and military deaths on 23 May - a day which nothing happened according to......................
 
What a great resource!

Many thanks to you and Mr. Edgington for making it available!
 
Thank you for your kind words, gentlemen. I shall be seeing Mike shortly, so I will pass your thanks on to him.

Njaco -- Mike's figure of 208 dead is taken from the notes released by Alderman Harry Mears in 1986.
Harry was Civil Defence Controller in Bournemouth during the war years, and left us a wealth of details on the period. It does look as if some of the 'official' wartime records that were probably supposed to be sent to the Hampshire County Headquarters in Winchester were actually retained by Harry.
Harry was a highly respected, if rather colourful character, but how reliable his official administative skills were, I'm not sure?
His autobiography was never published..... although those of us interested in local history are very grateful for the notes and records he did leave... even if he wasn't supposed to!

More recent research, especially that carried out by Angela Beleznay for her excellent book 'Incident 48...Raid on a South Coast Town' ( the book Wilson linked to in post #159) suggests the actual figure for all those who lost their lives that day was more probably 123.
Angela includes the most comprehensive list I've ever seen of the casualties for that day. I suspect we'll never know, for certain, whether it is fully complete......


The title 'Incident 48' is taken from the list of 51 recorded Bournemouth WW2 air raids. You can find the complete list in Appendix D (pages 118, 118a and 119) of Mike Edgington's book.
 
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