大象传媒

There had been a lot of air raids on Plymouth which meant that Devonport was getting it鈥檚 share of the raids. We would take shelter in the brick air raid shelters in the Court Yard, armed with a candle, flask among other things any thing of value my mother would take down. We, being my mother and sister, I was 13 years old when the raids got started in 1940, my Step father and brother were out with the Fire Guard fighting fires in the area.

The big raids came on Thursday and Friday 20 and 21st March 1941, I remember it well as the King and Queen came and visited the City on the Thursday, it was after they had left that the siren went. The block of Flats were I lived in Clowance Street was bombed, we had no water, no gas, no lights for weeks and of course, we had no windows. Water was brought by water tanker. All this and I still had to go to school.

In 1939 the Army wanted our School for a Hospital, so we shared a School in King Street in Devonport with the girls, we went in shift鈥檚, girls from 9am to 1pm, boys from 1pm to 5pm, we change over each week.

We had air raids all the time but worse was to come on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday, the 21st, 22nd and 23rd of April 1941. I lived right behind the signal tower on Mount Wise. At about 9.19pm on the Monday night the red and green warning light went on, on the tower a warning to ships, this was followed by the red which meant a raid was about to start.

The siren went, we, my mother and three year old sister and I went down to the air raid shelter. We lived in a block of flats, we were a prime target, the flats were painted white. During the three days of raids my stepfather,- he was the Fire Guard Leader 鈥� with other men had climbed onto our flat roof and threw incendiary bombs into front garden below.

The Ack Ack and the noise of the bombs coming down followed by the explosions was hell itself. I remember we put cotton wool in our ears, it did very little for us. There were fires everywhere and, to make matters worse, the tide was out, which meant low water and no means of fighting the fires. With the main water supply gone, the firemen were trying to get water from Mutton Cove..

It was hell in its self and it went on all night until around dawn when the all-clear sounded and we were able to leave the shelter. That night 鈥� Tuesday 鈥� around 9-30pm the planes returned, and again it went on night and continued until dawn. We left the shelter and the area was full of smoke from fires that were still burning.

On Wednesday evening my stepfather came from the Dockyard 鈥� yes up all night and still had to go to work 鈥� with news that women not otherwise engaged in defence were to take their children 鈥� boys under 14 years 鈥� to Chapel Street, Devonport, outside Chas Coombs, the bookmakers鈥� office, at 6pm, when there would be buses to take them outside of Plymouth. With my mother and sister and others, we went to Chapel Street and boarded the Corporation buses.

We were taken to Plympton Grammar.( Pictured above - now known as Hele's School ) We were all given a blanket and a cup of tea and taken inside, where we tried to get some sleep. Something we had not had since Sunday night. At around 9-30pm, the sirens went off and we could hear the noise of the bombing coming from Plymouth. A man asked my mother where we had come from. She told him Devonport. He took us outsider and from a mound in the garden we could see the sky over Plymouth red in colour. The man said I鈥檓 afraid there is very left by the look of that.

The next morning we had to make our way home on foot. At Marsh Mills a lime lorry came along and gave us a lift into Devonport. He could only take us to King鈥檚 Road railway station as there were a lot of UXBs around. There were fires everywhere. We walked up Fore Street. It was still burning, we turned into Chapel Street and Chas Coombs place 鈥� where we had left from the night before 鈥� was in ruins. A lot of people had taken shelter in Coombs鈥� air raid shelter but a bomb exploded in the entrance and they were still trying to get people out. We wondered if our block of flats was still standing. It was, but again most of the windows were gone; there were house around still burning.

That night 鈥� Thursday 鈥� we were told to get out of town again. We were taken to King鈥檚 Road for a train to take us to Tavistock but the was a problem- UXBs on the line. We were put into buses and taken into St. Budeaux Railway Station and taken by train to Tavistock. We spent the night in a Church in the square there I understand it is called 鈥淪t. Eustachus鈥�. When we got home the following morning Friday we found out that the planes did not return on Thursday night after all, and they never did come back in great numbers again.

Nearly all of Devonport had gone 鈥� the whole of Fore Street apart from a few buildings 鈥� and that is how it remained until the US Forces arrived and built a camp in Fore Street.

There was a lot of sadness, you could go to the Police Station in Ker Street where the list of dead and those missing were posted on the wall outside, school chums and friends. One family鈥檚 son was in the front room of their house waiting to be buried. He had been killed by an UXB 鈥� all his family were killed in an air raid shelter, but the house was not touched.

My School had gone, we were here there and anywhere, to try and get us together, at last we were given the Devonport High School for boys at the top of Albert Road, the boys of that School had been evacuated before the air raids ever started, The twist in the tail was that after the war the Army gave our School back, but not to us 鈥擲toke Senior Boys School 鈥� but to Devonport High School for Boys, and they are there to this day. Oh yes I left School 1942, age 14 years and at 15 years went to sea until 1946, when I left the sea, would you believe it after all the noise of the raids, I joined the Royal Artillery.

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