大象传媒

The caption to my photograph - courtesy of "The Aeroplane" magazine - says little about the formidable aircraft, known to the RAF, before they mastered it, as "The Butcher Bird". That reputation attached after its first and unexpected appearance over Northern France, where it was mainly encountered, until the end of the War.
It was, though, seen over the South Coast towns - along with Messerschmitt 109's - in a series of "Hit and Run" raids across the Channel carrying a 500 Kg high explosive bomb under its fuselage.The targets were usually reached without interception by the RAF by virtue of flying just above wave-top height, where the attackers were not detected by radar. The effects of these raids against primarily civilian targets was relatively small, though civilian casualties were always involved and were distressing and disruptive, whilst damage to buildings was inevitable.
My story is a little different.
Evacuated with our school to Southbourne, my chums and I felt relatively safe from Nazi attentions, though we were very aware of all the war-like activities that were happening around us.
One morning in May, 1943, my friend, John Upfold, and I were pushing our bicycles up the steep hill fom St. Christopher's Church in Southbourne, where we had been singing in the School Choir at Matins, and were on our way to Fisherman's Walk, a popular Southbourne rendezvous, near to the sandy cliffs. Air raid sirens sounded - or had sounded - but little attention was paid to them, because air raids on Bournemouth were as rare as hens' teeth !
How wrong we were ! The sound of powerful aeroplane engines approaching from the direction of the sea and cliffs caused us to look up and, then, as two Focke-Wulfs appeared over the roof-tops, to throw our bikes and ourselves onto the ground, for fear of being machine-gunned.
The aircraft quickly turned to port - in the direction of the centre of the town - and disappeared from view. Almost immediately afterwards we heard the sound of explosions in the distance.
This attack was different. It had a specific and valuable target in the Hotel Metropole, where, as was generally known, many British and Commonwealth airmen were wont to congregate for drinks of a Sunday lunch time.
The raiders hit their primary target with considerable loss of life and many injuries amongst the airmen. At the same time, other buildings in the centre of Bournemouth were damaged by bombs, including the well-known department store, Beales.
The Bournemouth "Echo" made as much as it could of the attack, without offending the censor but, needless to say, it was the talk of the town for a long time afterwards. It was difficult to counter the proposition that the Luftwaffe knew what they were after, because they had been informed by a spy or spies about the Hotel Metropole.
The two small boys recovered from their shock and without grazed knees but, to this day, are unsure whether or not they were machine-gunned by the raiders !

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