大象传媒

This story has been written onto the 大象传媒 People's War site by CSV Storygatherer Robin.D.Bailey on behalf of the authors Phyllis M Rowe and Ivan Rabey. They fully understand the terms and conditions of the site.

These are extracts from a book of the same title - see Part 1 : Introduction.

1942:

January 1942:

8th: Hostilities resumed: In the evening, bombs were dropped on Place Barton, St. Anthony damaging property and a water main. At Penpol, Mylor boats and buildings were damaged. And at Trolver Croft five bombs caused minor damage.

14th: An evening raid hit the runway at Predannack aerodrome and three house were damaged at Trevanion Road, Wadebridge. All part of the same raid, in which bombs also fell on Cargoll Farm, St. Newlyn East. where telephone and electricity cables were damaged. - An enemy aircraft was being chased after trying to attack the Radar Station at Trerew on the outskirts of Newquay; Cargoll was in the direct line as the bombs were jettisoned to aid the 'plane鈥檚 escape.

17th: In the evening, three bombs fell on Carne Farm, Nancledra causing no damage or casualties. Five other bombs were widely scattered at Treggesyn, Barepper, Polcutta and at Treviles Farm, Ruan High Lanes. A further four high explosive bombs were dropped at Cardinham, causing damage to the churchyard and vicarage. During the night, St. Columb town escaped direct hits, but damage was caused in the surrounding countryside - a house at Trekenning on the outskirts was damged when four high explosive bombs fell in close proximity to each other, another fell at nearby Nankelly Farm but did no damage. At Penrose, Indian Queens on Goss Moor a house and farm were demolished, other damage was caused and two pigs killed by a stick of four bombs ditched from an aircraft being chased from St. Eval.

18th: A stray bomb fell at Treath, Helford in the evening, causing slight damage to a number of houses. Minor damage to St. Anthony Church, a farmhouse and outbuildings was caused when four bombs fell at Lantinning Farm.

22nd: Merrifield Farm, Temple on Bodmin Moor suffered minor damage to farmhouse and outbuildings during a brief raid in the early evening.

25th: During the evening, five high explosive bombs fell on the Treneere Estate, Penzance damaging a number of houses. At the village of Paul, one house was demolished and eight seriously damaged rendering more than 60 people homeless - Only one person was badly injured. One bomb fell at Penzer Point and four at Roskestral without effect, and only minor damage was caused by four high explosives at Cloane Farm, St. Buryan and by others at Zoar and Trelan.

29th: Falmouth attacked again, two bombs fell in the Inner Harbour between the Prince of Wales Pier and Flushing.

February 1942:

3rd: Four bombs fell on Trevega Farm, Towednack causing only minor damage.

9th: Early in the morning, the farmhouse and electricity cables at Bosistow Farm near Sennen were damaged; Bombs also fell on Trewilley and Skewjack in the same area.

The remainder of the month was quiet.

March 1942:

1st: Four bombs demolished two houses and badly damaged others in a sharp attack on Roseworthy near Camborne resulting in four casualties, one of them serious.

6th: In the early hours, four high explosives were dropped on Porthgwidden damaging two houses.

14th: Three distinct raids, all in the space of less than an hour, took place in the evening. Four bombs fell at Nethercombe and Glebe Farms, St. Pinnock; three fell on Goss Moor and three more at Trussel Farm, Wendron. None of these attacks produced any damage or casualties.

20th: Four high explosives fell at Deer Park, Carnmeal Downs and on Porthleven Road, Helston, this road was blocked for three days, but no other damage occurred.

A whole month then went by without any incidents.

April 1942:

23rd: Minor damage was caused to houses at Four Winds, Bodmin by four bombs.

25th: One bomb fell on Trevol Camp, Torpoint during the early hours.

26th: Three bombs fell at Rame Head and at Kilmar Tor four high explosives and one 250 Flam Oil bomb fell; neither did any damage.

27th: In the morning, two bombs fell near the King Harry Ferry, but again no damage was caused and no-one was hurt.

The followed another long period of calm.

May 1942: no recorded incidents. (this doesn鈥檛 mean there weren鈥檛 any!)

June 1942:

9th: Three bombs fell at Redinnick, but all three failed to explode. However, a certain amount of damage to house property and to St. Mary鈥檚 School where two unexploded bombs in the main classroom were not found until after two others were made safe.

16th/17th: During the night, three bombs dropped at Newlyn damaged between 70 and 80 houses, five being rendered uninhabitable; Only one casualty was reported. At Tresidders and Respannel Farms, St. Buryan one 500kg and three 250kg bombs did no damage, but a bomb which fell at Carnon Downs caused damage to a house. Four 250 kg bombs fell at Chyvarloe, Gunwallow and did a fair amount of damage to glass. At Coombe Lane, Chyandour, Penzance several houses were damaged by four bombs. Three 250 kg bombs fell at Paul doing further damage to a school and two houses. At Halvarras and Nancassick, Kea four 250kg bombs damaged crops only, but no damage was done by a number of bombs which fell at Reskajeage Farm, North Cliffs and Foage Farm, Zennor.

Another lull for a month.

July 1942:

13th: Four bombs were dropped on Roskelly Beach, Newlyn causing minor damage to seven houses and electricity cables.

29th: The enemy used phosphorous bombs for the first time, fourteen were dropped in the Ludgvan area, namely Treassowe, Tremenhere, Badgers鈥� Cross and Garras. A number of small 1 kg magnesium bombs fell on the beach at Eastern Green, Penzance. The effect of these particularly nasty bombs was comparatively slight, with the burning of a cows鈥� house door being the only fire reported. But a stray bomb damaged the farmhouse at Treassowe and killed one bullock.

August 1942:

6th: During the evening, two enemy fighter bombers each dropped a 500 kg bomb on Truro. One fell on the Royal Cornwall Infirmary demolishing the south wing; the other exploded in mid-air some thirty feet above Agar Road after having hit the ground at the bottom of Campfield Hill some 200 yds north of the Cathedral, lost it鈥檚 tail-fins, and bounced 90 ft in the air and travelled nearly a quarter of a mile. Fourteen people were killed, more than 65 injured and over one hundred houses were damaged, one house was demolished and the Diocesan College, Wardens Post A2 and St. Paul鈥檚 Church were also damaged; the Railway Station where a postman was killed in the waiting room, was machine-gunned. On leaving, the same two raiders machine-gunned several farm places, at Golden Manor Farm two cows were killed and they set fire to hay and straw ricks and injured cattle at Warwick Farm, St. Ewe. During the same evening, two 鈥渢ip and run鈥� raiders (were they the same two?) dropped two bombs on St. Breward; three people were injured, four houses demolished with 60 more damaged along with electricity cables and water mains. At Golant machine-gun bullets and cannon fire injured one person and damaged one house. There was also structural damage to buildings and the tower of St. Sampson鈥檚 Church. One cow was killed and others injured at Trevorva Farm, Probus and buildings at Newton, Golden Cot and Carveth in Tregony were also damaged. In all 6th August 1942 was one of those days that the war really did come to Cornwall.

7th: The 鈥渢ip and run鈥� raiders came again, so quickly that no alarm was given; just before 2 p.m. two bombs were dropped on Bodmin, and part of the town was raked with cannon fire. Nine people were killed and eighteen injured. The Retort House at the Gas Works and the food depot in Mill Street were demolished and several houses in Mill Street and Berrycombe Road were destroyed or badly damaged. At about the same time a similar raid took place on the Lizard; two high explosives fell at Rosevear Farm, injuring four persons and severely damaging four houses. One high explosive caused damage to buildings, injured one person and killed two bullocks at Polstrangie Farm, Ruan Minor. - Mrs Alice James remembers being at lunch when she saw the enemy aircraft fly over their house at Cadgwith, hotly pursued by an RAF Spitfire. The raider crashed off the Lizard and Mrs James remembers feeling sorry for the pilot -鈥漚 mother鈥檚 son and maybe a husband and father.鈥�

17th: An audacious daylight raid on Coverack in which three bombs were dropped, resulted in the deaths of four persons, with twenty-one being injured; five houses demolished and twenty-five damaged, adding up to a disaster for the small community.

18th: The official record of the evening raid states: 鈥淭wo HEs fell on the St. Blazey Housing Estate and one HE at North Street, Tywardreath. Three houses were demolished and others damaged at St. Blazey and one demolished and ten damaged at Tywardreath. Casualties were one fatal and 15 injured at St. Blazey and 2 fatal and one injured at Tywardreath. Again no siren warning was received prior to the raid.鈥�

28th: Two identical 鈥渟neak raids鈥� occurred at St. Ives and Pentewan just after 3 p.m. The two bombs that fell at St. Ives demolished two gasometers, wrecked four houses, severely damaged 20 others and caused slight damage to nearly 400 more. Water mains and power cables were also affected but although 54 persons were injured there was only one fatality. Porthminster Beach was peppered with bullets and the main shopping street was machine-gunned which made the cinema roof like a colander. At Pentewan two bombs destroyed the Chapel which contained emergency food stores, twenty-one houses and a church were also damaged and five people injured. At the same time Marazion was machine-gunned and cannon fire damaged several houses and injured four people. A Western National 鈥榖us travelling along the road between Penzance and Hayle was hit by machine-gun fire, the 鈥檅us was slightly damaged and there were four casualties among the passengers.

29th: In the middle of the day a stray bomb was dropped near Messack House, St. Just-in-Roseland damaging the Norwegian ship 鈥淛ernfjeld鈥�. Gerrans church was slightly damaged again by machine-gun and cannon fire, which also raked Porth Farm.

After this there was a lull for about a month.

September 1942:

24th/25th: Around midnight hundreds of incendiary bombs were dropped on Falmouth in less than half an hour, six houses were damaged in Wood Lane. Mylor was machine-gunned ineffectively but incendiary bombs set fire to two ricks at Mudgeon Vean.

Late on the 24th a similar raid took place in Truro when more than a thousand 1 kg magnesium bombs were dropped in and about the city. Only one house was damaged by fire, but three people were slightly injured, and one more seriously. Had it not been for the prompt action of the fire watchers and air raid wardens, the fire would have had devastating consequences. - The co-author of the book (from which this is all taken), Phyllis Rowe remembers this air raid very clearly as it was her 21st birthday on 25th September. She was to have a rare day off, but when late on the 24th the thousand magnesium bombs fell on Truro, her family tried to persuade her to open her presents then, obviously fearing that the incendiaries would be followed by high explosives. However, she decided to wait until the next day, but was called back on duty early in the morning. Many of these I.Bs failed to explode and Inspector R.B. Ivey had gone out with a Bomb Disposal Officer; It was then that the local inhabitants who had found unexploded bombs decided to deposit them for safekeeping in the Control Centre, so that the remainder of the staff spent the day trying to look brave and unconcerned, in the hope that if the bombs had failed to ignite on impact, it was unlikely that they would do so if left undisturbed.

27th: In the early hours, a dozen high explosive and more than thirty 50 kg 鈥渇irepot鈥� incendiary bombs were dropped in the business quarter of Penzance, causing much damage at the rear of Green Market, North Parade and Union Street. Fire were caused at Parc Wartha, Penalverne
Avenue and Trezela Road; a W.V.S. Depot was damaged and clothing destroyed; one house and four flats were demolished, with fifteen casualties, one seriously injured. - A few minutes after this raid an enemy bomber that had presumably been involved, crashed at St. Just-in-Penwith demolishing one house and damaging others. There were some casualties, and the crew who survived were taken prisoner.

October 1942:

22nd: Four bombs fell on Menheniot Station and Quarry during the morning, causing one death, nine other casualties and damage to machinery in the stone quarry, to the railway line and ten dwelling houses. - This was the last air-raid on Cornwall in 1942.

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