´óÏó´«Ã½

CWS 180804D 16:09:31 — 16:11:22

This story has been added by CSV volunteer Linda Clark on behalf of the author Peter Gilson His story was given to the Trebah WW2 Video Archive, supported by the Heritage Lottery Fund in 2004. The Trebah Garden Trust understand the site's terms and conditions.

For most people the war in Falmouth started in 1939 but for the people of Falmouth it started in 1938 when there was a ‘goodwill’ cruise from a German warship around a number of ports. Being naïve in those days we entertained these very smart, fair haired cadets, most of whom could speak English and most of whom had cameras the like of which we hadn’t seen before. We were still in the box brownie era! They had Leica and Voigtlander cameras and they were allowed to go all over the place taking photographs of each other. We didn’t think anything of it at the time but afterwards we realised they must have been asking their friends to stand in front of things like oil tanks. Afterwards, a Falmouth soldier who had been in the Intelligence Corps and who had been through German records brought back a map, an aerial photograph, showing all the strategic areas around Falmouth marked perfectly. Many of you will have seen the map because it was published in the Packet and I still have several copies of it. The map was all in German of course but when the war started in 1939 the Germans knew more about Falmouth than most of us who lived there.

© Copyright of content contributed to this Archive rests with the author. Find out how you can use this.