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SOME RECOLLECTIONS of WW2 (By Arthur Nicol)

1.
AN ATTACK ON BOURNEMOUTH

1943: I was an 11year old schoolboy and on 23rd. May of that year I witnessed a devastating Luftwaffe daylight raid on Bournemouth

At the time of the raid, just after 1pm, I was on my way home, with a friend, from a customary Sunday morning visit to the town鈥檚 Pier Approach swimming baths. It was a beautiful warm sunny day and we were making our way towards the bus station by way of the path which follows the Bourne Stream in Bournemouth Gardens. Many people were out sunning themselves on the grass and on the bench seats in the gardens. The tranquillity of the moment was suddenly replaced by ear shattering sounds. Machine guns, bombs and howling aero engines. The path we were on sloped up to slightly higher ground past fairly dense Rhododendron bushes. I saw the aircraft racing by; the pilots could be clearly seen. We dived into a mass of bushes and lay there until the sounds died. Now there was an unnatural silence. We came out of the bushes to find the sky darkening with thick black smoke from a building (Bobby鈥檚 department store) that had been hit by bombs and gunfire. I saw many casualties around. The silence was broken by the sound of car horns being sounded as they raced off with casualties in the direction of Victoria Hospital. It transpired that the town had been hit on a broad front but from our perspective it amounted to a stream of fighters, flying literally at treetop height through the gardens, dropping bombs and raking the ground with machinegun fire. Churches, department stores and hotels were hit. In particular the Metropole hotel, accommodating some hundreds of Canadian airmen, was hit causing a large number of casualties.

The raid had been carried out by a large number of ME109s.

A Supplement to the Bournemouth Daily Echo (12th. April 1945), commemorating the 60th. anniversary of VE day, includes many details of the raid under the title 鈥淗itler鈥檚 Airmen Rain Hell on Bournemouth.鈥�.

2.
Springtime 1944

We were two 12 year old boys sauntering along the edge of a local woodland (Branksome Woods, Bournemouth). Within the woods was a sizeable arms dump just recently established, and with armed sentries. As we later found out, the dump had been set up for D-day; it simply comprised huge stacks of boxed munitions with camouflage nets thrown over them. Now, cordite was a commodity much sought after by schoolboys for various exciting little jobs like burning patterns into concrete. Just a few sticks of the stuff from a rifle bullet were enough to stir artistic imaginings. The acquisition of say, an artillery shell would render quite a few 鈥榖ullets-worth鈥� of cordite. We in fact, that day, found ourselves in possession of such an item. Attempts to 鈥榣iberate鈥� the contents of the shell, by twisting, levering and generally battering it with lengths of timber, failed. It was after we made enquiries as what 鈥淎nti-personnel鈥� (the label on the warhead) meant, that we realised with some shock that we had a greater problem - how to get rid of our 鈥渇ind鈥�. To take it back from whence it came was not an option. If caught, being accused of stealing the item when it was in fact being returned would be too great an injustice. The perfect solution to the problem came pedalling down the road - a Bobby on a bike. Waving the Bobby down we told him of having 鈥榝ound something鈥� in a timber yard. Basking in the glow of praise for reporting the 鈥榝ind鈥�, we watched as he rode off with the shell held firmly under his arm.

Someone out there may know what sort of shell it was. Overall It was about 2ft long and 3 - 4 inches diameter at the base of the case. It had a black warhead with a red band near the tip. On the red band, in white letters, was 鈥淎nti-personnel鈥�.

3.
D-Day
On the morning of 6th. June 1945 I started out, as usual, on my paper round in the Westbourne area of Bournemouth before going to school. As usual, on route, I headed for some large houses that had been requisitioned as accommodation for American troops. These soldiers who had been in residence for quite some time, were a lucrative source of income; large silver coins for 2d papers was quite the norm. On this day, to my great surprise, there was no sign of soldiers or of the many military vehicles which had been parked under the trees in the roads and avenues. I stood thinking - How could so many men and equipments disappear so quickly? Then came the roar of aircraft engines. I witnessed a vast armada of aircraft flying south. Mostly they were Dakotas towing gliders but there was also a mixed bag of fighters in escort. As I watched, I wondered about The broad white bands around the fuselage and wings of all the aircraft. All became clear later that day, this was D-Day.

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