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.

PREFACE:

These are extracts from a book of the same title (ISBN 0 9500 235 5 8), compiled by Phyllis Rowe and Ivan Rabey in 1987, from the various sources mentioned in that book. Presentation copies of the book were made to HRH Prince Charles, Prince of Wales, Duke of Cornwall; Viscount Falmouth, Lt of the County of Cornwall; Sir John.G.Carew Pole; F.J.Williams, Chairman of Cornwall County Council; Miss Elizabeth Johnstone, daughter of George.H.Johnstone, County Controller of Civil Defence; T.G.Alexander, Mayor of Restomel. Amongst a large subscription list, the Cornwall County Library, Record Office and Fire Brigade also have copies. This should provide useful contact points for those who require to research further into the subject.

As an arbitrarily imposed restriction of 3,000 words per story currently exists on the 大象传媒 People鈥檚 War Web Site, the complete 鈥淲hen Bombs Fell鈥� has of necessity been split into 7 parts including this introduction, as follows:

INDEX:

鈥淲hen Bombs Fell鈥� - The air-raids on Cornwall during WW2 : Part 1 - Introduction, Preface & Index.

鈥淲hen Bombs Fell鈥� - The air-raids on Cornwall during WW2 : Part 2 - 1940 (complete year).

鈥淲hen Bombs Fell鈥� - The air-raids on Cornwall during WW2 : Part 3 - 1941 January to April.

鈥淲hen Bombs Fell鈥� - The air-raids on Cornwall during WW2 : Part 4 - 1941 May to August.

鈥淲hen Bombs Fell鈥� - The air-raids on Cornwall during WW2 : Part 5 - 1941 September to December.

鈥淲hen Bombs Fell鈥� - The air-raids on Cornwall during WW2 : Part 6 - 1942 (complete year).

鈥淲hen Bombs Fell鈥� - The air-raids on Cornwall during WW2 : Part 7 - 1943 & 1944 (complete years & Postscript).

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INTRODUCTION:

At one o鈥檆lock on the morning of Saturday 29th June 1940, two high explosive bombs fell at Merrifield, Torpoint. As far as Cornwall was concerned these two explosions, which fortunately caused neither damage nor casualties, marked the end of the 鈥減honey war鈥� as it was called, although hostilities had commenced some nine months earlier on that fateful day, Sunday 3rd September, 1939. From that date until what was designated the 鈥渁ppointed day鈥� - the day (at the end of the war) on which records were completed - there were 420 air raids on Cornwall, some nineteen and a half thousand bombs fell, 137 civilians were killed and nearly 700 injured.

On 2nd May 1945, Police Supt. R.B.Ivey completed a carefully compiled 24 page document which recorded every air raid on Cornwall. For some 42 years a faded carbon copy of this document ha been among the private papers of the co-author of this book, Mrs Phyllis M Rowe of St. Austell. As Phyllis Trewhella she was secretary to Major George.H. Johnstone, the County Air Raid Precautions Controller during those exciting and exacting days.

Last year (1986), Phyllis Rowe obtained permission from the Home Office to use the information contained in that document as the basis for this book, which as the reader will find has been enlivened by anecdotes and personal reminiscences by many people. Apart from being a well
authenticated public record of the time when bombs fell, which may be of use to future historians or writers, this book is also a tribute to those civilians killed or injured by enemy action within our own county, and to the hundreds of men and women who served in the unarmed home front organisations - Cornwall鈥檚 precautions against enemy air raids.

...even in wartime, life in Cornwall was not without humour......

Some of the reports of incidents were colourful, one elderly man who described seeing a German 鈥榩lane drop a bomb near Truro, said 鈥淭here she was - booming and banging and buzzing,鈥� - Another, a local farmer reported that he had found an unexploded bomb, and he 鈥渉ad heaved and heaved with all his might, but the b------ wouldn鈥檛 move.鈥�

Unlike the original book, (which is highly readable for the individual stories and anecdotes alone), the CSV Storygatherer has taken the decision, due to time constraints, of just listing the bombing incidents etc., and as far as is practical, placing them in chronological order.

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