大象传媒

This story was submitted to the People鈥檚 War site by Elizabeth Perez of Stockport Libraries on behalf of Sydney Johnson and has been added to the site with his permission. He fully understands the site鈥檚 terms and conditions.

The very first air raid I experienced was a daylight raid on Portsmouth on 11th July 1940. I was working in Portchester (situated on Portsmouth Harbour), when the air aid sirens (鈥渞ed alert鈥�) wailed, which meant all employees had to make haste to the air raid shelters, which were long Nissen steel shelters situated outside the offices and works. There was little or no gunfire as I remember, and after a short while in the shelter, I broke all rules and annoyed the Shelter Warden by returning outside to the daylight. Standing on some waste ground I saw several planes (I understand about eight) flying at 500-800 ft very fast approaching Portsmouth from Spithead towards Langstone Harbour. There was no anti-aircraft fire as the planes were too low and obviously surprised the defences. A line of bombs was dropped right across the centre of Portsmouth and I remember the columns of smoke and debris rising into the sky, seemingly a straight line, perhaps some 20 or 30 bombs went down in probably less than a minute! Over almost before one could realise what had happened. If my memory serves me right it would have been about 2 or 3in the afternoon and I remember thinking that half of Portsmouth would be flattened and destroyed. Little did I know that this was just 鈥渃hicken feed鈥� to what was in store for the rest of the war. The bombs dropped were light-weight probably about 50/100lbs or such that a flight-bomber could carry. There was quite a bit of air activity afterwards as fighters from Tangmere (of Battle of Britain fame) took on the bombing planes, but though there was sporadic gunfire I saw little of this. Casualties were eight killed and sixty injured according to official figures.

After the raid when I returned to Southsea where I was living at this time I expected to see buildings flattened and debris piled up but to my surprise I saw very little damage until the bus on which I was travelling (which was derouted several times) almost reached about one mile off Southsea, when we had to alight, only to find streets cordoned off and fire engines and ambulances still working. I had to wind my way through several streets and avenues, glass and debris over the roads, before I was able to reach my 鈥渄igs鈥�, fortunately undamaged. How na茂ve we were then before air raids.

The first major air raid I experienced was on Portsmouth on 10th January 1941. Fortunately I had moved out of the town and was living at Portchester on Portsdown Hill overlooking Portsmouth Harbour (some four miles in direct line to Portsmouth centre). This position gave a wonderful view of Portsmouth 鈥� the harbour and surrounding districts. The air raid warning started at 6.30pm and soon the dreaded throb of German bomber planes could be heard 鈥� this filled one with a fear difficult to describe 鈥� one鈥檚 stomach seemed to 鈥渢urn over鈥� with a dreadful nauseous feeling of pending doom. It has been written that the unmistakeable throb of German bomber planes (you could never forget the sound and it was completely different from British bomber planes) was deliberately caused by turning the engines at different frequencies 鈥� de-synchronising the engines for want of a better word. But I have no idea whether this was true or not, but it sounds feasible. My first reaction to this raid was how feeble the anti-aircraft fire was! For a town as important as Portsmouth, one would have thought a ring of steel would surround the town. But the bombers came seemingly at will (possibly a hundred or more) and dropped their bomb loads. The first hit seemed to be on the Power Station and electricity and gas supplies were soon cut-off making life exceedingly difficult at the start (electricity was not restored until mid-day on the 13th January).

Soon huge fires started right across the town 鈥� it was an awesome gut-wrenching sight as wave after wave of bombers came and presumably went without many losses! At this stage oil bombs were dropped into the existing fires, making life exceedingly hazardous for the support services. As the raid proceeded, many more mobile Ack Ack guns were brought into service from surrounding areas and eventually a rather formidable barrage was put up. The noise was unbelievable 鈥� impossible to describe and frightening in the extreme, one can only say one鈥檚 consciousness was completely numbed!

The raid continued until 9pm (but no 鈥淎ll Clear鈥�) when by this time the whole of Portsmouth seemed to be alight. Not very many people will have left their Nissen shelters that night, but worse was to come. There was a three hour respite before the second part of the raid commenced. At 12am the bombers came again 鈥� the target was easy to find due to the huge fires blazing and this time H.E.bombs were used to complete the job. This lasted three hours and by this time many of us realised we were so lucky to be alive and could only commiserate with the poor souls, the fire and ambulance services personnel, who had such an impossible task that night. The loss of life and damage was considerable and it was unbelievable that Portsmouth could survive further attacks (which it did) throughout the war. Six bomber planes were brought down, which was a very poor percentage of the number of planes used in the raid.
The entry in my diary for this raid reads 鈥淭his is a night I shall never forget. An awesome experience, a 鈥渇irework鈥� display of unbelievable proportions, a gut-wrenching fearful event to remain forever in my memory!鈥�

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