大象传媒

Mrs B M Anderson is willing to have her story entered onto the People's War website and agrees to abide by the House Rules.

I was nursing at Mount Gold Hospital during the Blitz 1941 - 21/2/41 when I was 17 years old. As soon as the air raid sirens went, we would hand out enamel washing bowls to each patient to cover their heads which gave them a feeling of protection against any debris that might fall! We were lucky as we only had incendiary bombs and windows blown out. In the City Hospital 40 patients and 10 nurses were killed. The Children's ward was hit and the maternity block and one baby born during the raid.

My home near Portland Square was hit and a good deal of damage done. If I had been in my bedroom I would have been killed. All the houses nearby and Sherwell Cottages were completely demolished, just stone and rubble. The air raid shelter under Portland Square had a direct hit and 180 people were killed.

The town was a ghostly sight; Spooners, Dingles, Pophams, Yeos, George Street etc in ruins only iron girders remaining. The Guildhall, St Andrews and Charles Church burnt out, hardly a building is untouched. The Barbican is terrible, firemen and police have come from all over the country. They say that it is the worst raid they have dealt with as regards damage according to the size of the place.

We are evacuating as many patients as possible to other hospitals. It is estimated that casualties for two nights are about 200 dead. It is so pitiful to see in the streets piles of furniture and belongings to the bombed out people. My friend Jean said she was in the Royal Cinema which was bombed and was very frightened. The shelters were full up but she found one in the end after seeing some horrible sights; legs arms and heads scattered around. It is heartbreaking and so sad to see Plymouth in such a state. (Condensed from a letter I wrote during the raids to my Aunt).

I remember when I went cycling on Woodbury Common in 1942 with my cousin. A plane came from out of the blue and flew over us. We then saw it had a swastika on its tail and dropped some bombs aiming probably for the railway line. It then turned and we hurredly jumped off our bikes into a ditch in case they started to machine gun us! At that time the Germans were carrying out spot raids. Some bombs were dropped on Dartmouth Royal Naval College. The cadets were on holiday so casualties were low.

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