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Incident 48 - Raid on a South Coast Town
The above is the title of a book by the late Angela Beleznay about a hit and run raid by German Fw190 fighter bombers against Bournemouth on Sunday 23rd May 1943.
A memorial was unveiled at the Lansdowne on 23rd May 2013 on the 70th anniversary to commemorate the fallen on the raid.
A memorial was unveiled at the Lansdowne on 23rd May 2013 on the 70th anniversary to commemorate the fallen on the raid.
North Cemetery in Bournemouth - downloadable picture and listing here
The late Vera Smiths’s book ‘So Much Sadness So Much Fun’ records that having been scrambled to intercept the raid, ‘A’ flight tried to close and engage on the enemy formation of 17 plus but could get no closer then 1200 yards.
The Focke Wulf Fw190(A-5) was a variant modified for the fighter bomber role so that it could carry a 500Kg bomb. It was faster and more manoeuvrable than the Spitfire MkV or MkVIs of 616Sqn sent up for the interception. That combined with the speed and low level nature of the attack minimised any reaction time the radars at Ventnor had to identify and alert the reporting system that responded to attacks. Typhoons at Warmwell would have been fast enough but they were occupied on other tasks at the time and again the reaction time would have been against them.
616 was the first Squadron to be equipped with Meteor jet fighters in 1944
The Focke Wulf Fw190(A-
