Falmouth Bombing ~ Tuesday 30th May 1944

That I don't know. Maybe someone will help us out on that.

I know that on 29/5/44 Rudloe reported at 2330 no hostile aircraft in Falmouth's part of the Channel at that time, but "might be later". Flares were first reported in the Helford direction from Falmouth at 23.45.
On the 30/5/44 the balloon barrage was ordered to "Shine" at 0020 and the "Alert" was sounded at 0021.
The AA GOR gave two plots of "two plus" hostile 30 to 35 miles South to Falmouth coming North.
The Q site on Nare Point was put into operation.
At 0029 flares were dropped across the harbour boom and bay.
At 0037 the AA guns opened fire, the GOR giving a plot of 25 hostile aircraft approaching.
Incendiary bombs were the first reported.
At 0049 in the dock/harbour area the hangar with 6 inflated balloons inside was on fire.
Then there are reports of HEs including those in the hotel area on Cliff Road.
It seems one of these fired the Swanvale Oil Depot. The Police Record suggests it was on fire by 0030.
At 0050 one of the balloon sites had an impact on their cable. Other eyewitnesses report seeing a hostile aircraft crash into the sea about one mile south of Pendennis Point at this time.
At 0120 all hostile plots were removed from the area. At 0121 the All Clear sounded. The barrage reverted to normal height at 0133.

One barrage balloon had to be deflated due to machine gun bullet holes. The RAF believe they came from the Americans onboard the D Day ships & landing craft in the harbour/Carrick Roads.
The downing of a German aircraft was credited in full to the balloon vessel "Donald & Doris".
The RAF reported that during the raid nearly 30 HEs, 25 exploding fire bombs and 5 canisters of "Butterfly" bombs were dropped in the area.
Most of the bombs seem to have dropped in a line from the docks, along the ridge following the railway line, up as far as Swanvale. Other areas including St Mawes and the Roseland peninsula were machine gunned.

CornwallPhil;146053 wrote:

That I don't know. Maybe someone will help us out on that.

I know that on 29/5/44 Rudloe reported at 2330 no hostile aircraft in Falmouth's part of the Channel at that time, but "might be later". Flares were first reported in the Helford direction from Falmouth at 23.45.
On the 30/5/44 the balloon barrage was ordered to "Shine" at 0020 and the "Alert" was sounded at 0021.
The AA GOR gave two plots of "two plus" hostile 30 to 35 miles South to Falmouth coming North.
The Q site on Nare Point was put into operation.
At 0029 flares were dropped across the harbour boom and bay.
At 0037 the AA guns opened fire, the GOR giving a plot of 25 hostile aircraft approaching.
Incendiary bombs were the first reported.
At 0049 in the dock/harbour area the hangar with 6 inflated balloons inside was on fire.
Then there are reports of HEs including those in the hotel area on Cliff Road.
It seems one of these fired the Swanvale Oil Depot. The Police Record suggests it was on fire by 0030.
At 0050 one of the balloon sites had an impact on their cable. Other eyewitnesses report seeing a hostile aircraft crash into the sea about one mile south of Pendennis Point at this time.
At 0120 all hostile plots were removed from the area. At 0121 the All Clear sounded. The barrage reverted to normal height at 0133.

One barrage balloon had to be deflated due to machine gun bullet holes. The RAF believe they came from the Americans onboard the D Day ships & landing craft in the harbour/Carrick Roads.
The downing of a German aircraft was credited in full to the balloon vessel "Donald & Doris".
The RAF reported that during the raid nearly 30 HEs, 25 exploding fire bombs and 5 canisters of "Butterfly" bombs were dropped in the area.
Most of the bombs seem to have dropped in a line from the docks, along the ridge following the railway line, up as far as Swanvale. Other areas including St Mawes and the Roseland peninsula were machine gunned.

Are you able to tell me the name of the owner of the Pentargon hotel. I am doing research into my family tree and I have reason to believe that the owner was a great aunt. Any help you can give me will be greatly appreciated.

I understood that the hotel had been owned by Mr Griffith Price and Mrs Daisy Price ( Daisy Harbour ) and they also owned property in Thame Oxfordshire.

They were in Thame when their hotel had been bombed.

Dave.

Harboda77;151917 wrote:

I understood that the hotel had been owned by Mr Griffith Price and Mrs Daisy Price ( Daisy Harbour ) and they also owned property in Thame Oxfordshire.

They were in Thame when their hotel had been bombed.

Dave.

Thank you so much

Jane

[IMG]/community/151928=18323-Pentargan Ad.jpg[/img]
This is the advert for the hotel that appeared in the 1935 Falmouth Guide.

Thanks for finding an image of the hotel before it had been destroyed ~ we could only locate post bombing images until today.

I've located an advert from a Falmouth and District Illustrated Guide for the second Pentargan at Gyllyngvase.

[IMG]/community/151951=18324-Pentargan Advert .jpg[/img]

Dave

Information for cornwallphil.

During my first visit in 1960 I heard a freefrench related story that linked to Davidstow Moor and I've finally found some more information on it plus it is also recorded in wiki.

The story related to a one aircraft special operations flight to Paris in 1942.

The pilot had flown down the Champs-Elysees dropping the French Flag on the Arc de Triomphe circled the Eiffel Tower and fired at the Gestapo building before flying back to England.

The pilot had been K Gatward who had been the CO of the Canadian squadron number 404 and he had been based at Davidstow Moor later in 1944 following the Bombing of the Pentargan and D Day operations.

I had attempted to verify the story while I worked in Paris during the 1990's however my senior colleague who had been awarded the Tri Colour lapel strip by General DeGaule had not heard the story so I put it on the back burner ~ however it appears to be accurately based on the flight described above.

He also warned me that war stories could be 50% BS with 49% inaccurate recollections or observations and 1% fiction until you could locate three independent verifications ~ Its only taken 25 years to find them.

Trust you find this off interest.

Dave.

Fascinating stuff. I had heard the story of the flight to put the flag on the Arc de Triumphe but was unaware of a Cornish connection.
The pilot may feature in the numerous photos on the 404 Sqn website www.404squadron.com/index.html They have loads of pics which they don't have captions for. I have identified several as being at Davidstow.

See various posts prior to post 125 on RAF Davidstow and post 136 concerning the sale of Ken Gatward's medals.