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HASTINGS IN WWII Not only did Hastings Old Town
suffer during World War II, but also Hastings Town Centre suffered
badly from the bombing and blast damage.
The Town's first air raid was at 7:15am on the
26 July 1940, when a single aircraft dropped 11 explosive bombs,
several of which fell on the Cricket Ground, now Priory Meadow Shopping
Centre. One would not have thought that this would have been regarded
as a very strategic target but the German High Command apparently
had access to some very old maps because the claim was made that
there had been a successful raid on Hastings Harbour! Later more
damage was done to the Cricket Ground when the railings surrounding
it were taken as scrap to help the war effort. The first lone raid
presaged four years of aerial onslaught with the month of September
1940 being particularly disastrous as far as the Town Centre was
concerned. On the 14th, Linton Crescent, then on the 26th, two raids
which resulted in a total of forty high explosive bombs being dropped
in Queens Road, Nelson Road, Milward Road, and St Mary's Terrace.
Three people were killed and there was widespread destruction.
On the 30th September, a bomb hit the coping of the
Plaza Cinema, today Yates Bar, and exploded in mid air. It was
the most devastating incident of the war in the Memorial area. People
had been watching the aerial battle raging overhead and eight people
were killed outright, and another six died later from their injuries.
Many others received injuries of varying degrees of severity. Amongst
those who had been standing at the Memorial and who was killed was
Norman Kemp. He had been home on compassionate leave from the RAF
to attend the funeral of his brother, who had been killed in the
previous raid, when his Queens Road shop had received a direct hit.
There was also widespread devastation in Middle Street, Castle Street and on the sea front. In one of the more bizarre incidents, a bomb hit the roof of the Queens Hotel but bounced from there to the Albany Hotel before exploding killing Canadian soldiers. The Albany was completely destroyed, on the site are now flats and a Debenhams department store. The unmanned flying bombs, or doodelbugs, flew right over Hastings as it was on the direct flight path and its been calculated that 50% of all those launched against England passed over the Town. Not many were brought down in Hastings but the final piece of town damage was caused in June 1944 when a doodlebug went into the sea off Carlisle Parade. The blast caused damage to shops and offices in White Rock and the town centre and staff were kept busy all morning sweeping away broken glass. The bombing produced heroes as well as victims. One of the former was a nurse named Dorothy Gardner, working at the Royal East Sussex Hospital. The hospital had been damaged in 1940. A bomb dropped in White Rock Gardens had sent debris crashing through the roof of the children's ward. Fortunately, no one was injured but the following year another bomb fell on the hospital. A woman patient would certainly been killed had Dorothy Gardner not flung herself across the woman's bed, shielding her with her own body. Dorothy Gardner received severe head injuries but was awarded the George Medal for her courage. There were also incidents that in retrospect after the danger was over brought smiles to people's faces. For example Edith Skilton, was working at her desk in the Borough Engineers town centre offices when she saw a Messerschmitt 109 flying past so low that she could even see the pilot was smiling. She called out to her boss, who was not impressed and replied to her " Nonsense girl you wouldn't know an ME109 if it hit you ", whereupon the plane returned to machine-gun the building. Even though the two World wars had dramatic effect over the whole of Hastings and its people the town did survive and today the lives lost are still remembered. HASTINGS OLD TOWN IN WWII
The
outbreak of World War II in 1939 did bring a change to Hastings Old
Town. It brought an end to redevelopment and large areas were left
empty. Barbed wire, gun emplacements and tank traps appeared along
the seafront, as well as oil pipes for a flame defence system. Access
to the beach was forbidden except to fishermen who had special permits
to use a guarded gateway at Rocka-Nore. But even though they benefited
from high food prices their work was dangerous and three boats were
lost in mine explosions.
As a result of the bombing raids
and the possibility of a German landing in the area, many residents
were evacuated. By September 1940 the town's population was reduced
from 65,000 to 22,000 and large number of troops were stationed
in the Old Town. The St Clements caves were used as an air raid
shelter, hospital and school and housed 300 to 400 people. Later
another shelter was tunnelled into the hill at Torfield. In March
1943 the recently widowed Duchess of Kent visited residents .
In May 1940 Hastings fishermen rescued
over 100 Belgian refugees, from a tug under the cliffs at Fairlight,
along with 13 million francs in wages for Belgian railway employees.
Less than a month later 12 Hastings boats were called to Dover to
assist in evacuation of the British Troops at Dunkirk. In the event
they were held on standby and only the lifeboat, Cyril and Lilian
Bishop was sent to France. In the summer of 1940 locals watched
as the Battle of Britain was fought in the skies above South East
England. On the 25 August a German plane crashed into the sea close
by and a lone survivor was brought ashore by the Hastings lifeboat.
But the worst, and most devastating
raid, on The Old Town occurred at lunchtime on the 23rd May 1943,
on the Swan Hotel. The hotel, Swan Terrace and Reeves shops were
destroyed and sixteen people died.
In 1944 the danger of the new unmanned flying bomb, or doodlebug, appeared over the South coast. Because of this an anti aircraft gun was placed on the West Hill. Amongst the staff manning this battery was the Prime Minister's daughter, Mary Churchill. And on the 12 May Winston Churchill paid a visit to Hastings to inspect the D-Day troops as Lord warden of the Cinque Ports. A trip to Hastings Castle and the West hill guns was included in his itinerary |
