Edgar Cove Boat Builder: Rise and Fall of Family Business

WARTIME BOMBING AT SALCOMBE

The first bombs that hit Salcombe were in 1941. Two bombs fell near the top of the steep field that faces the entrance to Shadycombe Creek. They seemed to be fairly small ones as they left two fairly shallow craters near the top hedge. Traces of these craters remained visible for some years afterwards. They fell during an afternoon when I was at school in Kingsbridge but we heard the explosions clearly there.

I did not know they were near my home until I returned from school and found my mother very upset because some of our windows had been broken. They had fallen almost opposite Island House.

The next bomb was much bigger. It fell into a field near the cottages at a bend in the Portlemouth/Rickham road. My brothers and I went across and had a look at the crater which must have been about 12’ deep.

The next bomb appeared to have been jettisoned during or after a raid on Plymouth. It fell in the field next to the house which stands on the main road from Salcombe to Malborough just past the entrance to Churchill Farm. This one failed to explode but as it was very close to the road they made the Kingsbridge bus, on which we went to school, stop and unload us all at the entrance to Churchill Farm, and we had to walk to Marlborough to catch another bus as they thought the vibration of the bus might set the bomb off. Presumably for this reason also they had not stationed anyone to guard the entrance to the field so all we schoolboys went in and looked down the bomb hole.

We could not see the bomb however since the hole, which was about 2-3’ diameter, only went down a little way before the sides had collapsed on top of the bomb so it was hidden from view. Bomb disposal men came later and dug it up and took the explosive out of the casing and burned it by the side of the road.

On another occasion my brother and I were up in the Bag with a rowing dinghy. We had landed on Halwell Point by the edge of Halwell Wood and were in the field about halfway up the edge of the wood. We heard a plane coming down Frogmore Creek-it was very low, right down near the water. As it swung round into the Bag and headed towards Portlemouth we saw that it was a German fighter with a single bomb slung under it. It was so low that we were actually looking down on it and could see the pilot clearly.

At that time there was an anti-aircraft rocket launcher just above the beach on the low eastern side of Snapes point which could cover both the Bag and the harbour towards Portlemouth. Perhaps that was the target or perhaps he just wanted to get rid of his bomb and go home.

Anyway, he dropped the bomb short of the point and it exploded in the deep water in the Bag about 100 yards from the beach.. missing every boat that was in the Bag as well as the rocket launcher.

The pilot climbed steeply and went over Portlemouth and got away. My brother and I jumped into our dinghy and rowed down to the spot as fast as we could and were able to take home a fine collection of stunned or dead fish from the explosion site.

In 1942 a bomb fell in Church Street although it was clearly intended for my father’s boatyard at Island Quay where he had been engaged on work for the Admiralty since well before the war. This particular attack remains vividly in my mind as I saw the whole attack from start to finish. It was in the late afternoon and I was off Island Quay, rowing a pram dinghy and towing another boat out to the moorings.

I heard a plane and saw a German fighter coming across over Batson with a single bomb slung underneath it. It was flying on a southerly course that seemed likely to take him over the Berry and then towards the harbour entrance. I was therefore watching with a somewhat detached interest which rapidly changed to concern when he reached a point approximately in line with the Church and then banked sharply into a left turn and came straight towards me. I realised at once that he was going for the yard and that I was in a very bad position. However, I was hampered by the boat that I was towing and it seemed to take ages to cast off its painter.

While I was trying to do this I became aware that the water alongside me was being churned up by machine gun fire although I never heard the guns. He was so low that the angle was so shallow that the bullets probably richocheted off the water and ended up on Snapes Point. Fortunately for me, although he had my range exactly right his fire was about 20 feet too far to the right, no doubt because his first priority was to line up onto the yard, so I was unharmed.

I saw the bomb leave his plane. He had released it a little early so it fell into Church Street and I saw a great cloud of dust and smoke. The plane passed right over me, so low that I could see every rivet. He flew on across the harbour and away over the hill between Portlemouth and Waterhead.

I went ashore and went up the hill forgetting that I had no shoes on. I could not get beyond the junction of Buckley Street and Church Street as Church Street was carpeted with glass and rubble down to there. I could see houses demolished just where the archway goes through to the backs of the houses on the south side of the street. Rescue work started immediately but several people were killed there.

I was away from Salcombe from 1942 until after the war so have no firsthand information about subsequent events. However the Luftwaffe tried again for the yard and this time they did hit it.

Fortunately it happened during the lunch hour when only two men were in the yard having their lunch. They threw themselves under a bench and were fortunately OK apart from the shock.

The main force of the explosion seems to have been absorbed by our steam engine which was blown to pieces, some of which were later found right out on the mud where the moorings are.. The yard was badly damaged and the cottages, which stood between the yard and where the day centre now is, were completely demolished.

Next day, so I was told, the German radio claimed to have destroyed a submarine building works at Salcombe!

I have never seen any photographs of the yard immediately after it was bombed as none came into possession of my family. Doubtless some official ones were taken but they would not have been published in case they gave comfort to the enemy. Nor did I see the destruction myself as I did not return to Salcombe until well after the rebuilding was complete. Because the yard was on essential war work rebuilding it was given priority status and a squad from Plymouth came in and rebuilt it very quickly. While this was being done production of boats for the Navy continued at the Shadycombe yard..

There were other bombs after this in Salcombe affecting Fore Street but as I was not there I hope others will be able to provide details of these.

John Cove,
September 2009