Falmouth Bombing ~ Tuesday 30th May 1944

Looking at a much enlarged photo I have to say I don't see any more up blast damage than I would expect in fact the way the windows are damaged it looks more like a small charge exploded INSIDE one of the rooms nearest the totally destroyed hotel.

Today's inputs were looking into the 'Lotfernrohr 7' bomb sight that had been evaluated after WWII by the Americans and it worked at 400 ft flying at 100MPH and was automatically activated.

The Junkers 88 would carry a couple of 500kg bombs and there is no report of a second crater close by so one theory is that the attacked triggered some form of explosive device inside the hotel or their 'Watering Can Troop Sprayer' could have triggered a secondary devise.

Nearly every one that has contacted me believes that there is something not to scale about the official description of the explosion and believe that the raid must have triggered a secondary device.

Dave you know my opinion on the secondary device or an explosive device inside the building so I am not going to reiterate it here. I do however believe something stinks in the state of Denmark.

Dave has any more info on this come up, would be interested mate

Dave

Dave, not a lot of actual progress since we last communicated however there are some new threads to be followed up on both sides of the channel.

1) I've been given the name of a gentleman in the Redruth area who may be able to assist with old photo's as I've located a colour photo of the observers tower relative to the hotel taken in 1960.

2) I've been given a lead on a GHQ Reserve unit operating in the area that may be worth looking in to.

3) A European based input has indicated that copies of the ‘Schleswig Holstein’ Fal River reports may have also ended up at Castle Wewelsburg.

So in summary lots of leads but very little facts todate.

Dave

dcdl12976 ~ Dave updates from the last 3 months.

item 3) No one has been able to locate a copy of the river Fal report to date however a visitor to Bavaria has heard about another interesting angle.

What I've been lead to believe is that Mr Hitler had intended to occupy Blenheim House in Woodstock and have his English HQ based in Oxford while his assistant in mass extermination Mr Himmler had set his eyes on a Kernow based HQ to compliment his ideology search for the Holy Grail.

The assumption of this concept being that once they had successfully crossed the channel Mr Churchill would had been driven back to his defensive line along the Welsh Marches while Mr Himmler would then have made a startling discovery in Kernow Country that would unit the local population under the banner of a re-united style of Pendragon home land.

It appears that their assumption had been that once the Gaelic based Tribes in Ireland, Scotland & Wales had been convinced of their common purpose then the assumption being that Mr Churchill would not have had the support he would require to maintain an effective resistance.

The four nations would have been granted independence with their own administration structures that should have effectively prevented them from any unified form of resistance while Kernow County would have then became a Kingdom again with its own council and leader.

item 2) The elimination of any potential cooperative people by these local groups had the invasion been successful would have had a propaganda value once the information had been communicated to the rest of the population.

item 1) The photo file size is to large to upload so I will send a copy to Richard to see if he can help.

We should only treat items 3 & 2 as a piece of fiction until some objective evidence is produced however that is a summary of where the inquiry lead to ~ it should make an interesting read for the conspiracy theorists.

Photo sent to me by Harboda77 to post on the thread. Captioned;

Cliff Road Falmouth 1960

Dave, thanks to REF for posting this so that I can describe in a little more detail my understanding of the eye witness account heard in 1960.

The photograph is looking north east from the miniature golf course on the southern edge of Queen Mary Gardens.

Swanpool and Swanvale are behind the photographers left shoulder and were one of the principle targets during the raid.

Note 1: This is where Chief Boatswain's Mate, Philip Lee Bishop earned his British Empire Medal for " conspicuous bravery " and the Navy & Marine Corps Medal from the US President for using a bulldozer to construct an earthen dam to prevent the spread of burning oil. The attending firemen had turned their hoses on him to prevent him and the dozer being set alight.

The beach centre left is Gyllyngvase and our post 1945 family owned hotel overlooked the Beach and the Queen Mary Gardens out of camera shot.

The pre 1944 hotel over looked Castle Beach which is partial hidden in the center mid distance on the photographers side of the visible bungalow located at the junction of Cliff Road and Castle Drive.

Note 2:Castle Drive is the location of pre war motorcycle time trials that interested my Fathers family during 1920/30's.

The two hotels destroyed ( Pentargon & Boscawen ) were in the upper center location and would have been partial hidden behind the Cliff Road Footpath Brick Structure with tall chimney shown in the 1960 photograph.

In the upper mid right section is a square tower on the ridge line and its in this area where I understood the eye witness to have been located when the bomber flew over head.

After dropping its bomb on the hotels it then continued in a south western direction following the Cliff Road towards the Swanvale Oil storage area.

The brick structures of the miniature golf course can still be seen in GE at the southern end of Queen Mary Road however the square tower is no longer visible on the ridge line as its now masked behind the ridge line greenery.

Note 3: The second family owned hotel over looking Gyllyngvase Beach had been eventually refurbished as the Best Western Beach Resort after the family owners retired in 1966 and it was then totally destroyed by fire during April 2012.

I trust that this helps you to relate to the eye witness account.

Hmm very interesting mate, I must admit I always get suspicious when official paperwork goes "missing" though as you say we need some sort of evidence.
If there was an SOE involvement in this then it is likely that the copy of the report may have been lost in the fire at Baker street, also when the Yanks went into the castle there is evidence that a lot of paperwork and artifacts were removed as trophies by the men and this could include the German report especially if a member of the American security services was there.

Cheers

Dave

Have read the speculation on this thread with interest and amusement. The photos below are a hopefully larger version of the hotel damage posted earlier in the thread, the Luftwaffe's view of Falmouth for the 1940 invasion planning, and a pre-war postcard showing the Gardens referred to earlier.

[IMG]/community/141841=15870-Falmouth Boscawen and Pentargon hotels bomb damage 1944.jpg[/img]
[IMG]/community/141841=15864-Falmouth German aerial photo.jpg[/img]
[IMG]/community/141841=15867-Queen Mary Gardens Old Postcard.jpg[/img]