Today in Gosport’s Past:- on the night of 27 February 1941, Gosport fell victim to another German air raid; during this attack, the police station in South Street was hit, and considered as ‘destroyed by enemy action’.
Although I haven’t been able to discover any other casualties of this particular raid, Gosport was badly affected by air attacks during World War Two, particularly in 1940 & 1941.The worst raids occurred on 12th and 16th August 1940, and 10th January, 10th March, and 14th June 1941.
During the whole war, the town experienced 1,591 alerts and 61 raids; over 400 high explosive bombs hit Gosport (plus another 200 or so landing in creeks etc), and over 10,000 incendiary bombs were dropped. The Gosport statistics for WW2 were 114 deaths, 454 properties were destroyed, 933 badly damaged, and 10,866 damaged with more than just broken glass, out of a total of around 13,000 buildings at the outbreak of the war.
Here’s a list of roads & locations which suffered bomb damage during that time (these are just those I know of, I daresay there were more):- Admiralty Terrace, Anthony Grove, Avenue Road, Beach Street, Bemisters Lane, Bournemouth Avenue, Bury Hall Lane, Chapel Row, Church Path, Dolman Road, Dunkeld Road, Eastbourne Avenue, Elson Lane, Elson Road, Fisgard Road, Fort Blockhouse, Fort Brockhurst, Forton Road, Gordon Road, Gosport engine shed, Gosport station, Grange Airfield, Grove Avenue, Hamble Road, Hartington Road, Haslar Bridge, Hastings Avenue, High Street, HMS Daedalus Airfield, Holly Street, Joseph Street, Lavinia Road, Leesland Road, Marina Buildings, Moreland Road, Prince Alfred Street, Queens Road, School Road, Selsey Avenue, South Street, Spring Garden Lane, St Andrews Road, St Edwards Road, Stoke Road, Sydney Road, the fuel depot, the market house, the police station, The Ritz, Thorngate Memorial Hall, Village Road, The Whitworth Arms pub, and Zetland Road. The attacks on the airfields largely involved Stuka dive bombers.
The first photo is of the wrecked police station, taken in 1949, before it was demolished; the rest are of general bomb damage incurred locally, mostly in 1940/41.
Credits to original photographers.