Incident 48, raid on a south coast town 1943

On May 23rd 1943 Bournemouth was the scene of a major air raid. When the siren sounded it gave only 5 minutes warning before the first bomb was dropped as the clocks prepared to strike 1o'clock. Within the space of a minute the whole raid was over. This was the 48th incident to have affected Bournemouth and its most devastating. Includes details of damage done to town centre buildings: The Metropole, Beales, Central Hotel, Wests Cinema, Shamrock and Rambler Bus Garage and the loss of civilian life and military dead