Hamble in World War II

Early in the war Hamble Aerodrome was under the command of the 15 Ferry Pilots Pool who were part of the Air Taxi Association. Quite a stir was caused when the first woman pilot arrived at the unit, but the novelty soon wore off when Miss W.M. Gore became the Commanding Officer and the camp was female run after 1944.

Hamble suffered from air raids. One night in 1942 an attempt was made to wire Southampton Water with 3 parachute mines. Unfortunately these blew ashore over Hamble le Rice. The first exploded and demolished Grantham House, the second did not explode but was found swinging between two tanks at the Shell Mex and BP Depot. The 3rd was found unexploded on the mud flats of the river next to Luke's Yard.

During 1943 one morning a JU88 flew low up the Hamble River spraying machinegun bullets everywhere, killing a man on the Aerodrome. The village also received a daylight raid during the early war years when a Heinkel dropped a stick of high expolsive bombs over the village centre.

D-Day...