German aircraft wreaked havoc across the South Wight village of Niton on this day some 80 years ago.
The Undercliff Hotel, St Catherine’s Lighthouse (machinery room) and a private house all took direct hits, with their lethal cargos just missing Niton Primary School…
The terrors of World War 2, already too apparent back in 1943, from the news reels and absence of loved ones already caught up in the war, struck so much closer to home at the beginning of June of that year, hitting homes and businesses in the village of Niton with devastating consequences.
1st June 1943 started just like any other day for school boy Peter Osborn, who at the age of 10, was attending Niton Primary School along with the rest of his school mates. Except Britain was at war with Germany. And most of Europe was under Nazi occupation.
And then the bombs dropped.
Peter recalls that one minute he and his classmates were in the classroom sat at their desks; the next they were all laying on the floor, covered in dust and glass.
He remembers the teacher shouting:
“Get under your desks. Don’t come out until we get the all clear.”
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Enemy aircraft had just dropped a number of bombs over Niton. 1 had landed and exploded on a house just 20 metres from the school. The blast had blown out all the windows of the school and surrounding houses and thrown the children and teachers to the floor.
The Undercliff Hotel, which was the HQ at the time for local Army and Airforce personnel, was also bombed. 2 soldiers were killed and one woman worker was buried in the rubble. She was later found alive and recovered.
St Catherine’s Lighthouse also took a direct hit, and 3 Trinity House lighthouse keepers and 2 soldiers were killed when the bomb dropped on the generator room. The 3 keepers, William Jones, Richard Grenfell and Charles Tompkins, are buried together in a dedicated Trinity House grave at the Parish Church, Niton.
Peter Osborn, who celebrated his 90th birthday in March this year and still lives in Niton, recalls that, although no one in the school was badly hurt, Mr. J. Jacobs was killed and his wife badly injured, as they were in the house on Institute Hill that took the brunt of that blast.
These tragic events will be remembered at Niton Parish Church service, on Sunday 4th June, at 09:00, and immediately afterwards by the laying of flowers on the graves of the three lighthouse keepers. All are welcome to attend.
Another intresting article
Very interesting reading , I am a born and bred islander and I did not know this story.
Nor me,i knew the lighthouse got hit but thats all
Yeah let’s get woke and demand apologies from Germany for this outrage
Good idea ,but i cant see that happening !!
Now I understand why, perhaps, a young drunk in The White Lion, Niton, once punched me on the nose one Christmas in 1965-66 for speaking German there — he declared me also a “Nazi”, which has always been extremely far from the truth….
If i’d had been there then i would have bought him a pint
And within living memory for some. Yet we forgive such, but a certain type will never stop ‘using’ the fact that they were once shackled, yet that was in no-ones living memory and certainly not for anyone of today to keep ‘apologising’ for.
As we see they are hardly the most genteel of beings and are capable and commit the most disgusting things to other humans.
Get over it, as we all have.
RIP.
Can’t imagine the pain and suffering they went through, relatives and all.
Would like to say more but don’t think I can put it into words.
Our grandfather’s and grandmother’s deserve a lot more respect than what we give them.
If it happened nowadays our country and way of life would be fu**Ed! Pardon my French.
This country is F’D in the A!
80 years on, it is right that we should remember those who perished serving their country at a time of war. I am saddened to see that this article which honours those people who, along with a great many more, gave their lives that we might live in peace and freedom, should have generated so much racism, intolerance and bad feeling as evidenced in the comments attributed here.
William Jones was my great uncle . He worked on the Needles light house and Nab tower . His brother Alfred was chief tax inspector for Wales and created PAYE . I didnt know for many years that their grave had been looked after by a retired Trinity House keeper.