On 4th May 1942, German radio reported that, ‘Exeter was the jewel of the West…We have destroyed that jewel and the Luftwaffe will return to finish the job’.[1]Although far removed from the London Blitz and conceivably an unlikely target, the historic cathedral city of Exeter was specifically targeted in four bombing raids by the Luftwaffe, the German air force, in April and May 1942. This was part of a devastating exchange of Second World War cultural destruction, which not only left 265 Exeter residents dead, but began a process in which multiple medieval and early modern Exeter buildings were needlessly destroyed or demolished between the 1940s and the 1980s.[2] This changed the social and cultural fabric of Devon’s county town and shaped the city that both residents and students know and love today.
The Second World War did not arrive especially early in Exeter. Whereas the neighbouring port-city of Plymouth was heavily bombed by the Luftwaffe from 1940, losing five percent of its resident population in bombings, Exeter experienced only minor ‘tip and run’ raids between 1940 and 1942.[3] These attacks were untargeted and conducted by enemy aircraft jettisoning excess ordinance while returning to base, as Exeter had virtually no targets of military significance.[4] They inflicted only minor damage and very few casualties, so much so that Exeter had minimal anti-aircraft defences and most residents paid no attention to air raid warnings.[5]However, this was all to change in 1942.
On the night of 28th and 29th March 1942, Britain’s Royal Air Force bombed the north German city of Lübeck, attacking the predominantly medieval city with incendiary bombs.[6] Although the raid’s justifications are debated, with Lübeck acting as a supply base for German operations on the Eastern Front, the ancient and highly flammable city was selected as a trial for Britain’s new strategy of carpet bombing urban areas, to bypass the inaccuracies of targeted attacks.[7] After the city was devastated, German leadership decided to make a number or retaliation raids on Britain, exploiting them for propaganda value.[8] This caught the attention of propagandist Baron Gustav Braun von Stumm who suggested that the authorities select cities rated ‘three stars’ (worth visiting) in German publisher Baedeker’s 1930s tourist guide to Britain and bomb them for their historic and cultural value.[9]Exeter, Bath, Canterbury, Norwich and York were selected and attacked in what became known as the ‘Baedeker Blitz’ of 1942.[10]
The first of these ‘Baedeker Blitz’ raids on Exeter occurred on the night of the 23rd April 1942, by five Junkers Ju 88 aircraft, dropping 250kg of high-explosive bombs west of the River Exe on St. Thomas and Marsh Burton.[11] Five people were killed, 44 buildings damaged and eight destroyed.[12]On the following evening, 24th April, the city was attacked again with the Pennsylvania Road area targeted.[13] The property damage was more extensive, 73 people were killed and 20 injured.[14] The final April raid took place on 25th April, with an incendiary attack on the Portland Street area.[15] The damage was reasonably substantive, and five people were killed.[16] Although Exeter was largely undefended from the ground, these raids were intercepted by Royal Air Force Bristol Beaufighters of the No. 307 Polish ‘Eagle-owls’ night fighter squadron, operating from RAF Clyst Honiton (today Exeter Airport).[17] Despite providing aircover to the entirety of the south-west with only eight aircraft, the frequently outnumbered Poles engaged enemy aircraft with considerable skill and prevented a number from reaching Exeter during April.[18]
Although the April raids were devastating for their casualties and property damage, Exeter’s wartime experience climaxed on the night of the 3rd-4th May 1942. The city was virtually decimated by a predominantly incendiary bomb attack on the town centre by 30 Ju 88 aircraft.[19] Three available 307 Squadron fighters prevented four German bombers from reaching the target, however this was insufficient to prevent the deaths of 164 people, with 500 injured, around 1,500 buildings destroyed and 1,700 damaged.[20] The city centre was crippled, with a level of destruction not experienced since Exeter was sacked by the Danes in 1003 AD.[21]
A number of important medieval and early modern buildings were also destroyed or badly damaged in Exeter’s crowded and combustible centre.[22] For example, St. Sidwell’s Church (famous for the imprisonment of Sir. Walter Raleigh’s father in 1548), the Chevalier House (a merchant dwelling from the era of James I), the distinctive Georgian Bedford Terrace houses (similar to Bath’s Royal Crescent) and a number of smaller medieval inns and houses.[23]
Miraculously, Exeter’s twelfth century cathedral escaped serious damage.[24]Although German crews were generally instructed to avoid bombing cathedrals after the destruction of Coventry Cathedral in November 1940 provided British authorities with a significant propaganda coup, one aircraft reportedly circled over Exeter’s cathedral with the intension of securing a direct hit.[25] Fortunately, the bomb missed the building’s vaulted medieval ceiling (the longest in the world) by only a few meters and instead destroyed the St. James side-chapel.[26] As the most important artefacts had already been removed for safe-keeping, the damage was minimal.[27] Three bays of the choir vault were destroyed, the 15th century choir screens were obliterated, the windows blown out and parts of the crypt and organ damaged.[28]The building sustained no additional damage during the raid, nobody in the building was killed and no fires broke out.[29]
Other notable damage during the 3rd-4th May bombing raid included that inflicted to Exeter University College, today the University of Exeter. Damage on, what is now the Streatham campus, was limited. The rear of Mardon Hall sustained light damage from a parachute landmine and the roofs of the Roborough Library and the Washington Singer building were slightly damaged.[30] More serious was the destruction of University owned buildings in town, such as one on Gandy Street, which resulted in the loss of many University records.[31] However, perhaps the University’s greatest personal tragedy was suffered by R.R Darlington, professor of History, who lost all of his personal books and papers when his Southernhay flat was consumed by fire.[32] Although not part of the University of Exeter until 1978, the St. Luke’s Theological College, today the St. Luke’s campus, suffered badly. The nineteenth century building received a direct hit and suffered extensive structural damage from fire.[33] This was despite the best efforts of students who attempted to combat the blaze with water from the swimming pool, using only one trailer pump and six hand-held ‘stirrup’ pumps.[34]
Across the city, 90 full-time and 71 part-time members of the Exeter Fire Brigade, assisted by 17,000 fire guards (civilians with limited fire-fighting training) attempted to extinguish the blazes.[35] Combating a firestorm that could be seen from over thirty miles away, was exacerbated by machine-gunners on the German aircraft who strafed the streets to hinder fire and rescue duties.[36] Although the mains water held out for longer than expected, supplies were reduced after the water pump barge on the river Exe was sunk with a direct hit.[37] Civil defense activities were made more difficult later on the morning of the 4th as the electric, telephone, gas and sewage systems collapsed, adding to the mounting chaos.[38] Although fire crews received some criticism for struggling to control fires after the raid, there was very little they could have done to save Exeter’s highly combustible medieval heart.[39]The city was later reinforced by fire crews from Plymouth, Torquay, Barnstable, Taunton and Bristol, although it took three days for all fires to be extinguished, with the public library smoldering for another three weeks.[40]
Although Exeter suffered badly on 3rd-4th May, with thirty acres of the city destroyed, everyday life soon resumed.[41] Emergency food supplies were sent from surrounding areas and food banks were established to provide for those affected.[42]Little disruption was caused to the main-line railway and virtually no impact was made on the British war effort.[43] Exeter’s air defenses were improved from May 1942, with ten barrage balloons and a number of anti-aircraft guns, however the damage was done and the city was not subjected to any more targeted raids for the rest of the war.[44]
However, perhaps the saddest aspect of Exeter’s cultural destruction occurred after the war. With a lack of funds and a desire to fundamentally redesign the city center, as Plymouth had been, Exeter City Council approved the demolition of many partially and undamaged buildings between the 1940s and the 1980s.[45] This was based on the ‘Exeter Phoenix’ plan devised by architect, Thomas Sharp.[46]Previously listed buildings were secured for destruction, many of which without adequate archeological study.[47] Casualties of this destruction included the partially damaged Bedford Circus and the Norman House (one of the best-preserved Norman houses in England) as well as what remained of the 13th century St. John’s Hospital School.[48] Other structures such as the undamaged Tudor shops on the corner of High and Queens streets were stripped back, with their ground floors removed to create a pedestrian walkway.[49] The council repeatedly sought permission for their destruction, finding a compromise in 1971, in which all but the wooden façades were destroyed for new retail space.[50] Although planning decisions were often unnecessary and very unfortunate for historic Exeter, many residents in the post-war period felt strongly that Exeter should be ‘modernised’ with wider streets and new retail complexes.[51] Therefore, although today we may be prepared to readily criticise past planning decisions, it should be remembered that in the bankrupt and conflict-weary world of post-war Britain, modern shopping centers were to most, considerably more appealing than damaged old buildings and piles of rubble.
The 1942 bombing raids acted as a significant catalyst for change in Exeter. They killed many people and initiated a process that fundamentally altered the city’s architectural fabric across the latter twentieth century. However, it is unreasonable to pessimistically conclude and suggest that Exeter is now a ‘clone’ town, devoid of character and history. We, of course, are still flushed with fascinating and beautiful medieval and early modern architecture to appreciate such as the cathedral, Rougemont Castle, the perimeter wall, the medieval Exe Bridge, St. Stephen’s Church, the Quay, the Tudor House and many other buildings and structures built over the past six hundred years. The ruins of the 15th century St. Catherine’s Chapel and Almshouses (found between the cathedral and Princesshay) were surprisingly preserved after the war and can be visited today as a memorial to Exeter’s losses.[52] The Exeter bombings also remind us of the internationalism that characterised much of the Allied war effort. Exeter was spared complete destruction by the actions of a small group of volunteer Polish airmen, operating despite odds stacked heavily against them, to defend this small corner of Devon. Shortly after the Exeter blitz on 15th November 1942, the 307 Squadron Leader, Jan Michałowski, presented a Polish flag to the Mayor of Exeter as a symbol of the squadron’s solidarity with the city.[53]About the flag, he stated, ‘may it remind (the people of Exeter) in the future when the war is over… that at one time Poles and Devonians lived, fought and died for one cause.”[54] Unfortunately, the flag was lost in the Exeter Guildhall over the years, although replaced in 2012, blessed by the Bishop of Exeter and received in ceremony at the Guildhall on 15th November that year, exactly 70 years after the original flag ceremony.[55] This is a symbol of the unlikely, although enduring partnership between Exeter and Poland.
The terrible exchange of Second World cultural destruction and its legacy of unfortunate planning decisions in Exeter should not be forgotten, although this process reminds us of the importance of historic buildings, their beauty and connections to the past. This article is perhaps best concluded with a quote, that of Luftwaffe pilot Ernst von Kugel, who participated in the May 3rd -4th raid on Exeter. It provides an excellent summary of that fateful night in which the horrors of war were cast over England’s finest cathedral city.
‘It was a night of terror for the Exeter people. When I approached this town, the bright reflections guided me. Over the town I saw whole streets of houses on fire, flames burst out of windows and doors, devouring the roofs. People were running everywhere, and firemen were frantically trying to deal with flames. It was a fantastic sight – no one who saw it will forget the greatness of the disaster. We thought of the thousands of men, women and children, the victims of our deadly visit, but we thought of our Führer and the command he gave: “Revenge”. With cold calculation we carried out our orders.’[56]
Photo Credit: http://demolition-exeter.blogspot.com/2010/10/exeter-is-jewel-of-west-and-we-have_16.html
Bibliography
Bevan, Robert, The destruction of memory: architecture in war (London: Reaktion Books, 2006). Clapp, W.B., The University of Exeter: a history (Exeter: University of Exeter Press, 1982).
Cornforth, David., Exeter Memories, ‘Exeter’s bombing casualties’, 15 May, 2017, <http://www.exetermemories.co.uk/em/blitzcasualties.php> [last accessed, 20 February, 2018].
Cornforth, David., Exeter Memories, ‘St. Catherine’s Chapel and Almshouses’, 19 January, 2013, <http://www.exetermemories.co.uk/em/_churches/stcatherines.php> [last accessed, 25 February, 2018].
Cornforth, David., Exeter Memories, ‘St. Stephen’s Church: High Street’, 16 February, 2018, <http://www.exetermemories.co.uk/em/_churches/ststephens.php> [last accessed, 25 February, 2018].
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Gardiner, Juliet, BBC, ‘Did Hitler’s Baedeker Blitz break Britain’s spirit?’, <http://www.bbc.co.uk/guides/zg9487h> [Last accessed, 19 February, 2018]. Grey, Todd, Exeter in the 1940s (Exeter: Mint Press, 2004).
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Footnotes
[1] David Cornforth, Exeter Memories, ‘The Exeter Blitz: April and May 1942’, 7 February, 2018,<http://www.exetermemories.co.uk/em/exeterblitz.php> [last accessed, 25 February, 2018].
[2]Todd Grey, Exeter remembers the war: life on the home front (Exeter: Mint Press, 2005), p. 170, 309; Demolition Exeter: a century of destruction in an English cathedral city, ‘The destruction of the High Street after 1942’, 26 April, 2013, <http://demolition-exeter.blogspot.co.uk/2013/04/the-destruction-of-high-street-after.html> [last accessed, 25 February, 2018].
[3]Grey, Exeter remembers the war, pp. 174-175.
[4] Ibid; Niall Rothnie, The Baedeker Blitz: Hitler’s attack on Britain’s historic cities (Shepperton: Ian Allan Publishing, 1992), p. 26.
[5]Michael Parrott, Exeter’s guardian angels: the story of the Polish 307 Squadron in Exeter (Exeter: Mint Press, 2013), p. 70; Grey, Exeter remembers the war, p. 177.
[6] Ibid., p. 188.
[7] Cornforth, Exeter Memories, ‘The Exeter Blitz’; David Rees, The Exeter Blitz (London: Carnival, 1978), p. I; Juliet Gardiner, BBC, ‘Did Hitler’s Baedeker Blitz break Britain’s spirit?’, <http://www.bbc.co.uk/guides/zg9487h> [last accessed, February, 2018].
[8] Ibid.
[9] Ibid.
[10] Grey, Exeter remembers the war, p. 188; Rees, The Exeter Blitz, p. I.
[11] Parrott, Exeter’s guardian angels, p. 57.
[12] Ibid.
[13]Ibid, p. 58.
[14] Ibid.
[15] Ibid, p. 60.
[16] David Cornforth, Exeter Memories, ‘Exeter’s bombing casualties’, 15 May, 2017, <http://www.exetermemories.co.uk/em/blitzcasualties.p hp> [last accessed, 20 February, 2018].
[17] Parrott, Exeter’s guardian angels, pp. 57-60.
[18] Ibid, pp. 57-61.
[19] Grey, Exeter remembers the war, p. 221.
[20] Parrott, Exeter’s guardian angels, p. 62, 68; Rothnie, The Baedeker Blitz, p. 47.
[21] Rothnie, The Baedeker Blitz, p. 28; Demolition Exeter, ‘The destruction of the High Street in 1942’, 14 April, 2013, <http://demolition-exeter.blogspot.co.uk/2013/04/the-destruction-of-high-street-in-1942.html> [last accessed, 20 February, 2018].
[22] Parrott, Exeter’s guardian angels, p. 65.
[23] Rees, The Exeter Blitz, p. I; Rothnie, The Baedeker Blitz, p. 48.
[24] Robert Bevan, The destruction of memory: architecture in war (London: Reaktion, 2006), p. 75.
[25] Rothnie, The Baedeker Blitz, p. 31; Bevan, The destruction of memory, p. 75.
[26] Rees, The Exeter Blitz, p. II; Rothnie, The Baedeker Blitz, p. 39.
[27] Ibid.
[28] Ibid.
[29] Ibid.
[30] Grey, Exeter remembers the war, pp. 221-221; W. B. Clapp, The University of Exeter: a history (Exeter: University of Exeter Press, 1982), p. 95.
[31] Ibid., p. 94.
[32] Ibid., p. 95.
[33] Rothnie, The Baedeker Blitz, p. 40.
[34] Ibid.
[35] Ibid., p. 28.
[36] Rees, The Exeter Blitz, p. II; Cornforth, Exeter Memories, ‘Exeter’s bombing casualties’.
[37] Rothnie, The Baedeker Blitz, p. 42; Cornforth, Exeter Memories, ‘The Exeter Blitz: April and May 1942’.
[38] Ibid,
[39] Rothnie, The Baedeker Blitz, p. 42.
[40] Ibid, p. 43; Cornforth, Exeter Memories, ‘The Exeter Blitz – April and May 1942’; Rees, The Exeter Blitz, p. II.
[41] Cornforth, Exeter Memories, ‘The Exeter Blitz: April and May 1942’.
[42] Rothnie, The Baedeker Blitz, p. 48; Cornforth, Exeter Memories, ‘The Exeter Blitz: April and May 1942’.
[43] Rothnie, The Baedeker Blitz, p. 48.
[44] Parrott, Exeter’s guardian angels, p. 70.
[45] Demolition Exeter: a century of destruction in an English cathedral city, ‘The destruction of the High Street after 1942’; Cornforth, Exeter Memories, ‘The Exeter Blitz: April and May 1942’.
[46] Ibid.
[47] Ibid.
[48] Todd Grey, Exeter in the 1940s (Exeter: Mint Press, 2004), p. 126; David Cornforth, Exeter Memories, ‘The Norman House: Kings Street’, 13 February, 2016, <http://www.exetermemories.co.uk/em/_buildings/norm an-house.php> [last accessed, 25 February, 2018].
[49] Demolition Exeter: a century of destruction in an English cathedral city, ‘The destruction of the High Street after 1942’.
[50] Ibid.
[51] Grey, Exeter in the 1940s, p. 135.
[52] David Cornforth, Exeter Memories, ‘St. Stephen’s Church: High Street’, 16 February, 2018, <http://www.exetermemories.co.uk/em/_churches/ststephens.php> [last accessed, 25 February, 2018]; Cornforth, Exeter Memories, ‘St. Catherine’s Chapel and Almshouses’, 19 January, 2013 <http://www.exetermemories.co.uk/em/_churches/stcatherines.php> [last accessed, 25 February, 2018].
[53] Jonathan Morris, BBC News, ‘The Eagle Owls Polish squadron who defended Exeter’, 14 November, 2015, https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-devon-34778711 [last accessed, 17 November, 2018].
[54] Ibid.
[55] Exeter Daily, ‘Exeter remembers Polish 307 Squadron’, November, 2012, <https://www.theexeterdaily.co.uk/news/local-news/exeter-remembers-polish-307-squadron> [last accessed, 17 November, 2018].
[56] Grey, Exeter in the 1940s, p. 136; Cornforth, Exeter Memories, ‘The Exeter Blitz: April and May 1942’.
The Historian 