Night of carnage at pub
SIXTY years ago King's Lynn experienced its biggest disaster in terms of deaths from one incident when 42 people were killed in an air raid.
A single German Dornier 217 bomber was responsible for the deaths and carnage when it unleashed a stick of four half-ton bombs on the town centre shortly before 10pm on Friday, June 12.
One bomb hit the Eagle Hotel in Norfolk Street, which at the time was packed with customers, including servicemen celebrating a colleague's 21st birthday.
Another destroyed Cruso and Wilkin's Cattle Market and Pig Market premises off Broad Street, now the site of Sainsbury's car park.
The other two bombs fell in The Walks, scattering debris at the corporation dump near St John's Church and making a crater in a sports field used by schoolchildren near the Red Mount.
The Orange House and Toffs fish and chip shop now stand on the Norfolk Street site where the Eagle and Limberts fish and chip shop stood.
All the casualties were those at or near the Eagle Hotel, which was completely destroyed by the bomb and rebuilt in the 1950s. It is now called the Orange House.
Happy scenes in the hotel that evening turned to horror and left soldiers, policemen, Home Guard and Civil Defence teams working round the clock to recover the dead and injured, some buried under tons of debris.
In former Lynn chief librarian Ray Wilson's book, Red Alert, a dramatic account of the air raid was given by a 17-year-old warden Gerry Williamson, who was on duty near the Tennyson Avenue railway crossing that evening.
He recalled: "I heard the drone of an aircraft which I knew was not British. Suddenly, through the clouds, there it was. I saw the Dornier's bomb doors open and out came the bombs.
"I grabbed a passing lady cyclist off her bike and we landed up in the shelter of the railway footbridge.
"The next thing was the sound of bombs exploding; it was in a direct line Wood Street, St Johns Terrace, the Cattle Market and the Eagle.
"I will never forget the sight of bodies in sacks being brought from the cellar to the waiting ambulances for transportation to the temporary mortuary set up in Tower Street."
Also damaged were Limbert's fish and chip shop, a garage, greengrocer, shoe repairer and tobacconist.
For his actions during the air raid and in the risky search and rescue operation which followed, Acting Sergeant Francis Faulkner, of the Royal Artillery, a Manchester man, was awarded the George Medal.
His citation said: "Sgt Faulkner displayed outstanding meritorious service and conspicuous devotion to duty during rescue work at King's Lynn during and after an air raid in June, 1942.
"He worked his way among dangerous debris and through his initiative and disregard for personal safety, a number of persons were rescued after one-and-a-half hours.
"Subsequently, indifferent to the danger to which he exposed himself and working in a confined space in air heavily polluted by escaping gas, he displayed great courage and tenacity in his efforts to effect further rescues from a cellar."
Most of the people killed had either been inside or leaving the hotel, where there had been an important darts match being played as well as the soldier's 21st birthday bash. Five bodies were found in Paradise Lane opposite the hotel.
Ten years ago, on the 50th anniversary of the raid, former soldier Bert Dopson, from Nottingham, told the Lynn News he was one of the first to reach the Eagle afterwards.
As he ran to Norfolk Street from the Cattle Market, he could see clouds of black dust and night sky at the other end of Paradise Lane where he should have been able to see the hotel sign.
Instead there was a huge crater. "Headless and limbless bodies were scattered around among the debris, moans and groans were coming from the chip shop that had been flattened... they were sights no one should be allowed to see," he said.
By the Sunday evening, 36 bodies had been identified and it was established that a further six people, including five RAF servicemen, were missing.
In total, 26 civilians were killed. They included the manager of a Co-op butcher's department, a 42-year-old dock labourer and his wife, aged 51, and a 29-year-old member of the National Fire Service.
From the 14 RAF fatalities, five sergeants killed at the Eagle were buried in a mass grave at Gayton Road cemetery, Gaywood. Two Army servicemen also died.
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Weather for King's Lynn
Monday 28 May 2012
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Temperature: 10 C to 24 C
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