I have read in an article online, "When John Bull met Jim Crow" that a limited colour bar was introduced in the Yeovil and Crewkerne cinemas. does anyone know if this is true. Hoping to write a book regarding the lesser known incidents in Somerset history.
My e mailaddress is: alken07@hotmail.co.uk

Hi Robin,
I was a schoolboy, living in Stoford and going to school at the Barwick Primary School and laterly at Yeovil Grammar School. My Father was a signalman at Yeovil Junction and was also a Captain in the Home Guard supporting gun emplacements around the Junction station. I think that there was also another gunsite across the fields. I recall trooops returning after Dunkirk being march down the road from Yeovil Junction station then collapsing in the hedges to await transportation. We kids dashed home to get what food and drink our parents would give us so that we could return to give them to the soldiers. I also recall standing at the window and watching a low flying JU88 straffing the Junction station. I could see the black crosses on it's fuselage.
The Americans arrived and were installed in nearby Barwick Park where nissen huts were erected. I recall a conversation with white americans who stated that if a black american soldier was threatened by a German, they would go to the assistance of the German. Guess that they were from the South.
We had Land Girls billeted on us and they worked with German POW's on nearby farms.
I recall the raids on Westlands being able to hear the bombs and the AA fire from Stoford.
My final memory is of an ex German POW (Karl Finkin I think) who worked as a porter at Yeovil Town station. We would chat with him on our way to school as we travelled from Yeovil Junction to Yeovil Town each day.

Peter J Allen
Henley-0n-Thames

Sorry if this is a bit late but just seen today an article about a new DVD that is being released which tells the story of Somerset at war. It includes a section on Yeovil, Westland's role in manufacturing the Spitfire and the naval Seafire - it could be good for research. Hope this helps, here's the link - http://tinyurl.com/6jdezhz

There were 10 air raids on Yeovil although the siren sounded at least 400 times during the war, mainly because of enemy planes passing over head to bomb Bristol and south wales. Yeovil had two army camps, Hounstone and Lufton, also the Head Quaters of the Royal Naval Fleet Arm became established at nearby Yeovilton. Westland of course were building aircraft so the ministry of defence felt the need to provide Yeovil with a Royal Observer corps centre, a bunker was built off Southwoods, Hendford Hill. Yeovil was the first town in somerset to be targeted by the Germans. The first attempt to bomb Westlands came on Sept 30th 1940 over 160 bombs fell but missed the target, because the aircrew were flying at 25000 feet and not 20000 feet also the target area was cloudy, so most of the bombs fell across Sherborne. 7 days later the Germans tried again this time hitting the target although no bombs actually hit the factory, but bombs did fall across the grassy airfield and close to alvington. Most of the bombs fell across the town. The germans tried again the following day, but hit homes off Preston road. Another raid in October hit Hounstone camp. There were other smaller raids but the next time the germans tried to hit the factory was in March 1941. A single aircraft dived bombed Westland road, homes were hit, but one bomb did hit a flight shed at the factory. Three of the factory workers were killed, and the managing director was injured. The last raid took place in August 1942 just before dusk. Two fighter bombers flew low over the town each dropping a bomb aiming for a factory where the bus depot is now. They missed the target, however the bombs caused large explosions and many homes in the area were damaged, some destroyed or had to demolished because they were unsafe, damage caused included tiles off roofs, windows and doors blown in.

Hi Robin, I lived in Yeovil from 1964 to 1999. My mother was born in the town in 1930 whilst my late father moved there with his mother, brother and sister in about 1941 to escape the London bombing, plus his father, my Nandad was stationed at Houndstone army camp. He was there when it was bombed in 1940. My mum had five older sisters, during the war, my Aunty Dorothy the eldest worked for the CO-OP grocery in the Triangle, think there is a chinese place there now. She was also a fire warden and had to sleep in a camp bed in the roof of Jesty's furniture store, (no longer there but about where Poundstretcher is). When the siren went off she and the other wardens had to get up on the roof with their stirrup pumps. Aunty Mary worked for World Stores, a grocery store in Middle Street, but after she married in 1938 her husband joined the army and was stationed in Exeter, so they moved there and were there during the Exeter Blitz. Aunty Ethel worked for Whitby Book Store in Princes street, during the war she worked for Westlands painting the wings of the planes, she was married in 1940. Her husband also worked for westlands, they lived in a new bungalow near the airfield. During one raid an UXB landed nearby, Uncle Reg got the car whilst Ethel went in doors to find the most expensive thing she could find, she came out with a glass fruit bowl! With that experience of nearly loosing their home, they never owned their own home after that and only lived in council houses. Aunty Daphne was a stay at home mum and lived in a council house in Westfield Grove, her husband Uncle Tom use to help dig out bodies from bombed buildings, in one house in Yeovil he had to dig out a dead child, the job made him very moody. After the war houses in Westfield Grove including my uncle and aunties house suddently cracks were appearing along the walls and the ceilings, apparently the bombing in Yeovil had affected the properties but only noticed some years later. A house a the bottom of Westfield grove near the shops was bombed. In the Town Centre, Boots the chemist was hit by a fire bomb, a oil drum that ignited on impact, this is where Burger King is now. The upper floors of the three storey Medical Hall was alight, Then in another raid in 1941 the site was hit by HE. Woolworths was badly damaged in a raid in October 1940 when Burton's Store next door was bombed. People were trapped in both stores. Westland was attacked in March 1941 but the bombs fell mainly on homes in Westland Road, a young lad who had ran home from school when the siren went off was killed along with his mother, if only he had stayed at School. Hope all this info helps, let me know if you want any more.