IT was Poole’s worst bombing incident of World War II.

It happened at lunchtime on March 27, 1941, when around 100 workers at the Bourne Valley gasworks were in the staff canteen.

A raid by a German bomber would leave 33 of them dead – the youngest aged 14.

Air raid sirens had sounded almost every day that month. It is thought an alert was sounded that lunchtime, but a spotter on the roof was faced with thick, low cloud.

Staff in the canteen heard the bomber at around 12.20pm. As it emerged from the clouds, there were shouts of “Get down” and staff dived under tables.

The plane was flying so low that witnesses said they saw the bombs leaving its doors, and reported it machine-gunning at people in the street.

It is thought the target was the Bourne Valley railway viaducts. Instead, one bomb hit a store at the gasworks, while the other went through the roof of the canteen. It remained suspended by its tail fins for a few moments before exploding.

The Echo, restricted by wartime censorship, reported: “A lone raider attacked a South Coast town early yesterday afternoon with the result that some men and youths were killed, and a number of injured were taken to hospital with more or less serious injuries.”

It said “strenuous efforts were made to free the injured and dying from the debris”.

The report went on: “Ambulances were quickly on the scene and the injured men were rushed off to the two hospitals in the vicinity. Several were found to be already dead and others died soon after admission.

“The workers found their efforts hampered by twisted ironwork and it was necessary to employ acetylene burners to cut the metal away. After one such operation, five men, all dead, were recovered.

“The work went on without slackening, in the hope that more living might be found.”

A Home Guardsman told the paper: “I saw two boys brought out alive and well, while around them were the crushed bodies of victims. I was among the many who actually saw the bombs falling through the air. When Jerry started a dozen bursts of machine-gunning I thought it was time to stop my gardening and throw myself flat.”

Many schoolchildren were on their way home and ran for shelter, the paper said. More than 200 in “a residential area” were about to start lunch but dived under tables as windows shattered around them.

At the gasworks, as survivors and the dead were pulled from the rubble, relatives gathered at the gates. Some wounded were not located until days later at various hospitals.

Tony King, 20, did not usually eat in the canteen, but had joined his friends there for lunch because it was his last day. He had received his call-up papers from the army.

Only two people from his table of eight survived.

“It was terrible. I was buried alive,” he told the Daily Echo years later.

“I was upside down. I know that much because there was all the pressure on my head. The man who found me found my foot first.

“I didn’t think I was going to get out of the rubble. I was resolved to it. I remember being pulled out and yelling ‘Fresh air’. Then I saw my arm was hanging off.”

He suffered a partially severed arm, fractured skull, leg and ankle and temporary blindness. Doctors saved the arm, but he spent a year in hospital and never went into the army.

Tony continued to work for the gas company, but in administration rather than becoming a craftsman.

Other survivors included Mr T Jeans, who had gone outside for cigarettes just before the bomb hit.

Maintenance engineer Arthur Henson, 33, came out from under a table after the first bomb dropped, to see what was going on. He survived but his colleagues under the table died.

Michael Walthew, a 15-year-old fitter at a shop renovating gas fires on the site, left the canteen before the bomb hit.

He said: “We were in the office talking to each other and there were these almighty big bangs and stuff flying down all over the place. We just took to our heels. We felt total panic. Fear gives your feet flight.”

The presumed target of the raid, the railway viaducts, suffered only machine gun damage. Had the bombs hit the nearby gas stores, the whole of Branksome could have been devastated.

Today, the canteen site is part of Branksome Business Park. The dead are commemorated in two brass plaques at nearby St Aldhelm’s church, where they are remembered every Remembrance Sunday.

In 1941, Bournemouth Gas and Water Company magazine The Co-Partner reported the memorial service attended by representatives of local authorities, the County Home Guard, company officials and others.

“Perhaps the last scene of all will remain longest in the memory. When the final Blessing had been given the men of the Home Guard stepped out into the aisle, turned inwards, and stood at attention,” it said.

“As though by instinct the whole great congregation followed their example, facing inwards and standing in solemn silence whilst the mourners slowly made their way to the West door. That united spontaneous expression of a sympathy too deep for utterance formed a fitting conclusion to a service in memory of the fallen.”