Hampshire at War: An Oral History, 1939-1945

Hampshire is a county with more reason than most to remember those six years crowded with incident. It was from the South Coast that some of the flotilla of small boats ventured forth to conjure up the miracle of the Dunkirk evacuation. Hampshire was in the front line during the Battle of Britain, as Hitler’s Stukas tried in vain to knock out Ventnor’s radar. Portsmouth, home of the Royal Navy, withstood the punishments of the Blitz. Southampton was also forced to endure the Blitz, as punishment for its crucial part in lendlease and the Battle of the Atlantic. And finally, with the coming of the Americans, the entire county became a vast armed camp as the Allies prepared for D Day - the springboard to victory.