Pembroke Dock oil tank bombing that left behind an 18-day fire

This hub of activity, however, was also a target for enemy aircraft and a number of bombing raids took place across the county during the period.

Here we take a look at one of the bombings of Pembroke Dock which resulted in a fire which took nearly three weeks to put out. 

At 3.15pm on Monday, August 19, 1940, a bomb was dropped by a German bomber aircraft onto an oil tank at the Llanreath Admiralty depot in Pennar, just outside Pembroke Dock. Three Junkers 88s and two ME109 fighters were in the formation when the bombs were dropped.

It led to a large fire which was described as the biggest the UK had known in the war up to that point. Pembrokedockhistory.co.uk has a comment from the late Vernon Scott about the immediate response from the locals. He said: “Shrieking mothers, some hysterical, were frantically looking for children.”

He also said that “jet black smoke churning across the carriageway in such dense clouds it was impossible to see… The blaze was creating a deafening roaring noise.”

In a 1945 article by the Western Mail, written when the security embargo was lifted on the information, it was stated that the fire could be seen from the Devonshire coast.

Many people were evacuated from nearby homes but the damage to homes was contained thanks to efforts by the Pembrokeshire Brigade.

Firefighters from 22 different brigades were sent from Cardiff and as far as Birmingham, with more than 600 in total taking nearly three weeks to extinguish it. Firemen were working 18-hour shifts until reinforcements arrived, with local fire chief Arthur Morris reportedly not going to bed for 17 days.

The local firefighters – many of whom were part time - were quickly overwhelmed by the situation which led to calls for help from the other brigades.

The memorial stone for the five who were killed. Picture: Jeffrey Davies via Our Pembrokeshire Memories

Burning oil fell into the surrounding moat and firefighters used gallons of seawater in an effort to put it out. They were hampered in their efforts by the changing of the tide, being helped when the tide was in, but losing that boost when the tide went back out.

The bomb and subsequent fire had a big impact on the local area, with gardens, houses and streets covered in oil, thick smoke hanging in the air and crops being destroyed up to 20 miles away from the site.

None of the fire crews had specialist protective equipment at the time, meaning many would have suffered injuries from the burning oil.

On the second day of tackling the blaze, the firefighters faced machine gun fire from a low-flying plane. More bombs were also dropped, but missed their target, leading to one man being injured.

As a result of the bomb, eight 12,000 tonne capacity oil tanks were destroyed, and eight were saved.

On September 2 that same year, the Temperance Hall on Diamond Street, Pembroke Dock was hit with a bomb, with the Bristol firemen billeted there able to escape.

Captain Tom Breaks, deputy chief inspector of the Home Office’s fire brigade division, wrote a letter praising the firefighters. He said: “Our success was due to the courage, perseverance and endurance of the officers and men of the regular and auxiliary fire service engaged, and I was proud of the privilege of commanding so fine a body of men.”

Five firemen from Cardiff – 31-year-olds Clifford Mills, Frederick George Davies and Trevor Charles Morgan, 29-year-old Ivor John Kilby, and 30-year-old John Frederick Thomas - were killed when a wall of a burning tank splintered, engulfing them in a sea of burning oil.

George Medals were awarded to a number of firefighters from Milford, Newport, Cardiff and Birmingham, but Arthur Morris was left out of the honours, according to a BBC article in 2010.

A memorial to the five Cardiff firemen is located at the site of the fire, at Pembroke Dock Golf Club.