History features

Police photographs showing Plymouth being bombed during the Blitz have been published for the first time after spending 60 years hidden in a police station.

As a result, Plymouth historian Chris Robinson has revised Pat Twyford's famous book called "It Came To Our Door".

The book was first published in 1945 and gave an eye witness account of Plymouth during the Second World War. The revised edition shows more than 400 photographs, most of which have never been published.

They were found stored away at Devon and Cornwall Police headquarters at Middlemoor, Exeter.

Chris explained: "It appears the photos were shunted around and ended up in a filing cabinet at Middlemoor.

Plymouth Pier after the March 1941 raids

"They were originally taken as an incident record. A police officer would go out and record the damage after a bomb had landed.

"These photos were then just stored away."

The blitz photos are dated up until late March 1941, and include the devastating raids of 21 and 22 March.

The police photos after that have gone missing - but Chris is on their trail: "Apparently, the police threw them out but a man in Plymouth took them away, so they could still be here in Plymouth."

The revised "It Came To Our Door" was launched in November 2005 - 60 years after it was first published.

The book has already had six print runs, the last was 30 years ago in 1975.

French troops in Plymouth Sound, 1940

The photos in the 2005 version cast new light on wartime Plymouth, and provide a fascinating insight into exactly what happened when Plymouth came under attack.

Chris said: "The process of collecting together the images that you see in this book has itself taken many years.

"We felt it would be a great shame to miss the opportunity of introducing a new perspective into the greatest book written on the greatest chapter of Plymouth's recent history."

Pat Twyford was a veteran of World War I, and was a war correspondent for the Western Morning News and Plymouth Evening Herald during World War II. He died in 1964.

Chris Robinson is a well known writer, broadcaster and local historian.

It Came To Our Door is published by Pen and Ink Publishing in Plymouth.