IT WAS one of the darkest hours in Southampton’s fight for survival during the Second World War when enemy bombers attacked the Cunliffe-Owen factory at Swaythling 75 years ago today (FRIDAY SEPT 11).

Altogether 52 men and women lost their lives in the raid which took place on September 11, 1940 when the factory was being used to repair aircrafts including the Spitfire and the Blenheim.

It was back in 1979 when Henry Hunt, a one-time worker at the factory, from Thornhill, Southampton, told the Daily Echo of the harrowing experience of the attack on Cunliffe-Owen, which later became the site for the former Ford manufacturing plant in the city.

It seems a number of aircraft repair workers were standing outside the hangar at Swaythling on that fateful day three-quarters of a century 75 years ago.

Mr Hunt was standing with colleagues as they watched four approaching aircraft, which initially were thought to be British planes coming in for repair at the factory.

“There were quite a number of us waiting around as we were expecting some Blenheims in for quick repairs,” Mr Hunt told the Daily Echo.

“There had been an air raid warning for quite a time, but nothing had happened. The planes looked a bit like Hurricanes and they had their wheels down so we thought they were going to land.”

Mr Hunt said the attack took everyone by surprise. “The bombs fell right through the middle of the new hangar which had only recently been opened.

“I think it must have been a deliberate target especially as our neighbouring aircraft factory over at Woolston was hit a week later.”

The circumstances of the raid were particularly horrifying as one aircraft section which was in the hangar at the time awaiting repair contained a large amount of high octane fuel.

“There were quite a few women and boys working in the hangar at the time. I remember seeing three bodies which were inseparable, they had been so badly burnt in the fire.”

Mr Hunt was convinced that many deaths could have been avoided if they had realised sooner that the approaching aircraft were enemy planes.

“As we were expecting three or four planes anyway we just didn’t take any notice. No-one was prepared,” said Mr Hunt.

In 1991 a brief, simple ceremony took place when a roll of honour, containing the names of all those who died in the raid, was placed in the Chapel of Remembrance at the South Stoneham Cemetery, within sight of the spot where the workers died.