Satan, a beast of a bomb, is made safe in Portsmouth while an SS PoW looks on | Nostalgia

Copnor, like every area in Portsmouth during the Second World War, had its fair share of terror at the hands of the Luftwaffe.
By Deborah Croker
Published 4th Nov 2021, 18:09 BST
A defused bomb in Torrington Road, Copnor, during or just after the Second World War. What damage it would have caused had it exploded can only be imagined. Of course, local people nicknamed it 'Satan'. Talking to the elderly gent wearing the trilby is a German SS PoW.A defused bomb in Torrington Road, Copnor, during or just after the Second World War. What damage it would have caused had it exploded can only be imagined. Of course, local people nicknamed it 'Satan'. Talking to the elderly gent wearing the trilby is a German SS PoW.
A defused bomb in Torrington Road, Copnor, during or just after the Second World War. What damage it would have caused had it exploded can only be imagined. Of course, local people nicknamed it 'Satan'. Talking to the elderly gent wearing the trilby is a German SS PoW.

As three of our pictures here show, St Cuthbert’s Church was wrecked, Ewart Road had an enormous hole blown in it, and then there was Satan…

Satan was the nickname given to this bomb which had fallen in Torrington Road, Copnor, at some point during the war.

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We are not certain when the picture was taken – it could have been during the conflict or shortly after when there was more time to extract the things, obviously once they had been made safe.

An undated picture of a fire engine that crashed into 82, Paulsgrove Road, Copnor.An undated picture of a fire engine that crashed into 82, Paulsgrove Road, Copnor.
An undated picture of a fire engine that crashed into 82, Paulsgrove Road, Copnor.

What damage it would have caused had it exploded can only be imagined. Of course, local people nicknamed it 'Satan'.

And talking to the elderly gent wearing the trilby is a German SS prisoner-of-war which makes me think this may have been shortly after the war ended.

A message from the editor, Mark Waldron.

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