Service marks worst disaster of Plymouth Blitz

A service has taken place to mark the 75th anniversary of the worst disaster of the Plymouth Blitz.

Seventy six people died when an air raid shelter in Portland Square took a direct hit - it was the single biggest number of deaths during the Blitz, which saw more than a thousand lives lost and much of the city centre and Devonport destroyed.

Among those at the ceremony was 86-year-old Barbara Mills.

She was one of only three survivors when the Portland Square air raid shelter took a direct hit from a German bomb.

She was just 11-years-old at the time - and the only one still alive today.

It was another two days before she learned her mother, father, sister and grandfather had all been killed.

The names of all 76 victims are inscribed on the wall of Plymouth University which now stands where Babara's home once stood.

Among the wreaths laid at the memorial sculpture was one from the students.

Pictures, from a video shot in 1998, show how bare and unwelcoming the Portland Square shelter was.

It should have been a haven from the bombs as Plymouth faced it's second month-long blitz, but it wasn't proof against a direct hit.

Much of the centre of Plymouth had already been destroyed in air raids the previous month. The church at Charles Cross had been left in ruins, and remains like that today as a memorial to all those who died.

St Andrew's Church was also hit, but the following morning a board appeared above the door saying 'Resurgam', I will rise again.

Inside the church there's a cross which has been made with 1,178 LED lights, one for every civilian life lost in the Plymouth blitz.

It's been made by Babcock apprentices at Devonport dockyard especially for a service of remembrance here on Sunday.