WW2 Civil Defence Patches - Bournemouth Dorset

An uncommon pair of Civil Defence breast and shoulder patch for Bournemouth, Dorset UK. These have clearly been removed from their original uniform. On 23-May-1943 Bournemouth suffered its worst attack of the war. RAF Bournemouth No 3 Reception Centre for Dominion aircrew. The Metropole Hotel was full of Canadian airmen and the Central Hotel housed Australian airmen. In just over one minute 26 Focke-Wulf 190's wreaked havoc in revenge of the Dambuster Raid the week before. Over 131 people were killed, many of those were airmen billeted in the two hotels mentioned above.