A memorial service is being held in Bodmin to remember the nine people who were killed in a German bombing during World War II.

Bodmin Old Cornwall Society is staging the event at the plaque in Dennison Road on Wednesday, August 7 at 1.30pm, the 82nd anniversary of the bombing, which happened on August 7, 1942.

Bodmin was bombed by two German Focke Wulf 190 aircraft, which dropped a succession of bombs and cannon fire over the town. The bombs hit the gasworks, a food depot and many family homes.  

Among the fatalities were eight people from the Sargent family, whose home was wrecked. Eighteen people were injured in the raid. The Retort House at the Gas Works and the food depot in Mill Street, which is now called Dennison Road, were demolished.

Several houses in Mill Street and Berrycoombe Road were destroyed or badly damaged. This was not the only raid to have happened in Cornwall at this time, with a similar raid happening on the Lizard Peninsula.

Over the course of the war a number of bombs would fall on Cornwall, many thought to be the result of German planes wanting to lighten their load before flying home.