Your BomberraidonBankfoot remainsarealmystery
I found it so interesting to read in Tuesday’s PA (October 29) an extract from the book‘A River Runs Red’ by Aberfeldy author, Mark Bridgeman.
If I were to memorise incidents in my own neck of the woods under the heading “mystery”, then I would focus on an incident which happened in Auchtergaven during the Second World War.
One evening, as night fell, the unthinkable occurred when a lone German aircraft dropped its entire load of bombs, narrowly missing the Perthshire village.
Born in 1946, as I boy I heard accounts of this incident which in the immediate wake of the war was still fresh in the memory of folk I knew.
But I have often wondered of the truth of that event, which was mentioned in the statistical records of the parish, which state: “The reality of the war was brought to the parish by the dropping of bombs in the meadows of Airleywight House, probably from an enemy bomber racing for the safety of the Fatherland.”
But the statistical account does not mention a small convoy of army vehicles which arrived in Bankfoot as the bombs fell. This convoy, according to local stories, was the reason for the surprise attack on Bankfoot.
In the 1970s, I received confirmation of this when I received a letter by a soldier on the convoy heading to Bankfoot from Gretna Green.
Its purpose was to participate in manoeuvres within the Perthshire countryside. This soldier told me the bombs fell as vehicles were about to drive to Airleywight House and naturally, it was assumed the convoy was the target.
The crew of the bomber missed wildy as their bombs skirted the village with no building hit and no loss of life. Afterwards, perhaps as two fingers to Hitler, it was reported the only casualties were a sheep and a hare.
Another account I heard of the night of the attack was that the residents of a local farm called the Cotterton were startled when a flair landed in close proximity and made the whole area brighter than the daytime.
If the aircraft had peeled away from a squadron for whatever reason, would they have known of the convoy?
Having flown over Bankfoot myself I know how close to the coast we are and in minutes, at night, the aircraft would have been safe from our fighter planes and heading back to base.
We may never know if the convoy was the target, but one fact is sure and that is that local people assemble at the village hall memorial each year to honour those who made the ultimate sacrifice and remember that Hitler’s airmen visited our village to swiftly bring the reality of war.
The plane created a local legend and the field where the first bomb fell is still called The Bomb Field to this day.
Thomas Brown Garry Place Bankfoot