Ships attacked by German aircraft
Fourteen German warplanes carried out a daylight attack on ships in the Firth of Forth in what the Observer of October 1939 called Scotland’s first air raid of World War Two.
Early reports suggested the attack failed to cause significant damage although bomb splinters caused 35 casualties among Royal Navy personnel – three on the cruiser Southampton and 25 on the destroyer Mohawk.
The Luftwaffe scored what the Observer termed its first hit of the war when the Southampton suffered a glancing blow from a bomb dropped by one the planes .
It caused slight damage to the bow and sank the Admiral’s barge and `pinnace’ moored alongside. No civilian casualties were reported and none of the RAF flyers was said to have been hurt. It is thought the attack was aimed at Rosyth and Naval units based there.
Enemy aircraft were first sighted east off the Forth and immediately engaged by fighter squadrons from the RAF.
The Observer sought eyewitness accounts from Stirling people who had been in Edinburgh when the Germans attacked.
Attempts were made to speak to two Stirling railwaymen– engine driver Andrew Fowler, George Street, and fireman John Hutton, Haig Avenue, who were driving a train over the Forth Bridge at the time the Nazi planes swooped.
Their train had stopped at Dalmeny Station amid reports that enemy aircraft had been sighted over the bridge. However, the `all clear’ was given and the train proceeded slowly across the bridge – just as the enemy attack was renewed.
Train passengers and crew saw a bomb drop near one of the ships and bursts of anti-aircraft fire, and a plane flew low over the train as it made its way across the bridge.
Another with experience of the German assault was Harry Peden, Upper Craigs, Stirling. He was driving a lorry belonging to Hunter and Co, Contractors, Stirling, from his home town to Edinburgh and had stopped at Kirkliston when the shell from an antiaircraft gun plunged to earth and hit the road just beneath his lorry.
He was not hurt and also had a lucky escape when a shell burst in a field 100 yards from his lorry.
Another lorry driver, David Wilson, Causewayhead, saw the aerial dogfight as he was driving on the outskirts of Edinburgh.
He watched as a British pilot, in pursuit of a German plane, signalled it to land. The Nazi pilot `waved his hand in refusal’ shortly before his machine crashed and burst into flames.
Mr and Mrs Charles Murray,
Spittal Street, Stirling, were staying with friends in Leith Walk when the area was targeted. Their hosts had expressed surprise they had come to Edinburgh as an attack was expected.
A German radio station had advised Edinburgh residents to `take a good look at Princes Street as it would not remain long in its present condition’.
Mrs Murray saw anti-aircraft shells burst over the city and a loud explosion from the direction of the Forth Rail Bridge.
Town Clerk of Stirling John Clink had also been in Edinburgh and was in a train which went over the bridge shortly before the start of the German attack on shipping.