Battle of the River Forth. Germany's First Air Attack on Britain of WW2.

on the 3rd of september 1939 prime minister neville chamberlain declared war on germany britain's armed forces of soldiers sailors and airmen were mobilized and sent to take on the might of the german war machine the residents of scotland could be forgiven for thinking that this war was taking place many miles from home but on the 16th of october 1939 they will be proved very wrong on a bright monday morning the war arrived in scotland on the firth of fourth throughout britain's history the threat of attack or invasion had always been felt would come from the south across the english channel or from the east across the north sea historically these coastlines have always utilized the very latest in technology to maintain a defensive readiness to counter any threat and by the late 1930s the technology of castles and fortresses had been replaced with battleships fighter aircraft and very recently radar just outside the village of caldingham beriksha sits raf drone hill drone hill was the first chain home radar station in scotland and had been providing his early warning protective shield since easter of 1939 following the outbreak of war on the 3rd of september 1939 two fighter squadrons of the royal auxiliary air force were standing by for any alerts provided from drone hill number 602 city of glasgow squadron had been operating out of raf abbottsynch now the site of glasgow international airport since january of 1933 but to reinforce the defenses against the german threat it relocated firstly to raf grangemouth in sterlingshire before moving closer to the coast at raf dram east lothian on the 13th of october 1939 the squadron had been equipped with super marine spitfire mark 1 aircraft since the previous may just the west of edinburgh number 603 city of edinburgh squadron were based at raf turn house they too were equipped with spitfire mark ones but had only recently been converted from gloucester gladiators in the previous august an adding to the military presence on the firth of fourth was the naval base at ross south it would regularly see significant numbers of ships coming and going for repairs refits or resupplies the firth of fourth also provided excellent access to the north sea for the royal navy on the morning of the 16th of october 1939 in the scottish borders the weather was relatively fine for the time of year the day had started just like any other but at 9 20 a.m the radar displays a drone hill picked up two unidentified targets closing on the scottish coast from across the north sea twenty-five minutes later the royal observer corps had spotted one of the unidentified aircraft over the scottish border town of gallus shields and the other had been spotted on a westerly path near dunfermline heading towards rural south by now the observer corps had identified them as heinkel hc-111 bombers of the luftwaffe they had taken off from the nearest luftwaffe base to britain at an airfield in westerland on the north german island of zilt 9 45 am and three spitfires of 602 squadron blue section led by flight lieutenant george pinkerton were scrambled in order to head out to the entrance of the first and fourth and patrol the isle of may just to the east of the fourth rail bridge two royal navy town-class light cruisers were at anchor hms edinburgh and hms southampton also in the estuary was tribal class destroyer hms mohawk which was making for the russia's dockyard as well as j-class destroyer hms jervis at eight minutes past ten a spotter aboard hms edinburgh reported a sighting of one of the heinkels overhead heading towards raf drem the blue section spitfires of 602 squadron who were patrolling over the isle of may were immediately vectored south towards dunbar to intercept the heinkel it didn't take too long for blue section to get a visual on the lawn bomber and pinkerton ordered attack formation upon realizing they had been spotted the heinkel turned and headed for the cover of cloud as it did so blue section opened fire the first shots of the air war over britain had been fired on this occasion the chase bomber managed to evade the arya fighters and escaped back across the north sea landing safely in zilt and with the chase over 602's blue section returned to ref drem the remainder of the morning would see six or two squadron spitfires continually scrambling in response to several unknown invaders all unsuccessfully intercepted the wide area of reported targets took one of 602 squadron sections as far north as peterhead some 150 miles up the scottish coast resulting in them having to land at raf lucas just north of st andrews as they were running low on fuel by around midday as the skies had returned to a state of calm six or two squadrons could be forgiven for thinking that they had done a good job in chasing off the luftwaffe threat but what they had not realized was that although the intruders had been identified as heinkel he-111 bombers they were not carrying bombs but in fact were fitted with cameras and they were not on a bombing raid but in fact were carrying out tactical reconnaissance as the spitfire air crews were having lunch and the ground crews were servicing and refueling their aircraft the heinkels now well over the north sea were radioing back to their base their findings the weather conditions over eastern scotland the state of readiness of the air defenses the type of aircraft that will be sent up to intercept them and in particular the royal navy ships in the firth of fourth a few weeks earlier on the 26th of september 1939 admiral class battle cruiser hms hood was sealing in the north sea as part of an escort to recover the damaged submarine hms spearfish when it came under an attack by heinkel a311s from luffwaffer bomber unit kg26 she suffered slight damage when its kilogram bomb damaged one of her torpedo bulges this was a missed opportunity for the luftwaffe to take out such a prominent target in hms hood now that same luffa bomber unit kj 26 had observed several ships in the firth iv and somehow had mistook one of the ships below as being hms hood in actual fact hood was at sea haven't left loch u in the scottish western highlands the day before despite now realizing that they will be up against spitfires something german intelligence claimed would not be the case they were not about to pass up another chance to destroy the prize target of what they thought was hms hood with this intelligence being received back at base at westerland 12 junca's ju-88 bombers were being armed and fueled in readiness to carry out the first attack by germany on the british homeland of world war ii shortly before midday the first wave of 12 yonkers ju-88 bombers departed westland on the island of zilt and headed west across the north sea at 23 000 feet they were organized in four waves of three and armed with two 500 kilogram bombs each the ju-88 could have carried more payload but due to the distances and fuel requirements this was the maximum they could carry for this mission the first wave was led by the squadron's commanding officer hautemann helmut paul his formation had intended to make landfall of barrack upon tweed on the england scotland border but they had drifted north and instead crossed the coastline just south of dunbar east lorvian instead of resuming the planned flight path of passing to the south before turning to attack from the west paul opted to fly a direct route across east lothian into the first iv before moving on to the target of hms hood the radar stations on the coast first picked up the approaching aircraft at 1225 while still out over the north sea and at approximately 2 20 pm the royal observer corps reported enemy aircraft over east lothian the first wave led by paul had arrived in response spitfires of 602 squadron blue section were scrambled from raf dram led by flight lieutenant pinkerton an anti-aircraft battery on the south bank of the 4th in dalmani park reported three enemy aircraft flying up the fourth at ten thousand feet the spitfires at ref turn house were now called into action in scramble 603 squadron's red section led by flight left and then pat gifford houseman paul looking down could see the royal navy's ships and got close to the railway bridge but he could not locate hms hood looking just a little further upriver towards the dockyard at ross south he located what he thought was the main target but to his frustration it was in fact the renowned class battle cruiser hms repulse safely docked ordinarily hms repulse would have made for a valuable target but at this early stage of the war hitler had given instructions to avoid civilian casualties in britain and not to attack ships in dock repulse was off limits so instead he turned his attention to the ships at anchor and picked out hms southampton tipping forward into an 80-degree dive he'd go for his new target and release both of his bombs at around 1500 feet before pulling up and banking to the north and inland from the river one bomb missed completely but the other penetrated through three decks narrowly missing the pom-pom magazine before bursting out the other side of the hull and exploding in the water despite the dramatic impact the damage was quite minor with no serious casualties at the same time as this attack on hms southampton a northbound train traveling from edinburgh to dundee had just entered the railway bridge and was passing through the first arch section when the passengers looked out to the right of the train they were horrified to see enemy bombers streaking straight for them they thought that the bridge itself was the target meanwhile the second wave was arriving on scene led by orbit lightning han storm they had flown the originally intended westwards path to the south of edinburgh and then turning right to commence their attack run in an eastwards direction as stop's formation was passing over raf turn house at 2 35 pm 603 squadrons scrambled yellow section led by flight lieutenant george denham to intercept three minutes later stop on his formation of gau-88s commenced their attack run and like the first attack wave they disregarded hms repulsed in rossais dockyard and made straight for the railway bridge and the light cruisers beyond the wave released their bombs whilst in a steep dive before turning south to acquire their path home stop was sure that they had hit their target of hms southampton but this proved not to be the case at this stage of the attack stop and wave two were escaping to the south and paul from the first wave was circling in the keithing on the north bank of the firth and fourth so he could visually monitor the follow-up attacks 603 squadron red section were patrolling over midlothian and 602 squadron blue section were patrolling out over the northern part of the estuary looking for escaping bombers and 603 squadron yellow section were claiming to intercept altitude when they spotted the flag in ju-88 of stopes wave they broke formation and attacked each bomber individually an aerial fight was now in full force over the pentland hills to the south of edinburgh stop's aircraft came under heavy fire and his hand engine was hit and destroyed realizing that he would never make it to the north sea he turned his mortally wounded ju-88 for the estuary 603 squadron red section that had been patrolling out to the east were now ordered to head west and in doing so they flew straight into the action unaware that storp's aircraft was still being pursued by 603's yellow section they opened fire on the stricken gu88 and at 245 it crashed into the fourth a nearby fishing board dayspring was immediately on the scene and rescued three of the german aircrew including storp but one of the crew being killed in the firefight and went down on the sinking aircraft the survivors were handed over to local police meanwhile over in the kievan hauteman paul decided it was time to leave and headed for the north sea his escape route took him straight into the path of 602 squadrons blue section and flight left end of pinkerton with flight officers mckellar and webb pinkerton gave chase as paul tried to find cover in the clouds and he opened fire his aim was right on target and two of paul's crew were killed in the attack with the third severely injured the ju-88 was now severely damaged with both engines failing and paul was unable to prevent having to ditch in the sea just off krill in eastern fife both paul and his badly injured gunner were picked up by a nearby boat but paul's croomey died the day after of the first two luftwaffe waves two aircraft had been shot down and four had managed to escape but there were still two waves to come this attack was not over when the third wave was spotted crossing the coast at dunbar at 2 45 603 squadrons scrambled six spitfires to patrol over north berwick in search of the enemy aircraft and while this was happening up the course of raf lucas three unidentified aircraft were spotted but at first glance they were believed to be raf bristol blenheims but it didn't take long for them to realize that these were in fact ju-88s of the fourth wave their journey across the north sea had taken them considerably further north to what they had planned the two final waves of ju-88 had now arrived over the firth of fourth and a swarm of spitfires were engaging them wherever they could be found at 3 20 a ju-88 was spotted over the first making a direct line for the ship's anchor it had singled out tribal class destroyer hms mohawk such was the surprise of the attack only one anti-aircraft gun was able to be manned and opened fire but this did not stop the attacking aircraft releasing its two bombs which impacted the water either side of the ship they didn't hit the destroyer but as they exploded they showered the upper decks with splinters and debris killing 15 men and wounding another 30. the captain commander richard frank jolly was seriously wounded and he died shortly after successfully seeing his ship into dock skirmishes would continue for the rest of the afternoon and in total some 40 bombs would be dropped at the naval targets with the resilience of the auxiliary air force's spitfires meant that there were no successful bombing runs by 6 pm all 602 squadron and 603 squadron spitfires were on the ground the first air battle of the war in britain's skies was over the captured german air crews were treated in hospital and spent the rest of the war as prisoners of war in canada those aircrews that had been killed had their bodies recovered and buried with full military honours at portobello cemetery in edinburgh although the events of the day were deemed to be a huge success for the auxiliary air force who suffered no losses the same could not be said for the royal navy although no ships were sunk significant damage had been caused that kept these ships out of the war for a period of time in all 16 sailors were killed with 44 being injured the 16th of october 1939 would have a number of firsts of world war ii including the first luftwaffe attack on the british homeland the first time the raf would engage enemy aircraft in britain's skies and the first time an enemy aircraft would be shot down over britain thanks for watching please hit the like button and consider subscribing [Music]

Channel: The Northern Historian

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Id: 0o1EKXj_6sU

Length: 16min 16sec (976 seconds)

Published: Wed Jun 16 2021