大象传媒

This is a note I sent to our grandchildren a year or so ago , from "Granma's" recollection , mentioned to me many years ago
"Granma " is Margaret Burnett
GRANMA'S WAR
Granma at two years of age ( 2yrs 7mths 4 days ) was living in the Port of Leith , Edinburgh, at Portland Place which overlooks the Firth of Forth. And Granma ,on Monday October 16th 1939, was at the window when she saw something she thought was interesting . " Something fallen out of 'plane. "
In the room with her were her brother Robert, two years older, who was in bed with chicken pox, her brother John, and her sister Ann both in their early teens.In seconds this relaxed family cluster was radically rearranged : the teenagers swept the children flat onto the floor and covered them.
Only just in time. The explosion of the bomb " fallen out of 'plane" blew in the window, spearing the walls with shards of glass and shafts of wood.
So, no one was hurt . Lucky for us all.
Granma remembers this clearly , as her earliest memory ; no doubt because of the impact her observation made.

The recollections of a very young child were later confirmed by this account in
THE PEOPLE'S WAR Angus Calder 1969
Chapter Two " The Strangest of Wars" September 1939 to April 1940 Page 69
Two days later (Oct 16 1939), the Luftwaffe bombed cruisers in the Firth of Forth.
For the first time a real air raid had occurred. Shrapnel fell on Edinburgh and Dunfermline, and the Scots were outraged that no air raid warning had been given.
Twenty five sailors had been killed , but no civilians. For a moment it appeared that the war had actually started.

Subsequently we discovered other evidence
Reported further east of Leith came this item from the Portobello newspaper :
"The people of Joppa and Portobello were to see the first air raid over Great Britain . On 16th October 1939 , German aircraft attempting to hit the Forth Bridge , hit Potobello. During this daring daylight raid , the rooftop gog fight caused damage to houses in Morton Street . The Luftwaffe pilots that were shot down and killed during this action were buried in Portobello Cemetary . These pilots were the first enemy casualties to be buried on British soil ."

So dramatic was the whole episode that it became the subject of a film documentary " THe Hour of the Eagle" , about German bombers attacking the Fleet at Rosyth.

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