大象传媒

I lived near the suburb of Portobello in Edinburgh, and my parent's house backed on to a field with views over the Firth of Forth. I was eight years old at the time, and my friends and I were playing in the field, when we happenned to look up to see a twin engined aircraft coming from the direction of the Rosyth Naval Base, flying very low over the water. As boys we were very excited about this, and we started waving. Looking back, the aircraft may have been at 150 to 200 feet, and as it neared us it started to climb. There was a trail of smoke from one engine.

To our surprise the Observer in the nose of the aircraft, which turned out to be a Heinkel 111, waved back to us. We realised it was German from the crosses on the wing after it had passed over.

We watched as it climbed towards the Lammermuir Hills, when we witnessed it being attacked by one of our Fighters, and to this day I remember distinctly the rat-a-tat-tat of the machine guns.

The plane came down on the Lammermuirs and two of the crew were killed. According to information I have from a Magazine of the time, "The bodies of two Airmen lay in the Church of St Philip in Portobello, and afterwards were buried with full military honours, with RAF Pipers playent a lament."

Seventeen British sailors lost their lives in the attack, and over 40 were wounded.

This is a memory which I have kept all those years, and is as lucid today as it was then.

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