大象传媒

This story was submitted to the People鈥檚 War site by Claire White of 大象传媒 Scotland on behalf of James Ferguson and has been added to the site with his permission. The author fully understands the site's terms and conditions

Aberdeen's first major WW2 air raid occurred around lunchtime on Friday 12 July 1940 when a Heinkel bomber was intercepted off the coast by Spitfires and chased over the city. A number of bombs were dropped, one hitting a shipyard canteen and killing numerous workers and the other struck commercial and residential property elsewhere. Mr and Mrs Craig (uncle and aunt) had recently moved into a house in the Canal Terrace area and a bomb exploded in their back garden to cause extensive damage. The blast blew a piano from the dining room into the sitting room where Mrs Craig and Mrs Anderson (aunt) were having a pre-lunch sherry, shocking the former and inflicting a shrapnel wound on the latter's left forearm.

The Heinkel was eventually shot down to the SW of the city, crash landing on then single-lane Anderson Drive before bouncing into the part-completed ice rink and catching fire. All five aircrew were killed and they were interred at Dyce Old Churchyard, this lying under the south-north flightpath into the present airfield. None were exhumed postwar and taken to the main German military cemetry (soldatenfriedhof) in Derbyshire - records indicate that at least 29 civilians were killed, with much local indignation being expressed over mutilated bodies being taken uncovered through city streets to the mortuary.

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