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Date 5 July 2004

Wartime memories as told to David G. Orr.

Mrs Melville remembers the bomb dropped on Rossie Island on a Saturday afternoon, her daughter Norah had bee at the matinee at the pictures. A German plane came over from the coast near Usan and she saw the two bombs drop (they looked like sausages). She ran indoors to her house at 31 Thomson Terrace and lay under shelves in the pantry of her house until her neighbour who was a warden. Their neighbour’s house occupied by the Arbuthnotts house was demolished. Mrs Melville remembers there was a train on the viaduct at the time and she believes the pilot intended to demolish the bridge. The Arbuthnott mother and daughter were both killed – the warden picked up a head and a hand, with a wedding ring on it. The Arbuthnott men folk (Senior and Junior) worked in the boat building trade and were at work when the bomb fell. The two men were taken to the site of the disaster by being supported by a warden on each arm. The women were buried in Sleepyhillock cemetery.
Mrs Melville and her daughter were so alarmed by this that they moved to a cottage in West Hemming Street in Letham for 2 months, as her husband was in the Navy at the time.She also remembers the first man to be killed in the area as a result of bombing was near the Barracks and she also recalls an enemy plane flying down the length of Montrose High Street strafing the public who took shelter up the many closes.

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