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Showing general bomb damage, Domestic Science School, The Neptune Bar, strafing damage, and the downed German Bomber at the Ice Rink. The Battery gunners have fond memories of the Aberdonian's as a generous and welcoming people. In particular they mention Mrs. Douglas fromDouglas Farm atTorry Point. Her son was in the RAF as a fighter pilot and was KIA early in the war. Mrs Douglas would lend the Battery Troops his records and gramophone player. There were earlier raids on Aberdeen. While 6 LAA Battery were there between 1939 and 1940. They were manning Lewis guns and had telegraph poles made  up to look like heavy guns. During a dog fight between aGerman Dornier 217 and theRAFthe Dornier was shot down. The Dornier had taken a hammering from the Spitfire manned bySquadron Leader Quacker who was awarded theDFC for his actions. The Battery pumped in a couple of .303 rounds as it came in to crash on Aberdeen skating rink. By that time the crew had all left the plane.
There was the crashed plane. One of the crew had obviously tried to bale out and met his death trapped in the bomber's half-open door. The police were everywhere, but we managed to sneak past in a search for souvenirs. I picked up a number of cartridge cases, a couple of pieces of parachute harness, and a small piece of the wreckage. Still in my pocket was the paper bag from, which had contained a couple of rowies (morning rolls) we had bought to sustain us throughout the day. In it I put my souvenirs. They remained in that bag for many years. I remember having a look into the bag when I returned from
The day the German bomber smashed into the newice rink that was being built at Anderson Drive! It was a school holiday and a beautiful sunny day. We had bought all-day bus tickets, allowing us to roam Aberdeen by bus and tram. We were on our way to Hazlehead when the air-raid siren sounded and there was action in the skies. We leapt off the tram to watch. There was a German bomber (if I remember, it was a Junkers 88) trying desperately to get away from two spitfires from the In1942Froghall, Gallowgate, King Street, Gordon Barracks andSouth Market Street were bombed. In1943 there was widespread damage atCattofield, pupils died atSunnybank Primary School, at Broadford Works the Mill was destroyed. Soapy Ogstons also went.
I was a child of 10 in Aberdeen when it started and the action was immediate with one of the first German bombing raids shattering a tenement and a butcher's shop in THE BLITZ
Later in the War there was a raid on the
Workers clearing debris onStafford Street, offGeorge Street Aberdeen, after the bombing raid on 21 Apr1943 imagine those granite blocks raining down on you. Jeannie Sinclair a relative was strafed by a Messerschmitt on Rose Street and died.
Two bombs being dropped at Muchals on 21 February by a German bomber as he avoided shells from the coastal batteries and ships in Aberdeen harbour. “14th Feb, Raid 52, Air Raid Warning Signal at 11.45am, clear 12.13pm. Two bombs at Muchals viaduct and passenger train machine-gunned. Heard one bomb definitely explode. Several reports of big guns. The one which struck the viaduct was a glancing blow on ends of sleepers, which with rails on downside, damaged. The bomb rebounded off sleepers exploding in a field at some distance. Dull raw day, sky foggy.
Various books exist featuring Aberdeen's wartime experience; 2 wereFar Were Ye Fan the Sireen Blew, by David Atherton & Trevor Davies, published by Aberdeen City Council, c. 1998 andAberdeen at War, by Paul Harris, published by Lomond Press, 1987. See alsoAberdeen & the North-East at War by Bernard Bale,published by Aberdeen Journals, 2005. The main data on the amount of bombs which fell and their locations came from a combination of a City Council 'Memorandum of Information' and the ARP listings – both of which can be consulted at the Local Studies dept ofAberdeen City Library, Rosemount Viaduct.
The bombing of theTartan Kirkie inCarden Place on 21 April1943. |
