The First Luftwaffe Air Raid Over Britain – ‘The Forth Bridge Raid’
My dad, was born and brought up in the village of North Queensferry beside the Forth Bridge on the Firth of Forth, near Edinburgh. The bridge opened in 1890 and was a major rail connection between Edinburgh and Aberdeen.
On Monday 16th October 1939, one month before his eighth birthday, dad along with three friends, heard rumours that a naval exercise was to take place that afternoon. They found themselves a vantage point on a cliff top overlooking the bridge where two cruisers were docked, the HMS Edinburgh and HMS Southampton with HMS Mohawk a bit further away.
At about 2.30pm three aircraft approached which they thought were British aircraft on exercise. It was only when bombs started landing in the water and a barge moored alongside the Southampton exploded, damaging the ship, that they realised it was not an exercise but the real thing. They were witnessing the first air raid on Britain of WW2 but no air raid warning had been sounded. Dad said one of the planes flew really low over them and the rear gunner waved at them! He ran for home and after some time the air raid warning sounded and anti-aircraft fire started from the ships.
Following this raid, as they lived only three miles from Rosyth Dockyard, all the village children were evacuated. Dad went to live in the west of Scotland with his grandparents but returned home after nine months.
This aerial photograph of the attack was taken from one of the German Luftwaffe planes
My dad told this story for a BBC initiative ‘WW2 People’s War’. Following which he heard from someone who was on a train on the bridge at the time of the attack. He saw a giant waterspout as high as the bridge alongside one of the ships and two German bombers a short distance away flying parallel to the bridge. The train stopped and painters and riggers working on the bridge scrambled from the scaffolding and made for shelter. The train carried on without further incident, by which time RAF fighters had become involved.
Dad found out years later that twelve Luftwaffe Junkers Ju 88 bombers in several waves attacked that day. Two were shot down by Spitfires, from nearby RAF bases, the first to be shot down in the war and the first time Spitfires had been used in real combat. The only fatal British casualties were on HMS Mohawk where 16 people were killed. Two Luftwaffe crew did get rescued by a trawler off the Fife coast and were visited in hospital by the pilot that shot them down.
The raid took British air-defence completely by surprise. No alarm was sounded and the performance of the early-warning system gave cause for concern. There was an immediate enquiry which found neither the standards of training nor the equipment were up to the standards of modern war.
The Forth Bridge had never been the bombers’ intended target. The Germans had been hoping to attack HMS Hood but, as it was not to be found they had turned their attention to the other naval ships sailing near the Forth Bridge. It was however a significant near miss.
Compiled by: Fiona Illingsworth
Member of Coleorton Heritage Group
March 2025