First Air Raid of WWII – 15

14:20 – first confirmed sighting of the bombers

 
The reliability of the Observer Corps cannot be over-stated and their first confirmed sighting of enemy aircraft in the skies over East Lothian came at 14.20 hours. (The RDF could not detect aircraft once they had moved overhead and inland. The plotting of their route was down to visual sightings by the Observer Corps, but even then only during daylight hours.)

Two minutes later F/L Cairns Smith in the Drem watch office was instructed by Turnhouse operations room to inform Blue Section of 602 Squadron to take off and patrol the airspace over Dalkeith at 20,000 feet. A matter of minutes later the three Spitfires took off from the steeply sloping airfield at Drem but as they began their climb towards Dalkeith, they were diverted on a reciprocal course with orders from the Turnhouse controller to ‘Investigate two unidentified aircraft over Tranent, Angels Two.