First Air Raid of WWII – 39

Official communiques & Press reports

During the evening of 16 October a joint communique by the Admiralty, Air Ministry and Ministry for Home Security was released:

This afternoon about 2.30 a series of bombing raids began. These were directed at the ships lying in the Forth and were conducted by about a dozen machines. No serious damage was done to any of His Majesty’s ships.

One bomb glanced off the cruiser Southampton, causing slight damage near her bow, and sank the Admiral’s barge and pinnace which were moored empty alongside.

There were three casualties on board the Southampton and seven aboard the cruiser Edinburgh. Another bomb fell near the destroyer Mohawk. This bomb burst on the water and the splinters caused 25 casualties to the men on the deck of the destroyer. Only superficial damage was caused to the vessel which, like the others, is ready for sea.

The press were subsequently issued with an official account of events for publication on Tuesday 17 October. Under the circumstances it was fairly accurate:

Victory over the first German bombers to raid Great Britain since the war began has been largely shared in by men who, a few weeks ago, were Scottish stockbrokers, lawyers, and sheep farmers.  At least two of the four enemy raiders accounted for during Monday’s raid on the Forth were shot down by British fighter aircraft. They beat off the raiders in such a way that not more than half the German aircraft are believed to have returned home. About twelve or fourteen bombers took part in the raid.  Apart from four which were brought down by British fighters, and anti-aircraft, and naval gunfire, several are thought to have been too crippled to complete the passage of the North Sea. No pilot claims to have brought down one of Monday’s raiders single-handed. Their defeat was a team job. One running fight began over the Pentland hills.  British fighters chased a German bomber away from the Pentlands, and it crashed into the sea off Port Seton. Shots from several aircraft helped to cripple it, but the ‘coup de grace’ was delivered by an auxiliary pilot who, before the war, practised as a lawyer [Gifford]. He had taken a bet that he would be the first member of his squadron to bring down a German plane. Swooping low over Edinburgh, a Squadron Leader, who was a stockbroker in civil life [Farquar], chased another enemy raider out to sea. Two other members of his squadron, a sheep farmer Pinkerton) and the manager of a firm of plasterers [McKellar], shot down a bomber off Crail.

Press coverage of the raids on 16 October revealed something of the excitement felt at the time and there was an initial feeling of euphoria that little damage had been inflicted. In contrast, German radio broadcast the following account:

On Monday between 2.30 and 3.15p.m., German bombers made a successful attack on British warships in the Firth of Forth. Two British cruisers were hit, in spite of tremendous efforts on the part of the British Air Force to repulse the attackers.  Two British chaser planes were shot down and two German planes are missing.