First Air Raid of WWII – 24

Anti-aircraft guns

 
A common recollection was that the German aircraft were met by an impressive fusillade of gun fire, not just from the anti-aircraft guns on board the Royal Navy cruisers, but also from the shore-based AA guns, once they had finally been given permission to open fire.

Some of these AA batteries were manned by the local Territorial Army Regiment (the 94th [City of Edinburgh] Heavy Anti-Aircraft Regiment of the Royal Artillery). Their armament was not the most up-to-date and included a circa 1917 naval three-inch gun which had been designed to shoot down aircraft during WWI travelling at just 100mph.

James Clark was an apprentice in the civilian building trade who happened to be working at the Royal Naval base at Port Edgar on the south side of the Forth, just east of South Queensferry. He recalled the arrival of the second and third waves of German aircraft from the west:

Suddenly there was the sound of gunfire; this came from the anti-aircraft batteries. Then the sound of sirens [Royal Navy base at Port Edgar]. On looking up we saw two planes flying over the bridge with the puffs of bursting shells following them.

I remember everybody on the site had gathered out in the open and were cheering the gunners as these shells burst closer and closer. None of us ever having been in an air raid before, we didn’t appreciate the danger; we soon did, when a naval officer bore down on us, with a big lump of jagged metal in his hand and politely told us to get into the bloody shelter.

Gerry didn’t stop for very long.  After we got the all-clear we went back to work. On finishing we had to walk past the base hospital.  There we saw them removing the wounded who had been brought in from the ships that were in the Firth of Forth at the time of the raid.