First Air Raid of WWII – 11

13.30 The bombers en route

At 12.25 hours, the Drone Hill RDF station went out of service to enable the engineers to fit the replacement amplifier valves. By this time the enemy bomber formation was well on its way across the North Sea, heading almost directly at the Drone Hill site. Although the RDF station was an important unit, its shut down was far from disastrous and the formation was reported to be approaching Britain by other stations well before it arrived.

At this time Green Section of 602 Squadron were re-fuelling at RAF Leuchars having spent the previous hour chasing an apparently non-existent ‘bogey’ as far north as Montrose.

Back in the Turnhouse operations room, F/L Tommy Waitt had been due to go off duty at 13.00 hours, but was asked to stay on at his post as things became more hectic. The pilots of 603, including Pat Gifford, Ken Macdonald and Robbie Robertson were intrigued by the morning’s aerial activity.

At Drem, 602 Flight Lieutenant George Pinkerton and Flying Officer Archie McKellar were served lunch as they discussed events. Their CO was still at RAF Leuchars where he along with Ian Ferguson and Sandy Johnstone had gone to the officers’ mess to grab some lunch. They, like the 603 pilots, were intuitively aware that something was about to happen.

At 13.26 hours Red Section 602 Squadron once again took off from Drem with orders to patrol Crail at ‘Angels Five’ (5,000 feet).