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The Aberdeen Blitz -
Friday 21st April 1943
'The Big Blitz' in Aberdeen City, major damage was done to the city during its worst air raid of World War II, Friday 21 April 1943. Contemporary shots of the same locations were featured alongside the bomb damage to illustrate powerfully the devastation caused by a squadron of 30 Luftwaffe Dornier 217E's that night.
Between 22.20 & 23.04 Hours
The statistics for the night of 21 April 1943
Bedford Place 1943
Westburn Drive "a stick came down in the street", one in the road just outside these houses (nos. 9 and 11), one opposite no. 15, and two in the park opposite. One of these, in the Bowling Green, was almost opposite her family house. This caused some consternation later - ARP thought it had gone off, but it hadn't - when the hole drained the fins emerged very much intact as a UXB...oops...evacuate! There were a lot of UXBs, maybe because so many were dropped very low and did not correctly fuse. Houses were not too badly damaged, even by near misses, as they were made of good Aberdeen graniteThe following facts show how Aberdeen earned its gruesome war-time nickname of 'Siren City', the most frequently bombed in the UK
The Battery gunners have fond memories of the Aberdonian's as a generous and welcoming people. In particular they mention Mrs. Douglas from Douglas Farm at Torry Point. Her son was in the RAF as a fighter pilot and was KIA early in the war. Mrs Douglas would lend the Battery Troops his records and gramophone player. There were earlier raids on Aberdeen. While 6 LAA Battery were there between 1939 and 1940. They were manning Lewis guns and had telegraph poles made up to look like heavy guns. During a dog fight between a German Dornier 217 and the RAF the Dornier was shot down. The Dornier had taken a hammering from the Spitfire manned by Squadron Leader Quacker who was awarded the DFC for his actions. The Battery pumped in a couple of .303 rounds as it came in to crash on Aberdeen skating rink. By that time the crew had all left the plane.
While cycling home one evening in the
Bridge of Don area when he was aware of planes in the sky behind him, when he looked he realised they were German and too close for comfort , so he jumped off his bike into the nearest ditch and looked up to actually see the bombs being dropped from the aircraft. These bombs he thinks were aimed at the bridge but hit a transport depot or bus station. There were also bombs dropped on a nearby army barracks where several soldiers were killed.Menzies Road - Torry
The hazards of blackouts. He was a “runner” for the ARP wardens in the town and carried messages from one post to another on his bike, as you can imagine it was pitch black at night, however this was compensated for by knowing the streets well. The thing that he hadn’t allowed for was that trams would stop in strange places when the power was cut, so one evening on an errand he raced round a corner straight into a stationary tram resulting in a broken arm and several other bruises!
A German bomber reportedly tasked to attack
RAF Leuchars and shipping in the Tay estuary was intercepted over the City, attacked by Spitfires based at Dyce, and eventually shot down into what was to be the New Ice Rink on Anderson DriveI also remember quite clearly when they were building an Ice rink in Anderson Drive. It was during the day and this German plane came across and everybody just stood and watched. It was shot down and it crash landed in the new ice rink which was never completed and was demolished after the war. She lived with my grandparents, her brother and sister in a tenement style flat 3 or 4 stories up at 285 Hardgate, Aberdeen just off the town centre. Her story concerns an air raid which must have been in daylight — she heard engine noise, looked out of the window to see a German bomber go past close enough for her to clearly see the markings and expression on the pilots face. The aircraft had been hit by anti-aircraft fire and the pilot was fighting a losing battle to control it. The plane then came down and crashed into the nearby ice-rink on Anderson Drive
The German bomber shot down by Spitfires on
12 July 1940. The bombs, dropped as the crew attempted to escape the Spitfires, landed mostly on Hall Russell's shipyard canteen in Footdee killing several dozen workers. The Neptune bar was also badly damaged as was the former School of Domestic Science in King Street. After a short time Aberdeen also fell victim to Luftwaffe attacks aircraft based at Stavanger could reach the City in just over an hour and we were forbidden to visit the Beach Esplanade which was heavily fortified with AA guns (mainly Bofors) to defend the Harbour installations and Shipyards. It was quite common to have a daylight strafe from either a Heinkel or Dornier spraying the Beach area and Football grounds with Machine Gun fire. At this tine we were staying with relatives in Mannofield which was about as far out of Aberdeen as you could go on the tram. I attended school locally and one day there was a major air attack on the Harbour, again we had taken shelter in one of the concrete public shelters by the school in Broomhill Road. A great many powerful detonations were heard and we heard the fire tenders go tearing along to what had been the new Ice Rink a policeman asked me where I was going and I said Morningside Drive so he directed me past the blaze which was caused by a German bomber crashing.There was the crashed plane. One of the crew had obviously tried to bale out and met his death trapped in the bomber's half-open door. The police were everywhere, but we managed to sneak past in a search for souvenirs. I picked up a number of cartridge cases, a couple of pieces of parachute harness, and a small piece of the wreckage. Still in my pocket was the paper bag from Mitchell and Muill's Bakery, which had contained a couple of rowies (morning rolls) we had bought to sustain us throughout the day. In it I put my souvenirs. They remained in that bag for many years. I remember having a look into the bag when I returned from Malaya after doing my National Service. The wreckage of the bomber was brought down into the centre of the city and displayed in the quadrangle of Marischal College — a memorial to the Hall Russell's dead, and also to the German Crew, who were given a decent burial. I can't remember whether the Germans were buried - either in the Trinity or the Grove cemetery. Tullos Circle had been bombed the same day.
I was a 14 yr old when the
Hall Russell Shipyard at Aberdeen docks was bombed. The bombing happened during the day. I was at home and heard the planes coming across and the bombs dropping. I went out onto the street along with many other people who were drawn outside to see what had been hit. My memory is a vivid one of the bodies being taken up the Denburn by horse and cart to the Woolmanhill Hospital, which was the main hospital in Aberdeen at that time.The day the German bomber smashed into the new ice rink that was being built at Anderson Drive! It was a school holiday and a beautiful sunny day. We had bought all-day bus tickets, allowing us to roam Aberdeen by bus and tram. We were on our way to Hazlehead when the air-raid siren sounded and there was action in the skies. We leapt off the tram to watch. There was a German bomber (if I remember, it was a Junkers 88) trying desperately to get away from two spitfires from the Dyce Squadron. But the Spitfires were being thwarted because of the barrage of ack-ack fire coming from trawlers in the harbour. They were in danger of being shot down themselves! Eventually, one of the fighter pilots fired a red flare signalling the guns to stop firing, then honed in on the target. In desperation, the Junkers jettisoned its two bombs in a bid to escape. Unbelievably, the bombs (later we were told they were actually sea mines) exploded on the corner of York Street in Fittie, where hundreds of Hall Russell's Shipyard workers were gathered during their lunch break. Many died. But the fighter pilots finally did the job and the Junkers crashed into the ice rink. We immediately headed for York Street. It was where our granny lived. Complete carnage. But at least Granny had escaped with just shattered windows. We went up York Street and into a shattered flour-mill building. I made a gruesome discovery - a severed finger. I actually picked it up, but hurriedly threw it away, wiping my stained fingers on my shorts.
In 1942 Froghall, Gallowgate, King Street, Gordon Barracks and South Market Street were bombed.
In 1943 there was widespread damage at Cattofield, pupils died at Sunnybank Primary School, at Broadford Works the Mill was destroyed. Soapy Ogstons also went.
I was in Aberdeen during the War staying with relatives who had a
Butcher's Shop in Broomhill Road (Wm Turnbull Master Butcher) When Indian Troops were training at Milltimber House he had a contract to supply them with mutton. I accompanied him on several deliveries and was given my first taste of curried mutton on pilau rice almost 60 years ago and I've enjoyed Indian food ever since. These troops were from an Indian Mountain Battery with their mules they were training on Lochnagar before moving to Italy. The last time I was at Milltimber in the 60's it was still possible to see where the old Mule lines were but so much rebuilding has probably obliterated any traces now.
More damage at
Hogg & Company in Regent WalkI was a child of 10 in Aberdeen when it started and the action was immediate with one of the first German bombing raids shattering a tenement and a butcher's shop in Torry. The first secret was passed on to us at the local Play Centre, which we attended twice a week in the early evening. There we were visited by RAF officers who taught us how to identify the raiding German planes; we were shown how to use rifles and light machine guns. We were sworn to secrecy - if the church bells were to ring during the night, signalling an invasion, we were to report immediately to the school where there would be transport waiting to take us to the hills, where we would be hidden and taught how to fight the invaders. We were to take no luggage, get there just in our pyjamas if necessary. Don't even tell mum and dad.
THE BLITZ
It was
April 1943, the night of the Aberdeen blitz. I was blown out of my bed and under
the table. Our budgie, Jocky, was thrown around his cage and never spoke
another word after that. As Ma ran down the lobby trying to get out, Da threw
himself on top of her, shouting: "Annie, keep doon!" As we fled down the stairs
through smoke and dust, heading for the back-garden concrete air-raid shelter,
the door on the bottom floor opened and we were dragged inside. "Dinna gae oot!
They're machine-gunnin' the place!" And there was a bunch of us lying on a lobby
floor covered with coats. Outside, at the front door our elderly lady ARP warden
was standing screaming with fright.
It went on for hours, the
noise. Big bangs, the double-droning of the German planes, shuddering impacts.
But I was unworried, because I had identified the sound of a Mustang fighter. "Dinnae
worry," I said. "Rufus is up. He'll get them!" Rufus? I don't know how it came
about but all we kids knew for an absolute fact that a fighter ace called Rufus
was at Dyce, and he could deal with anything! It ended eventually, but in the
morning I discovered that two bombs had hit my school,
Middlefield Primary.
It was wrecked. One of my favourite teachers, Miss Spicer, had been on
fire-watching duty. As she tried to flee the attack, the Lintol above the main
door fell on her and she lay trapped all night. She lost a leg. (She came back,
complete with wooden leg, to teach for many years after.)
Nae School I' Day -
Middlefield School Bomb Damage 21st April 1943 during WWIIThe school had been wrecked. Actually, my Room 19 was still almost intact, but my desk had been shattered by the impact of an unexploded incendiary bomb. Anyway, we were all asked to go through the ruins to salvage anything we could. We spent a whole day at the job gathering together books, pens, blackboards . . . the lot. But we also gathered up straps. Straps? They're known in other parts of Scotland as the tawse — vicious, thonged leather belts used for corporal punishment. We found dozens of 'em. We buried 'em. But when we eventually got back to Middlefield, we found that all the teachers had been issued with new, and even more vicious, straps.
Later in the War there was a raid on the
Mannofield Reservoirs at the back of the Cricket Grounds and the bombs whistled down on a night Raid ,only two exploded. The next morning we watched the Royal Engineers bomb disposal boys pull another two UXB's from a field using a couple of Clydesdale horses borrowed from the local farm.
Workers clearing debris on Stafford Street, off George Street Aberdeen, after the bombing raid on 21 Apr 1943 imagine those granite blocks raining down on you.
Jeannie Sinclair a relative was strafed by a Messerschmitt on Rose Street and died.
Barracks Hit - The Bridge of Don Barracks was the
home of the local regiment from 1935 to 1960.
The barracks were struck by the air raid on 21 April 1942.
27 servicemen died and a further 26 were injured.
In time it became the Training Depot of the Scottish Division.
South Market Street Damage
There is a lot more to relate such as the aerial bomb which hit my Grandmothers house at 28 Urquhart Road on July 12th 1940 which probably hastened her death in Dec that year, but that is for another time. Doug P
Two bombs being dropped at Muchals on 21 February by a German bomber as he avoided shells from the coastal batteries and ships in Aberdeen harbour.
“14th Feb, Raid 52, Air Raid Warning Signal at 11.45am, clear 12.13pm. Two bombs at Muchals viaduct and passenger train machine-gunned. Heard one bomb definitely explode. Several reports of big guns. The one which struck the viaduct was a glancing blow on ends of sleepers, which with rails on downside, damaged. The bomb rebounded off sleepers exploding in a field at some distance. Dull raw day, sky foggy.
Various books exist featuring Aberdeen's wartime experience; 2 were Far Were Ye Fan the Sireen Blew, by David Atherton & Trevor Davies, published by Aberdeen City Council, c. 1998 and Aberdeen at War, by Paul Harris, published by Lomond Press, 1987. See also Aberdeen & the North-East at War by Bernard Bale, published by Aberdeen Journals, 2005. The main data on the amount of bombs which fell and their locations came from a combination of a City Council 'Memorandum of Information' and the ARP listings – both of which can be consulted at the Local Studies dept of Aberdeen City Library, Rosemount Viaduct.
The bombing of the Tartan Kirkie in Carden Place on 21 April 1943. On the 21st of April 1943 a bomb was dropped on St. Mary's, and the chancel, crypt and sacristy were badly damaged, the windows were blown out, and the walls were badly cracked.
The triptych had fortunately been removed, so survived the blast. A new chancel was built in 1952 with the aid of the War Damage Commission and the congregation