Willie’s introduction to Granton in World War II part 1

It was in the skies over Granton and the Forth estuary, that the first military action over mainland Britain took place, on Monday 16th October, 1939. War had been declared on the 3rd September 1939, and this period was called the ‘phoney war’. Both sides had not attacked each others countries or civilians. They had only attacked each others naval ships in the North Sea. German air force ‘Luftwaffe’ spy planes had flown high overhead taking photographs of air fields, industrial areas and harbours.

They had spotted H.M.S. Hood, a major battleship of the Royal Navy heading towards the Firth of Forth and possibly Rosyth naval base. The Germans sent out twelve of their new Junkers JU88 bombers from their base on the island of Sylt, to attack the Hood before it reached Rosyth. When the German bombers arrived, H.M.S. Hood was already in the dockyard and as Hitler had stated “no civilians were to be attacked.” They dive bombed H.M.S. Edinburgh and H.M.S. Southampton lying at anchor to the east of the Forth Railway Bridge. Spitfires from 603 Squadron at R.A.F. Turnhouse (now Edinburgh airport) and 602 Squadron from Drem attacked the raiders, forcing the German pilots to go down to roof top level to make it more difficult for the faster Spitfires to shoot them down. During the low level chase, construction worker John Ferry was shot in the leg as he worked at an anti aircraft gun site at West Pilton. He became one of the earliest civilian casualties of the war. Workmen building air raid shelters above Granton Square helped local residents into the safety of the shelters.

Granton fishermen at sea came under attack while fishing off the north coast of Scotland. The Devlin trawlers: Star of the East, Ratikpo, Starbank and Star of the Isles, which was under the command of skipper Sandy Wood. He intended to celebrate his 16th wedding anniversary on his return. One cold dawn he heard the drone of engines and looking through his binoculars he saw German markings on the incoming bomber. He shouted “German plane, German plane” and the crew manned the machine guns. Shaking his fist at the bomber he shouted out, “you’ll no do me oot o’ my wedding anniversary” as a stream of bullets tore a pattern of holes through the funnel. All the bombs missed.

The buildings 21- 27 Crewe Place are different to those surrounding them in that they have flat roofs. This is due to the tragic events of 29th September 1940. At 5.45 in the evening Mrs MacArthur of 27 Crewe Place was sitting in her lounge while her two children Ronald aged 7 and Morag (not Moira as reported at the time in the Scotsman and Dispatch Newspapers 30th September 1940) who was aged 5, were playing in another room. A German pilot flying overhead at 20,000 feet decided to jettison one of his last bombs before returning home. The bomb scored a direct hit on the block of four houses 21, 23, 25 and 27 Crewe Place. Mrs McArthur had gone into the hall towards the main door when the bomb struck, she was blown out of the house into the garden. She picked herself up and began looking for her children but they were buried in the rubble that was once their home. The rescuers took two hours to find Ronald’s body. Morag’s funeral took place on 2nd October to avoid her sixth birthday on the 3rd. Mr Charles Wilson the family’s upstairs neighbour at number 25 also died. Thirty people were injured, seven seriously in the incident. The flat roof of the building is a reminder of this tragic incident.