Another interesting view of the Air Raid on the Forth The first German air raid of World War Two was not in London, but Rosyth. The Nazi’s wanted to destroy the pride of the British Navy fleet HMS Hood, which was anchored in the town’s dockyard. On 16th October 1939 Helmut Pohle led nine German Ju-88 Schnellbombers up the Forth to launch a surprise bombing. They didn’t attack HMS Hood because they were under orders from Hitler that the Luftwaffe were only allowed to hit ships that were at sea or anchored in the Forth. Instead, they managed to kill 15 men aboard HMS Mowhawk. But RAF spitfires were scrambled to fight them and Pohle would end up bleeding and captured after crashing his plane in the Forth near Crail. News of the battle was sparse, as the UK government were keen to play down losses. At that time David Sellars was a schoolboy living in Backmarch Road, Rosyth. In later years he researched the battle and, using sources from the dockyard as well as German and British military records, he pieced together the amazing story for the Press. “They arrived at the Forth estuary at 2.30pm and started their attack on the ships in Rosyth dockyard. At that time, the dockyard was surrounded by a large number of heavy anti-aircraft gun batteries. When combined with the anti-aircraft fire of the ships in the dockyard it proved to be too fierce for the bombers, so at 2.35pm they turned their attention to the ships lying at anchor. Spitfires of 603 squadron, based at RAF Turnhouse, were scrambled. Three of the Spitfires attacked one of the German Ju-88s and damaged it so badly that it crashed into the sea, four miles off Port Seton. A local fishing boat picked up three survivors. It so happened that Spitfires of 602 squadron based at RAF Drem (East Lothian) were airborne at the time and they too joined in the fight. A group of RAF planes from Donibristle were seen in the Fife skies at the time and they were almost shot down as their identity was not known at first! In the bombing attack, HMS Edinburgh and HMS Southampton received moderate damage. They were at anchor in the Forth at the time. The tribal class destroyer HMS Mohawk fared much worse. She was steaming up the river to Rosyth after completing convoy duties in the North Sea and those on board were looking forward to a well-earned rest. But she was straddled by two bombs – one exploded in the sea on the starboard side, the other exploded in the sea on the port side, alongside the torpedo tubes. Fifteen men were killed and thirty injured. The officers and men on the ship’s bridge were all killed or wounded. The commanding officer, Richard Frank Jolly was mortally wounded but remained on the bridge for the final 35 miles to Rosyth. He told the medical party, “Leave me, go and look after the others”. His voice became so weak that his orders had to be repeated by his navigating officer, who was also wounded. Commander Jolly died five hours after bringing his ship into port. He was posthumously awarded the Empire Gallantry Medal, changed to the George Cross upon the inauguration of the new medal. In one of his diving attacks, the cockpit canopy of Hauptmann Pohle’s Ju-88 flew off. As he pulled away to gain height, wind battering against his face, he was attacked by two RAF spitfires. Pohl turned his plane and headed out to the North Sea but was unable to escape and crashed into the Forth, three miles east of Crail, nearly colliding with a coaster. Pohle was recovered alive, but was bleeding from facial wounds. Three of his crew died. Another of the Ju-88s was shot down, landing more or less intact on farmland on the south side of the river. Several days later, the body of a German airman was found floating in the Forth. The body was recovered and brought to Rosyth dockyard in the middle of the night. My father, a member of the Royal Marine police, was detailed to search the corpse for identification and stand guard over it until it was taken to the mortuary the next morning.”
Posted on: Sat, 03 Jan 2015 18:43:32 +0000
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