gb0551ms-33-88

Transcription

[Page] 88
[continued from page 87]

shelter behind the house by encasing a hut,
formed by sheets of corrugated iron, which I have
long possessed, in turf to a considerable depth.
The turf was taken from my little apple orchard,
and on the site I shall grow potatoes etc.
This afternoon we had our first realisation
of the ubiquitous nature of modern war. I had
gone into town to see my dentist at 2 o’clock,
and my doctor at 2.45, both on trifling
matters, and as I proceeded from one to
the other, I heard the sound of guns, and
observed many people on the streets, and
doorsteps, gazing up into the sky. But there
had been no air raid warning, and no
one seemed to the slightest extent fussed.
When at Dr. [Doctor] Croome’s in Rothesay Place, the
firing increased, and seemed to be coming from
the Forth, and even from the city, and from
guns of various calibres. But the absence
of a warning led everyone, I suppose, to
attribute it all to a “dress rehearsal”. By
the time I reached home it had practically
ceased. Sir George and Lady Macdonald
had just arrived to tea, when suddenly it
started anew, and as I went to the door
to greet them two huge monoplanes,

in close pursuit one of the other, crossed
the house from west to east, just above my head
at what seem a height of little above the roof.
The pursuit plane was firing. I think, for I
saw a spurt of flame, and the noise
was terrific. For some seconds after they
passed the roar echoed from the east
wall facing the line of their departure.
Now we learn from the B.B.C. [British Broadcasting Corporation] that this
was a real attack on east coast ports
and that there have been no casualties, and
no damage to property.

17th Oct. 1939
The raid of yesterday was indeed no dress
rehearsal, but a serious attack on the fleet
in the Forth, by from 12 – 14 German airplanes
coming on in groups of 3 or 4 at a time.
The attack went on from shortly after
2.0 till a little after 4.0 p.m. and the
scurry that we came in for was the hot
pursuit of the last of the Germans by one of
our ‘spitfires’. How serious it was may be
judged from the fact that from the garden
of the Gardiners’ house, a little more than 100
yards away, 40 empty cartridge cases from a
machine gun, have been picked up. A number
were found in Notman’s Nursery Garden behind
[continued on page 89]

  Transcribers who have contributed to this page.

Jane F Jamieson