Forth Bridge - World Wars

World Wars

In the First World War returning British sailors would time their departures or returns to the base at Rosyth by asking when they would pass under the bridge. This practice continued at least up to the 1990s.

The first German air attack on Britain of the Second World War took place over the Forth Bridge, six weeks into the war, on 16 October 1939. Although known as the "Forth Bridge Raid", the bridge was not the target and not damaged. In all, 12 German Junkers Ju 88 bombers led by two reconnaissance Heinkel He 111s from Westerland on the island of Sylt, 460 miles away, reached the Scottish coast in four waves of three. The target of the attack was shipping from the Rosyth naval base in the Forth Estuary, close to the bridge. The Germans were hoping to find HMS Hood, the largest capital ship in the Royal Navy. At this time, the Luftwaffe's rules of engagement restricted action to targets on water and not in the dockyard. Although HMS Repulse was in Rosyth, the attack was concentrated on cruisers HMS Edinburgh and HMS Southampton, carrier HMS Furious and destroyer HMS Jervis. Southampton and Edinburgh sustained minor damage and a combined total of ten injuries but no deaths. Spitfires from RAF 603 "City of Edinburgh" squadron intercepted the raiders and during the attack shot down the first German planes downed over Britain in the war. One bomber came down in the water off Port Seton on the East Lothian coast, another off Crail on the coast of Fife. After the war it was learned that a third bomber had come down in Holland as a result of damage inflicted in the raid. Later in the month, a reconnaissance Heinkel 111 crashed near Humbie in East Lothian and photographs of this crashed plane were, and still are, used erroneously to illustrate the raid of 16 October, thus sowing confusion as to whether a third plane had been brought down. Members of the bomber crew at Port Seton were rescued and made prisoners-of-war. Two bodies were recovered from the Crail wreckage and, after a full military funeral with firing party, were interred in Portobello cemetery, Edinburgh. The body of the gunner was never found.