16th October 1939: First German air raid on Britain during WW2 took place at a Scotland naval base

At 9:20am on the morning of 16 October 1939, Britain’s Chain Home radar station detected two aircraft heading for the coast from the North Sea. Spitfires from the RAF’s 602 Squadron were scrambled to intercept what were identified as German Heinkel He 111s, but the enemy planes turned around. However, they had managed to observe a number of Royal Navy ships in Rosyth naval base at the Firth of Forth and radioed through this information along with details of the unusually clear weather conditions.

Shortly before midday twelve Junkers Ju 88s in three groups of four took off from Westerland on the German North Sea island of Sylt. Each was carrying two 500kg bombs that they intended to drop on the British ships in the open water of the Firth of Forth, one of which they erroneously believed to be HMS Hood.

Spitfires from 602 and 603 Squadrons were scrambled to respond, but some of German bombers were able to attack ships on the river before the fighter planes arrived. The light cruiser HMS Southampton and the destroyer Mohawk were damaged, while sixteen Royal Navy sailors died and 44 were injured.

In the sky, the RAF’s determined defence proved crucial. The British fighters successfully repelled the German attack, bringing down two of the enemy aircraft while losing none of their own. It later emerged that a third German aircraft was so badly damaged that it was forced to make an emergency landing in the Netherlands. Nevertheless the first Luftwaffe attack on the British homeland gave clues to the future nature of the war.