Club vice-captain Dónal writes: On October 16th 1939, the first German air raid on the UK happened when a Junkers 88 attacked the Firth of Forth and the naval dockyard of Rosyth.
Click here to read an eye witness report by a passenger on the Edinburgh to Aberdeen train, which was crossing the Forth Bridge at the time.
Almost simultaneously there was a giant waterspout as high as the bridge alongside one of the capital ships and a barge tied up alongside; it seemed to fly up in the air! In later life I discovered it was HMS Southampton. There were two or three other explosions further off and one of the ships was actually struck; it was HMS Mohawk and casualties were sustained on board. The German bombers were in plain sight only a short distance away flying parallel to the bridge. Meanwhile the train stopped briefly and as it did so the painters and riggers working scrambled from the scaffolding of the bridge and made for shelter.
Edward Thompson
Val added another article with interesting information, this time from the History Press.