Last casualty of WW2 in Scotland

Pitblae, looking towards Greenbank

Grey Granite is reading an excellent book by Les Taylor,  'Luftwaffe over Scotland'. From this she has learned that the North East was nicknamed 'Hellfire Corner' during WW2 because of the frequency of German raids on the area. Fraserburgh received 23 bombing attacks and Rosehearty 4. The lighthouse at Rattery made a good landmark for enemy aircraft approaching over the North Sea from Norway and it was then a very easy flight to the busy harbour areas of Peterhead and Fraserbugh with their associated industries, notably the huge Consolidated Pneumatic toolworks factory,  ' The Toolies' in Fraserburgh. German crews who had failed to find their targets jettisoned bombs over the area before returning to Norway. Grey Granite clearly remembers her mother and aunts talking over the Rosehearty raids during the 1950's. Her Gran described running out on to the Cairnhill for safety when the German planes came over. There were stories of Germans flying low over the town and machine gunning Pitsligo Street, of standing in the Square at night to watch the raids on passing convoys and the bombing of a house in Pitsligo Street in which several people were killed. These stories made attacks sound like regular events so vividly were they described. From her reading Grey Granite has learned that the last actual casualty of the war was a Mrs McGregor who lived in Greenbank Cottage. On 21st April 1943 a Dornier which had failed to find it's target in Peterhead flew over Fraserburgh at jettisoned 9 high explosive bombs in the vicinity of Smiddyhill, North Pitblae and Greenbank Croft.(Grey Granite and Rufus regularly walk round this area, although it is rapidly disappearing under new housing)  Mrs McGregor went to her door when she heard the plane and was injured by a slate, dislodged by the blast of the bombs, falling from her roof. This was the last air raid of the war on Scotland.

Grey Granite was pleased to find Corn Marigolds, (Chrysanthemum segetum) growing at the edge of a barley field at Pitblae. Once common to the point of being a nuisance, these cheerful flowers are declining because of the increased use of weedkillers.

Known as gules, the marigolds were hated because they were slow to dry out and caused straw to rot.

'The gule, the Gordon and the hoodie craw are the three warst things that Moray ever saw'