Rosehearty Air Raid: 29.01.1942

During the Second World War there were four enemy air raids on Rosehearty. The most serious of these took place at around 6.30 p.m. on 29^th January 1942, 70 years ago today, when an enemy aircraft dropped 5 high explosive bombs over the town. Two bombs damaged the harbour wall and two small boats. Three bombs landed in the town: numbers 25 and 27 Pitsligo Street were completely demolished by a direct hit and several other houses sustained lesser damage as did the telephone and lighting systems. During the raid there were eleven fatalities, four women and seven children, including an evacuee from Glasgow.

The damaged buildings, the morning after the raid.

 The fatalities included 14 year old Dorothy Duncan who was killed by the blast from the bomb and whose gravestone at Peathill, by the dyke between the kirkyard and the road, demonstrates the great losses sustained by families during the war.

The names of those killed in the raid, along with names of those who died in other wartime incidents and in the armed services, are recorded on the War Memorial on the Cairnhill, overlooking Rosehearty.

An account of the air raid, as recorded in the official Civil Defence log may be read at the following link.
http://www.aberdeencity.gov.uk/education_learning/local_history/archives/loc_onlineexhibitioncivildefencerosehearty.asp