“I looked up, and in the sky above Portobello Beach I saw something coming towards me that no Hollywood movie could ever provide”.
The “something” Professor Richard Demarco was talking about during his talk at The Forth Bridge Raid exhibition at South Queensferry Museum, was a German bomber launching the first air raids over Britain on October 16 1939.
Professor Demarco, then just nine years old, was playing on the beach with his younger brother when they both stared death in the face as three ships on the Firth of Forth HMS Edinburgh, HMS Southampton and HMS Mohawk were targeted.
“We were building sandcastles and I remember the sun was beginning to set,” the 84-year-old art entrepreneur said.
“Then all of a sudden this great monster was coming at me very low. It seemed to be out of control.
“One engine was on fire and I remember thinking how extraordinary the fire contributed to the light of the beautiful sunset. Then there was a noise and behind it was a Spitfire which was virtually on top of the bomber.
“Then came the bullets, which miraculously missed our bare legs standing on the wet sand.
“One thing that has always stayed with me is the memory of looking at the glass-fronted nose of the plane coming towards me and seeing the pilot’s faces and thinking ‘Oh gosh, these are two human beings’.
“They were young, only a few years older than me, and I didn’t realise at the time, but I was seeing them towards the end of their lives. The spitfire was chasing the plane towards East Lothian where it was to crash just outside Port Seaton.”
Among the audience listening to Professor Demarco’s fascinating near-death experience were local historian Bill Simpson, 603 Squadron warrant officer Norman Davenport, ex-603 Squadron leader Bruce Blanche, ex-602 flight sergeant Richie Richmond, and sixth-year pupils from Queensferry Community School and Queensferry Primary School.
The Forth Bridge Raid exhibition features pop-up displays of photographs, film footage and eyewitness accounts of the air raid that left 24 men dead and 44 injured. Four German airmen were captured and taken as prisoners of war to Edinburgh Castle.
Forth Bridge Raid exhibition curator Mark Taylor said: “For such a landmark event at the beginning of the Second World War it seems to me a story that merits retelling.
“It was the first time Spitfires were ever used in combat an important event that should not be forgotten, and it all happened here, above our Forth Bridge.”
The exhibition will run until June 1 and is open to the public each Monday, Thursday, Friday, and Saturday until then.