Tag: Leith

Historical, Old Edinburgh, World War, Wartime Memories2 Comments

How Rationing came about

Johnny Jones - Nonagenarian Author

Wartime Memories No. 5 The following are my experiences and memories growing up in Leith, Scotland during the Second World War. It felt as though the war had been going on for ever. It was Saturday again and for me it meant an early morning trip to join the queue outside the Leith Provident bakery shop in Bangor Road. Bread and other bakery items were not rationed, and Saturday was the day that the ‘Store’ bakers fired up the oven and made a few cakes, buns and tea-bread from the rationed ingredients, necessary for the job they had managed to … Continue reading How Rationing came about

Historical, RAF, Scotland, World War13 Comments

The First Air Raid on Mainland Britain in WW2

Johnny Jones - Nonagenarian Author

Wartime Memories No.3 German bomber of the period – (Heinkel He 111 H) CHRONOLOGICAL SEQUENCE OF THE EARLY LUFTWAFFE AIR RAIDS *This shows a deliberate change in German bombing policy, from attacking air defences to trying to demoralizing the civilian population. DATES OF AIR RAIDS ON EDINBURGH DURING WW2 WHAT I REMEMBER When, as a 5 year old, I was ‘helping’ my father to apply criss-crosses of Scrim (adhesive tape) to the windows of our North facing second floor tenement flat in the Bonnington area of Leith. (Scrim tape applied to the inside of a window was used to protect … Continue reading The First Air Raid on Mainland Britain in WW2

General, Historical, Old Edinburgh, RAF, Scotland, Wartime Memories, World War13 Comments

Guns Galore!

Johnny Jones - Nonagenarian Author

Wartime Memories No.1 Not long after the end of the Second World War, under the starlit sky of an early autumn morning, a chuffing, puffing old railway engine, enveloped in a cloud of steam, shunted a clanking train of open topped freight wagons into the railway siding just to the North of Bonnington Toll in Edinburgh. With the wagon’s brakes secured, the engine steamed off to get on with its next task, leaving the sidings deserted, eerily silent and hidden from view behind the high random rubble stone wall that borders Newhaven Road. Later, with the sun creeping over the … Continue reading Guns Galore!