The Second World War changed the face of Aberdeen forever – lives were lost and whole streets torn apart. For the first time, we’ve used artificial intelligence software to add colour to air raid photos to see the scenes as Aberdonians saw them more than 80 years ago.
When Victory in Europe was declared after six long years of strife, Aberdonians danced in Union Street and embraced strangers in celebration.
VE Day not only signalled the end of bloodshed abroad, but at home too.
Not a single Aberdonian would have made it through life on the home front without being confronted with loss to some degree.
One surviving account of wartime Aberdeen belonged to Aberdonian Helen Wilson.
As a young woman she witnessed several deadly raids, and experienced the uncertainty and terror of not knowing where the next bomb would land.
Like many, she lost dear friends during the night of the Aberdeen Blitz on April 21 1943 when the Germans inflicted untold horrors on the city.
It is no wonder, then, that when victory was declared, Helen joined in “a huge Eightsome Reel at the top of Market Street”.
Recalling the impromptu celebrations decades later in 2005, she said: “There were hundreds of us. The atmosphere was just wonderful.”
Colour brings out poignant details of air raid bombsites in Aberdeen
Of any location in Scotland, Aberdeen suffered the greatest number of air raids during the war.
Its coastal location, manufacturing industries, railway, shipyards and proximity to Luftwaffe bases in Norway made Aberdeen an easy and attractive target for enemy planes.
While hundreds of raids were false alarms – earning Aberdeen the nickname Siren City – the real bombing events turned city streets into nightmarish scenes.
In the most terrifying incidents, possessions and people were mercilessly thrown from buildings ripped apart by incendiary bombs, leaving gaping holes in granite walls.
At least 169 civilians were killed during the conflict – approximately 97 of those on that single fateful night in April 1943.
With 130 bombs dropped in the space of an hour, Aberdeen didn’t stand a chance.
While previous raids targeted industry, that raid targeted people.
Aberdonians were caught unaware as aircraft dived 100ft from their homes littering streets with bullets and bombs.
June 1940: Tullos and Torry hit during first air raids
But it was far from the first time people were caught in the crossfire.
The first raids hit Aberdeen on June 26 1940 when 20 bombs were dropped on Tullos Home Farm, with no deaths.
The Nazis returned four days later scattering explosives across Torry, aiming for a wood yard on Crombie Street, but Victoria Road School was one of the first casualties.
Volunteer firemen based at Cordiner’s garage were first on the scene at the blazing building.
A further raid on July 1 claimed 12 lives in Torry, including five children who had been playing in the street.
Four of the youngsters were killed outright at the scene with two flung under a car by the force of the explosion. Tragically in the chaos it was some time before they were discovered.
A fifth died in hospital. Two of those killed were young sisters Elizabeth and Amy Miller.
Days later, a “thrilling dogfight” took place in the skies over Aberdeen following a raid which killed dozens at Hall Russell Shipyard and Footdee.
November 1940: Terror as Torry tenements showered in bombs
Unfortunately, the people of Torry would experience heartache several times over in the duration of war.
The Germans inflicted a particularly deadly night raid on November 4 1940 while dropping bombs “without aiming at any particular target”.
Four landed in open countryside, but the fifth landed in the front garden of a three-storey tenement at 55-57 Wellington Road in Torry.
The blocks of tenements housed large families, with several people to one flat.
The force of the bomb blew the entire front wall of one block into the street below, and inside, buried one family under wreckage.
Most of the rooms exposed were bedrooms, and the Evening Express reported that “though the floors of the rooms sagged, they held, otherwise the death-toll would have been heavier”.
A remarkable account of that terrifying night told how a family of seven were in the house that took the whole blast, but miraculously only one boy was slightly injured with a cut foot.
Baby pinned under debris after Wellington Road raid
Mrs Morrice, who lived on the ground floor with her husband and five children, said: “I was awake at the time and I could hear the German plane approaching.
“I don’t know why but I felt queer and started to cry. Then there was a great crash.”
Mrs Morrice was in bed with her sleeping baby and another of her children, while her husband was in another bed with their remaining three youngsters.
She added: “A shower of stones and other debris rattled down on me. There was a lot of debris lying about, and I had to push it aside before I could free my hands.
“Then I found that the baby was pinned under something as well, but I managed to scrape it away.
“The other child with me was also trapped, but my husband had got up as soon as the bomb fell and managed to get her clear.
“Everything was in darkness, of course, and I could feel water trickling down on us.”
Parents threw themselves on top of daughter to save her life
In the same block, Adam Paterson and his wife threw themselves on top of their youngest child, who was sleeping with them when the bombs fell.
The couple had four children aged between four and 10 years.
Adam recalled feeling the roof crashing down and he said: “‘Save the children!’ I shouted to my wife, and we both threw ourselves across the little girl.
“I felt that if anything serious was going to happen it would be better if I were killed rather than any of the children.”
The Patersons had only been living in the house for a month having moved there from a smaller one-roomed house elsewhere in Aberdeen.
He added: “The most amazing thing is that we got off so lightly. Two of my boys have been slightly hurt but apart from them there were no casualties.”
Young family narrowly escaped flying debris as they slept
Elsewhere a woman in an upper floor awoke to her bed hanging over the edge where the front wall collapsed.
She scrambled to the other end of the bed and climbed out to safety.
Upstairs, a sailor, his wife and two-year-old daughter narrowly escaped injury when a large splinter of wood smashed through the wall above the bed they were sleeping in.
Homeless families were removed to a nearby hall where young children were soon sleeping peacefully and adults swapped tales of horror.
Yet two milk delivery boys who survived the raid “showed remarkable composure” and wouldn’t wait for a cup of tea, saying “we can’t wait, we’re late for our work already”.
Every tale of survival was matched by one of tragedy in 1943 blitz
Every passing raid brought stories of terror and survival.
But the catastrophic blitz in April 1943 was a horrific turning point where civilians were no longer considered collateral damage – they were the targets.
The Evening Express said survivors owed their lives to “their own stoicism as they lay under piles of wreckage until rescue squads tore away debris which buried them”.
But for every miraculous escape, there was a heart-wrenching tale like that of Mrs Forsyth, who was killed along with her baby Francis. She was found with her son in her arms on her way to a shelter.
And in Stafford Street, war veteran Mr Webster helped shepherd neighbours downstairs to safety after the building took a direct hit.
Realising he had nothing on his feet, he told his daughter he was going to return for his boots.
But the tenement was struck for a second time and he was never seen alive again. His badly-burned body was later found in debris.
Tragedy of neighbours killed when 6 Elmbank Road took direct hit
As the dust settled on northern Aberdeen, endless horror stories emerged.
In Elmbank Road, several families in different flats in one tenement block were wiped out under the most terrifying circumstances.
William and Evelyn Calder, both aged 34, were killed at 6 Elmbank Road, along with “beloved only daughter”, also Evelyn. She was just three years old.
Their grave in Trinity Cemetery reads “killed by enemy action”, but censorship meant their death notice could not reveal how they died, only that it was “sudden” and “in April”.
But it’s very easy to read between the lines of the P&J family announcements that April, the pages heavy with grief.
Other victims included William Ferguson, his wife Agnes and their 16-year-old daughter Margaret, who also lived, and died, at number six.
Brethren of St Machar Lodge were urged to attend his funeral.
Also killed in the air raid at number six were James and Lizzie Ferrier, along with their “beloved grandson John Craib”, aged 21.
Neighbour at number six William Watson, 43, was also killed.
And widow Joan Stove, aged 50, died alongside her only daughter Jeannie, 26, who was visiting.
Jeannie had married two years earlier and ordinarily lived at 244 Hilton Drive.
In a tragic twist, in November that year Joan’s only son, staff sergeant Robert Stove was killed in action in Africa.
Wartime images in colour bring renewed poignancy to the past
But in Aberdeen, even the deceased weren’t safe from the bombs during that raid.
Photos of city cemeteries after the explosions are nothing short of gut-wrenching.
St Peter’s Cemetery looks more like a building site than a resting place, with headstones scattered like fallen chess pieces.
Today, the cemetery is as it should be, a peaceful sanctuary off the Spital, its war wounds long healed.
But seeing the aftermath of these tragic scenes in colour brings a renewed poignancy and vulnerability to archive photographs.
In colour these people are no longer forgotten, monochrome ghosts of the past where details become lost in shadows.
We see these people as they saw each other; families and neighbours pulling together in times of despair.
Most of us can never comprehend the sheer terror ordinary people faced in their ordinary lives in Aberdeen.
But here, the colour images pull you in as an onlooker through a window to the city’s darkest hours, which should never be forgotten.
If you enjoyed this, you might like:
- VE Day: How we marked it in Aberdeen 80 years ago, through smiles and tears
- In pictures: Aberdeen at war seen in colour for the first time
- I spent a week living on my Aberdeen grandma’s wartime rations and recipes: Here’s what I learned
- Was your Aberdeen street hit by tragedy in WW2? Our map shows addresses of more than 1,000 victims
And you can see a map of various air raids on Aberdeen here:
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