Hitler remained anxious the attacks should not antagonise the British too much and so the rules of engagement were designed to avoid civilian casualties.
In its past, threats to Britain were always perceived as coming from the east, and for many years there had been major Royal Navy bases sited to allow its warships access to the North Sea, including Rosyth, on the northern shore of the Firth of Forth.
When war was declared on 3 September, the central belt of Scotland was protected by two fighter squadrons of the Auxiliary Air Force, which had been "embodied" or called up some weeks before.
603 (City of Edinburgh) Squadron, equipped with Gloster Gladiators, and in the process of converting to Spitfires, its pilots only deemed competent to fly operationally in daylight.
At 09:20, the Chain Home RDF station at Drone Hill near Coldingham detected two intruders heading for the coast from the North Sea.
[6] After being detected by RDF, at 09:45,[6] Royal Observer Corps reports placed one unidentified aircraft at high altitude on a southwesterly course over Dunfermline heading for Rosyth, with another flying across the Borders near Galashiels.
Three minutes later, at 09:48, Blue Section of 602 Squadron (three Spitfires led by Flight Lieutenant George Pinkerton ) was scrambled to patrol the Isle of May at 5,000 ft (1,500 m).
Blue Section patrolled over the Island of May for 20 minutes before being ordered by the Turnhouse operations room to move south towards Dunbar.
Pinkerton spotted the Heinkel and at 10:21 ordered his section into line astern to make a No 1 attack[clarification needed] on the enemy bomber.
By lunchtime, all aircraft were back on the ground with one of 602's sections at Coastal Command station Leuchars, just north of St Andrews.
Unknown to the RAF, the German aircraft had radioed information about the weather conditions over the Forth and, crucially, the ships they had observed (which they believed included the battlecruiser Hood).
[10] Instead of turning back on to their intended track, Pohle decided to fly directly to the target, taking his bombers across East Lothian south of the airfield at Drem, then over the Firth of Forth.
Turning his attention to the ships on the open water, he picked out one of the anchored cruisers, which he identified as Southampton, as his target and tipped into an 80º[citation needed] dive.
[15] Storp was sure his bombs had hit the target and, along with the two other Ju 88s of the second group, turned south hoping to fly the reciprocal route back to the North Sea.
[17] The port engine of Storp's aircraft was rendered useless by bullets from the Spitfires, and one of the gunners,[clarification needed] Obergefreiter Kramer, was killed.
Since his aircraft was a type unknown to the RAF,[citation needed] Storp hoped to keeping out of enemy hands and decided to try to ditch in the estuary.
Before he could attack, his attention was distracted by a group of three other aircraft, Sea Skuas on a training flight from RNAS Donibristle, one of a number of Fleet Air Arm airfields in the area.
By the time Pinkerton's attention refocused on the enemy, Storp had disappeared into cloud and Webb had lost contact with his section mates.
As with Storp, there was a boat nearby which picked up the injured pilot and his gunner, who died the following day, leaving Pohle the sole survivor of his crew.
[20][21] The exact time Pohle's aircraft ditched is unclear, but the Observer Corps logged the sound of firing at 14:43 in the general area of Elie, another small fishing village to the west of Crail.
The mistake was quickly corrected and it seems[citation needed] these were the three Ju 88s of the fourth wave which had crossed the coast considerably further north than their planned landfall at Berwick.
At 15:20, a Ju 88 was noticed over the Firth and at 15:25, Mohawk was near missed, bombs landing close enough to spray her with splinters, killing 13 ratings and two officers.
North of Turnhouse and flying low – about 300 ft (91 m) – he found a Ju 88 on a southerly heading directly across 603 Squadron's base.
Anti-aircraft gunners held their fire for fear of damaging Robertson's Spitfire but at 16:00, ‘Black’ Morton, on his own initiative, took off in pursuit.
The Ju 88 turned east, taking it across the centre of Edinburgh at low level, pursued by Robertson, while Morton made for Leith and Portobello, hoping to cut it off.
Flying at low level across the city, Robertson held off from firing at the Ju 88 in case his rounds caused damage or injury on the ground.
After the war, it was discovered a third Ju 88 had been badly damaged and limped to the Netherlands, where it made a forced landing in which all the crew were killed.
Questions were asked in Parliament regarding the lack of an air raid warning in Edinburgh and the battle was reported around the world in newspapers such as The New York Times.
Mohawk received significant damage but managed to limp into the Rosyth base, her captain succumbing to his wounds once his ship was safe.