Frank McBride's Luftwaffe Plane Dashboard

My father, Frank McBride, was born in 1931. Dad was eight years old when war broke out. The younger members of the family were evacuated to Wallyford (near Musselbourough), a mining village, which split the family was split up. Father and his brother went to Wallyford, and his mother and sister stayed with another family. Dad and his older brother, who was about ten years old, realised that you could get the tram from Wallyford back to Edinburgh.

Dad witnessed the first plane shot down in Britain (the Humbie Heinkel), while at a playground. There were two surviving German crew, and dad could actually see the pilot. The souvenir that the contributor has brought in is from the dashboard of the P16 plane. In German, the words say to "only remove the cap when closed." The contributor said they thought that some wood from the plane was also used to make a clock shaped like a propellor.

After a year in Wallyford, in 1940/1941, father moved back to Spittal Street. There were air raids heading west and to central Scotland, and bombs were dropped on Haymarket and Leith. Dad could hear the air raids and the bombs. A story that the contributor heard was that Hitler wouldn't bomb Edinburgh because he wanted to live in the Castle.