The old Ice Rink on Dunkeld Road was used as a temporary store for the Royal navy until the RN stores at Almondbank opened, it also was used to display a German bomber. I am taking a guess here that this may have been the famous “Humbie Heinkel” which was shot down on 28 October 1939 by RAF 602 Squadron (City of Glasgow) based at RAF Drem. Humbie is about 15 miles south of Edinburgh.
The German Nazi bomber was put on show at the Central Scotland Ice Rink, Perth on 2 October 1940. It was a badly damaged Heinkel HE 111. It arrived on 1 October 1940 and was shown in a marque adjoining the rink. It had been shot down in Scotland as was on view to the public to raise funds for the war effort. It had been obtained from the RAF by the agency of Mr. A. M. Mackay, secretary of the Strathtay Aero Club and the display is being organised by Mr. Adam Alexander, secretary-manager of Perth Ice Rink. The charge was 6d for adults and 3d for children.
It was so big (fuselage 54 feet) that even though the doors of the ice rink were taken off, it could not be gotten into the rink.
From the Perthshire Advertiser, Saturday 5 October 1940:
“To the managers of the cinema houses in Perth, editors of the “Perthshire Advertiser” and “Perthshire Constitutional” for so willingly cooperating with us to advertise our exhibition we also convey our warmest thanks. This is the first German bomber to be exhibited in this part of Scotland, and everybody is urged to try and see it. Besides seeing it for yourself what massive machines these bombers are, you also see how devastatingly our gallant airmen in Spitfires and Hurricanes deal with them. See for yourselves the bullet holes and smashed engine. Together they tell a thrilling story of the heroism, daring and dauntless courage of the men of the R.A.F., and your contributions are for good causes, parcels for our prisoners of war through the Red Cross, Spitfires to bring more of these monsters crashing to earth, and funds to help in the initial training of budding pilots to man the Spitfires.”
Research by Ken Bruce
