Nostalgia: How Kirkcaldy helped the war effort during the 1940s

The most heartbreaking effect was, of course, the deaths of 450 men on the battlefields, but the town itself suffered nothing of the blitz which so devastated the likes of London, though there were a couple of close calls.

The first, in October 1939, went unnoticed by most of the townsfolk, when German bombers carried out a daylight raid on shipping in the Forth.

Not everyone noticed the planes, or the fighters despatched to intercept them, and even many of those who did failed to realise it was anything other than an exercise.

Even when a stray bullet struck the roof of a house in what is now Sauchenbush, the occupant, who was outside chatting, noticed nothing at the time other than a slate falling.

In July the following year there was a closer call when, for reasons never discovered, 12 bombs were dropped on a field at Begg Farm, just outside Kirkcaldy, in the early hours of the morning.

The doors and windows of nearby farm cottages were blown out and one elderly man was said to have been blown out of his bed. He was uninjured however and the only casualties were two cows killed in a field.

By the time war had broken out in 1939 there were over 1500 people enrolled in the Air Raid Precautions force and the auxiliary fire brigade, and in 1940 the Local Defence Volunteers, later renamed the Home Guard, numbered 1000.

The blackout was introduced at the start of the war, to avoid showing any lights which might have guided enemy aircraft up the Forth, and everyone, from children to pensioners, was issued with gas masks, which were meant to be carried around at all times.

Food rationing was introduced in 1940 and continued through the war and into the start of the 50s.

Local industry did its bit to support the war effort with several firms leaving off normal work. Among these was lino firm Nairn which had started making gasproof material and tarpaulins, and bitumenised felt for covering windows and doorways blown out by bombing raids.

In 1942 the factory’s hydraulic presses were adapted to make fuel tanks for Halifax Bombers and later it became involved in making a number of different aeroplane parts for Liberators, Lincolns and Lancasters.

From 1942 they also made torpedoes for a short time, and then gun mountings, latterly changing over to bombs, including concrete piercing bombs, the huge 12,000lb Tallboys and the 10-ton Grand Slams.

Tuesday, May 8, 1945, was officially VE Day, the war was over, however, in Kirkcaldy, as in some other places, celebrations started on the Monday, when flags began to go up all over town after a news flash on the radio that the Germans had capitulated.

Celebrations were held all over town, with bonfires in the evening and “crowds of youths carrying flags and singing uproariously”, according to The Fife Free Press of the time and continued the following day, with many burning effigies of Hitler.