Clydebank Blitz

‘This story was submitted to the People’s War site by Pauline Chisholm of Renfrewshire Libraries on behalf of Agnes McCulloch and has been added to the site with his/her permission. The author fully understands the site’s terms and conditions.’

Clydebank Blitz

My school chum and I were having a card school at 9pm on Thursday 13th March 1941,listening to ‘Penny on the Drum’ on the radio when the sirens started. We lived one floor up and had to move down to the ground floor and sit on the stairs. The shipyard was just over the wall from us and we could hear the ack ack guns of the Polish Destroyer in Rothesay Dock. At 6am in the morning we heard the all-clear signal.

Over the course of the two days there was total devastation. We had no water, electricity or gas. Streams of people made their way to the Town Hall. Salvation Army handed out Tea and Sandwiches and vans came around with water. After 8pm(and doing my First Aid duty) Clydebank was like a ‘Ghost Town’ the only sound you could hear were the rats scrabbling around in the debris. Unfortunately looting went on in some of the empty houses. The only damage to our house was all the windows blown out, ceilings down and the plaster off the walls. We were luckier than most, as we had relatives to stay with until the house was repaired. When my mother wanted to retrieve a few items from our home she had to be escorted by a Policeman. When fetching her underwear she said to the Policeman ‘ I hope you are a married man?’

I worked in Singers at the time. Singers not only made sewing machines but attachments for uniforms and Sten guns. I had the unfortunate job of scoring the names of the dead and missing off the work sheet. We lost a lot of good people.

When my friend and Sister-in Law returned to Dalmuir they had nothing left, My Brother- in-Law’s brother lost his wife and family because the air raid shelter was blown up. Lucky people had relatives to go to, many families were split all over Scotland.

Only nine houses did not suffer any damage.

I also remember the German reconnaissance planes flying over after the second night of bombing to take pictures of the damage.

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