Clydebank Blitz

[231071]

Anyone see this?

I never knew it was so bad. My gran told me it was the polish navy who paniced and lit up the sky for the pathfinders. Maybe she was wrong.

Edited June 14, 2011 by 231071

[crazy davie]

Anyone see this?

I never knew it was so bad. My gran told me it was the polish navy who paniced and lit up the sky for the pathfinders. Maybe she was wrong. At least my grandad had taste. Mona jags.

Have you just found out about it ?

[sandy]

Have you just found out about it ?

 

CD, that comment of yours reduced me to tears of laughter tonight. Top drawer!

[231071]

Have you just found out about it ?

 

There has been a documentary on the BBC about it recently. I knew about it, but never knew it was so bad, maybe I just thought Clydebank was an absolute pit.

[Wiltshire Jag]

Knew about it - did it in history at school, but didn't realise it was just as bad as portrayed in that documentary. Population went from 40000 to 2000 because so many had to be moved as so many houses bombed. Don't know if this is just folklore, but my parents told me that the bombers mistook Great Western Road for the Clyde and were aiming for the shipyards on both sides of the river, so hit the tenements instead.

Edited June 14, 2011 by Wiltshire Jag

[honved]

Anyone see this?

I never knew it was so bad. My gran told me it was the polish navy who paniced and lit up the sky for the pathfinders. Maybe she was wrong.

 

She was wrong. An incendiary bomb from a pathfinder scored a lucky direct hit on a timber store at Singers and lit up the whole area for the main wave of bombers. On the second night there were still fires burning that guided the bombers back to the area. All of that information is available in the national archives.

[stuthejag]

Thistle inside-left Willie McCrindle died in the Clydebank blitz when his home in Livingstone Street was hit, He was injured and moved to Blarthill Hopsital in Knightwood where he died. He was 26 and the sporting press at the time considered him to be one the of the finest Inside-Left's in the country.

[thomas]

I was the same, knew about the blitz, but never knew how much death/damage/destruction actually happened, the show was a real eye opener history wise

[Exiled AusJag]

Don't know if this is just folklore, but my parents told me that the bombers mistook Great Western Road for the Clyde and were aiming for the shipyards on both sides of the river, so hit the tenements instead.

 

I don't think it is folklore because I can also remember my dad telling me about exactly the same thing. He lived in Hyndland during the war and I also remember him saying how lucky he was, because a landmine destroyed a tenement in Dudley drive, just over the back from where he lived.

 

We are very fortunate not to have suffered what our parents and grandparents endured.