by Socceroo » Tue Feb 28, 2006 11:32 pm
HMS Sussex has been mentioned several times on this thread, here is an article which demonstrates how certain events in Glasgow’s contribution to the War were censored until it was all over:
From The Scotsman – Thursday 31st May 1945
BOMBED CRUISER
--------------------------
Menace of Burning Ship in Clyde in 1941
--------------------------------------------------
THOUSANDS EVACUATED
The story of the bombing of the County Class cruiser, H.M.S. Sussex, as she lay at Yorkhill Quay, Glasgow, may now be told, though the incident, which provided the Glasgow Police and Fire Services with their biggest problem of the war, occurred nearly five years ago.
In the early morning of September 18, 1940, a Luftwaffe raider scored a lucky direct hit on the cruiser. The bomb, a 250lb H.E., burst in the starboard engine room aft, and 16 naval personnel were killed.
Fully loaded with ammunition and blazing fiercely, the ship was a definite danger to tenement areas on both sides of the river, and thousands of men, women and children were “warned out.” These included the helpless inmates of the Royal Sick Children’s Hospital, Yorkhill, who were taken by ambulance to Drumchapel.
Units of the Auxiliary Fire Service had difficulty in combating the flames, and the Finnieston ferry was recruited for emergency service. From its narrow deck, water was pumped into the cruiser. The firemen carried on a grim fight against the fierce flames. Gradually they won, but 12 hours elapsed before the danger was over. The cruiser eventually sank.
When the order was given to abandon ship, a number of the crew dived into the river and swam across to the Govan side. Had the ship blown up, an area with a radius of half a mile might have been razed.
With serious internal damage, her electrical installations destroyed, and parts of the hull twisted and warped by the terrific heat, the repair of the cruiser presented one of the largest repair jobs ever undertaken on the Clyde. It was allocated to Alexander Stephen & Sons, Ltd., who were engaged on the task for nearly two years. The cost of the reconstruction was almost equal to that of building a new vessel.
Last edited by
Socceroo on Wed Mar 01, 2006 12:03 am, edited 1 time in total.