by moonbeam » Wed Jan 30, 2013 10:01 pm
The Clydebank blitz mystery. Who tipped off the Germans to fly in at around the 12,000 feet level? Clydebank
had a lot of communists who at that time were on the German "side". Plus there was strikes and unrest with the appentices in the Clydebank area. By 5th6th7th May-the Greenock raid the Boulton Paul Defiant as a night fighter proved itself. I am fully aware any German planes "lost" on the nights of the Clydebank blitz were due to engine failure. Surprisingly I am old enough to recall the German planes. They made a distinctive engine noise. A sort of variable up and down hum.
As very small boys next day we went out looking for shrapnel to "trade" or show off. The night of 24th March 1943 actually stood out in the street to watch the German planes! Mad I know but dad was away at work fire watching and mum was asleep!!! One bizarre bit of army kit was a lorry with a sort of big boiler thing on the back-bit like a tar boiler-that ran up Great Western Road that was supposed to hide Clydebank with smoke if the wind came from the east. I also recall a Bofors gun mounted on a railway wagon that ran up and down the railway line round Clydebank. Never saw it working ie firing. It was sometimes parked in a siding at the Rothsey Dock. I also recall German POWs. They seemed to work on local farms. Does anyone else remember them? The ones I recall had a sort of black boiler suit with a purple diamond, triangle or circle on the back.Some of them were lads of only about 18. But this would be by 1944 or so. I think.