Bombs over Glasgow in WW2

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Postby retired tiger » Sat Feb 25, 2006 11:28 am

HollowHorn wrote:I had posted this pic over on the West End site, for obvious reasons.
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This vertical aerial photograph of the area around Glasgow University was taken during World War II by the Royal Air Force.
Some of the 19th-century tenements seen in this view have since been demolished.
Vertical air photographs were taken by the RAF during photographic-reconnaissance training. These photographs were used to ascertain the accuracy of the pilot in photographing the target and to aid the skills of photographic interpretation.


One of the members, TOG (The Other Guest) came back with this:
If you look carefully, you can just see the barrage balloon which was stationed in Athole Gardens. I had heard of stories of this but had never really believed them.

Left hand edge of the pic, halfway up. 8O



One of the things that I find interesting in this photo is that the bridge over the Kelvin just below the weir at the BBC is still intact. It's often puzzled me why it was removed. Anybody know?
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Postby Socceroo » Sat Feb 25, 2006 11:58 am

There is a bit of a story behind that bridge you mention retired tiger, but i cannot remember which book i read about it in.

I think originally it was a private factors / landowners bridge to encourage development in Victorian times and then it was neglected in terms of maintenance as the Queen Margaret Drive Bridge was the main bridge.

Where's Crusty when you need him? :D

I wonder how much the flats and houses in the old beeb building and grounds will go for when they move to sunny Govan.
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Postby AlanM » Sat Feb 25, 2006 12:06 pm

Socceroo wrote:I wonder how much the flats and houses in the old beeb building and grounds will go for when they move to sunny Govan.


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Postby crusty_bint » Sat Feb 25, 2006 3:56 pm

...you rang...

Walkers Bridge
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Named after it's builder John Ewing Walker who constructed the first Queen Margaret Bridge in an attempt (a rather unsuccessful one I might add) to cash in on the expansion of the preosperous and well-to-do West End and attract feuars to his lands at North Kelvinside. This bridge was eventually made redundant by the construction of the new Queen Margaret Bridge just a little further upstream (incidently the longest span over the Kelvin at 41m [135 feet in auld money]) in the 1920's. However the bridge survived the success of it's concrete usurper until 1970, when the BBC in Hamilton Drive was extended over the access road and the bridge piers were dismantled. A lot of the stonewrok from Walkers Bridge can still be found strewn along the banks of the Kelvin ...who's gonnae be the first to show a pic? :wink:
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Postby Socceroo » Sat Feb 25, 2006 8:18 pm

Cheers Crusty.....that's pretty much what i read somewhere about the bridge.



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Winston Churchill inspects women ARP volunteers in Glasgow. Apparently the women had to provide their own uniforms and clothing. What's the building in the background is that the City Chambers?
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Postby crusty_bint » Sun Feb 26, 2006 4:50 am

Nice pic... but no not the City Chambers, the stonework is a bit heavy and certainly not with that mansard... hmmm... could it be the Montrose St elevation actually ...hmmm...
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Postby Socceroo » Sun Feb 26, 2006 11:18 am

Maybe the Mitchell Library with the statue missing from the dome?
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Postby escotregen » Sun Feb 26, 2006 4:57 pm

Socceroo I've been busy and have only just picked up on your posting (21st Feb) of the article on the rescue of the young women.

The thing that struck me about the newspaper report is that it specifically reports bombing raids on Clydebank. Wartime censors would have routinely censored such a specific reference.

I wonder why there is this exception - perhaps the censor allowed it because he saw it as a civilian morale re-assuring incident? (herioc efforts of the emergency servcies, survival after such a time etc.). Or the article could just have 'got by' the censor? I'm assuming that it was definitely published at the time since you were able to lift it direct from archive sources?
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Postby Socceroo » Sun Feb 26, 2006 5:37 pm

Hi Escoty, i've been directed towards about 200 Glasgow war time press clippings from the Glasgow Herald, the Scotsman and the Daily Record, both on line and also in archive by a very helpful journalist friend.

What surprises me is the inconsistency of the censorship. From pre war up until 1941 it is particularly strict, and then after this period it gets a bit more open.

And then in specific periods it gets tighter again - late 1942 - early 1943. Maybe it was Government Policy of the day or maybe it was a change in censors. Who knows.

I was looking to see if it followed any particular historical pattern of the war, other than being eased a wee bit when America entered the war, it just seems to erratic.
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Postby escotregen » Sun Feb 26, 2006 6:29 pm

I suppose we have to always remember the 'incompetent Colonel Blimp' factor, and that rhyme nor reason was not always to be found :wink:
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Postby Armadillo » Mon Feb 27, 2006 10:04 pm

crusty bint wrote: A lot of the stonewrok from Walkers Bridge can still be found strewn along the banks of the Kelvin ...who's gonnae be the first to show a pic?


Don't want to go too far off topic here (even at the instigation of a Mod........), so I've posted some here:

http://www.hiddenglasgow.com/forums/viewtopic.php?p=58807#58807
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Postby retired tiger » Mon Feb 27, 2006 11:37 pm

Thanks for info on Walkers Bridge, Mrs RT will be very impressed when I tell her all about it next time we're there, of course I'll give you the credit :wink:
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bomb found

Postby peter » Tue Feb 28, 2006 8:46 am

Speaking of bombs. A few years ago I found a large bomb fragment on the OK hills not far from the Slacks trig point. It is the front part obviously by the shape. But almost a cross section showing how thick the metal was. I managed to carry this off the hill and it is now in my garden shed. We weighed the thing and it is about 48lbs . I did ask the museum in Clydebank if they wanted it but no one got back to me.
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Postby 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.
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Postby Socceroo » Wed Mar 01, 2006 12:02 am

Just noticed that in Escoty's earlier posting of a bit of a passage on the HMS Sussex bombing which he got out a book, is different from the newspaper article date for the bombing that i have posted.

The Scotsman cites it as being September 18th 1940, and the passage that Escoty is quoting from has it as November 22nd 1940.

Both dates had air raids over Glasgow. I reckon Escoty's date is probably correct as it is the more contemporary article and the passage he cites also has more definitive dates on the history of HMS Sussex post repair.

One to check further.
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