Bombs over Glasgow in WW2

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Postby gap74 » Fri Sep 15, 2006 10:03 am

Cheers crannog - I don't get along with the dog half as often as I used to, but I do vaguely recall the remains of at least one structure in that area.

Meant to do a full photo survey of the remains last year but the vegetation beat me to it, so it'll need to wait till winter!

Do any archive plans or photos of the site still exist?

Gary
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Postby sonofanger » Sun Sep 17, 2006 9:38 pm

Have you tried RCAHMS? They have an amazing collection of aerial photographs, including Luftwaffe ones. Most of them have not been digitised though.

http://www.rcahms.gov.uk/aerialphotography.html

Apologies if this has already been mentioned. I haven't read the whole thread :oops:
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Postby crannog » Tue Sep 19, 2006 8:29 am

There are a number of vertical air photographs of the site taken immediately post war all held at the RCAHMS. These photos which cover all of Scotland are a great resource approx 1.5 million photographs taken from the war right through until 1989 (and a few more recent OS stuff, i think).
I believe that RCAHMS have recently visited the site as there is a proposal for housing on the site. I think it was just a walk over survey. i don't know if RCAHMS will produce a plan of the site but some archaeological recording work will be done in advance of any new houses, probably be a commercial unit
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Postby escotregen » Sat Oct 21, 2006 3:03 pm

Just another wee nugget of oral history on the sinking of HMS Sussex in the Clyde at Yorkhill. It comes from a booklet 'Govan Road' produced by a John Robertson and Rachel Pateman for something called 'The Glasgow File' in 1987:

"The War Years

One German plane dropped two bombs at Yorkhill basin. One bomb hit the cruiser HMS Sussex in the dock and blew it up. The other bomb missed its target and fell into the river - it penetrated the bottom and exploded in the subway tunnel. The flooding closed the subway system for most of that year.

Many of the Govan women and children were evacuated. Often it was a particularly severe bombing raid that sparked off a decision to leave. Betty McNab recalls her experience:

' I mind once when Linthouse was bombed. I was sheltering in someone's ground floor kitchen and my two month old child was thrown out of my arms. My mother sent me away. All of us with weans got out of Govan, we had to - there was a lot of destruction, different bits of it. I went to Ferniegair to a woman who had thirteen children of her own, but she still took me in. I was away for two years.'


Although the bombs were spasmodic Linthouse suffered some bad damage. A landmine just missed the engineering department at Stephen's and hit the building opposite. You can still see the break in the block of tenements - there is a service station there now'

It would be great if any HG members around Govan/Linthouse were able to identify the gap site and post a picture.
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Postby Local Hero » Sat Oct 21, 2006 3:42 pm

Ah used tae be indecisive but noo ah'm nae sae sure.
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Postby escotregen » Sat Oct 21, 2006 4:01 pm

Good stuff Local Hero... (although my personal enjoyment is obscured by the grey block promo for flash earth that I cannot remove as I don't want to accomodate their 'forced' self-promotion).

The view is intructive on the insicriminate impact of much of the early WW2 bombing when you consider the distance between where the landmine detonated and (the intended target?) of Stephen's.
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Postby Peekay » Sat Oct 21, 2006 4:26 pm

Not really Glasgow bombings as such but Loch Lomond is full of jerry bombs. If they couldn't get them on Glasgow for whatever reason they used Lomond to off-load them before flying back to Holland. It was also a waypoint for them to hang a right towards the North Sea (nice and shiny at night). Apparently Katrine has a few as well but these are thought to have been the navigators getting mixed up between Katrine and Lomond.

I've dived a wreck in Oban that was sunk by a Heinkel though. Big bloody ship too. Here it is

http://www.shipwrecksofscotland.com/ss_breda.htm

I've been on quite a few Clyde wrecks too but none that were wartime losses i don't think.

PK
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Postby viceroy » Sat Oct 21, 2006 4:46 pm

escotregen wrote:A landmine just missed the engineering department at Stephen's and hit the building opposite. You can still see the break in the block of tenements - there is a service station there now


I know this location well - I have walked past it many times on my way to and from the Southern General Hospital, which of course is just up the road. But I believe the casualties were considerable, with quite a number of people being killed when the tenement was hit. Can't remember where I got this information from, although it may have been from the semi-permanent Govan exhibition at the Elder Library.
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Postby Margaret » Sat Oct 21, 2006 9:37 pm

I was checking the lair book for Cardonald Cemetery last week.

Between the months of March 1941 and June 1941 there were a large amount of burials in the cemetery due to bombs falling in Govan and Tradeston. Many of the burials were those of Polish Sailors; I have read before that many of the Polish sailors based in this area at the time worked themselves to a state of utter exhaustion in attempt to dig people out of the rumble.
The lair book mentioned a mortuary in Titwood Road Crossmyloof..... This is the first mention I have heard of this.
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Postby Josef » Sat Oct 21, 2006 9:46 pm

Margaret wrote: Many of the burials were those of Polish Sailors; I have read before that many of the Polish sailors based in this area at the time worked themselves to a state of utter exhaustion in attempt to dig people out of the rubble.


I had never heard this before. I don't know if my experience is typical, but I have heard a bit of grumbling about the number of Poles in Glasgow recently; being of an industrial Lanarkshire background, I generally take issue with the grumbler anyway, but I will make a point of mentioning this next time.
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Postby viceroy » Sat Oct 21, 2006 10:30 pm

This is a picture of the war graves section in Cardonald Cemetery which I think I may have already posted on another thread a few months ago. The graves in the left hand row are mostly Polish although I do happen to know that there are two Dutch graves among them. The headstones facing in the other direction in the right hand row are set over the graves of British servicemen [and indeed also one servicewoman].

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Postby Pgcc93 » Sat Oct 21, 2006 10:40 pm

Margaret wrote:The lair book mentioned a mortuary in Titwood Road Crossmyloof..... This is the first mention I have heard of this.


I'm sure I read somewhere that Crossmyloof Ice Rink was used as a makeshift mortuary around that time.
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Postby Margaret » Sat Oct 21, 2006 10:44 pm

Pgcc93 wrote:
Margaret wrote:The lair book mentioned a mortuary in Titwood Road Crossmyloof..... This is the first mention I have heard of this.


I'm sure I read somewhere that Crossmyloof Ice Rink was used as a makeshift mortuary around that time.


I have been trying to work out what building could have been used and had completely forgotten about the ice rink
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Postby Pgcc93 » Sat Oct 21, 2006 11:34 pm

Must have been a tough decision to send the weans away or was it? 8O ::):



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Postby HollowHorn » Sat Oct 21, 2006 11:48 pm

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