Clydebank Blitz survivor recalls terror
Eighty years on from the event, a survivor has recalled in crystal clear detail the terrifying moment Nazi bombs dropped around her Clydebank home.
For then 14-year-old Sarah Kelly, like thousands of others,thedevastationwroughtby theclydebankblitzwouldhave aprofoundimpactonlifeasshe knew it.
Over the course of two nights in March 1941, Clydebank, a densely-populated industrial centre of 55,000 inhabitants, faced an aerial bombardment the likes of which has never been seen before or since in Scotland.
Whenthedustsettled,thedistrict had been rendered practically unrecognisable, with an estimated two thirds of the town’s 12,000 homes either levelled to the ground or left broken and uninhabitable. Just seven homes lay untouched by
Hermann Göring’s flying war machine.
Speaking to Clyde 1 ahead of the 80th anniversary of the events of 13 and 14 March 1941, Sarah Kelly, now aged 94, has revisited the moment everything changed.
Mskellyhadbeenplayingoutside that day and was called up to her tenement home at Granville Street, which she shared with her parents and ten siblings, around 8pm, approximately half an hour before the first of the air raid sirens went off.
She said: “Several nights before the Blitz, on several occasions, the siren had gone off. Everyone had gone to the shelter and whatnot, but nothing happened.”
“Sothenightoftheblitz,when the siren went off, we were gettingreadytogotobed.mymammy came through and said “it’s Ok,justcarryonandgotobed.” Shortlyafterthatshecameback through and said it was a bit more serious.”
As they became acquainted with the terrifying whistling sound of the German bombs, Ms Kelly recalls how everyone around her thought their number was up.
"You could hear the planes going over, then going away again. Then the bombs started falling.
“They made a terrible sound. They whistled down. And every time one came down, everybody thought it was coming for us. Everybody was in the same boat.
"Most people went down to
theclose(thebottomofthetenementstair),whichhadbeenfortified as a shelter, but, because we were a big family, we stayed where we were.”
Followingthefirstnightofthe Blitz,sarahkellyandherfamily were told they no longer had a hometogobackto.theywould spendthesecondnightinashelter, where Sarah and her sister becameseparatedfromtherest of the family.
She recalls: “We didn’t have a house or anything. During the night we were told that the shelter next door had been
destroyed by a high explosive bomb. Josie and I thought my mammyanddaddyandtherest of the family were there, so we were very worried.”
The Clydebank Blitz altered lifeforsarahkellyandherfamilyforever,asmanyofherbrothers and sisters escaped the war ravaged town.
She adds: “We were never together again as one family. Two of my brothers got married, and my sister went to London to the Civil Service.”