BOOK OF THE WEEK

River of Fire: The Clydebank Blitz

First published 10 years ago, interest in this book has prompted it being updated and reprinted to mark the anniversary of the Clydesdale Blitz in March 1941.

It is a long, meticulously researched and immensely detailed account of the worst bombing attack on Scotland in the Second World War, the raids on Clydebank of March 13-14, 1941.

The Luftwaffe, painfully unable to knock out the RAF during 1940, switched to bombing British cities.

Day raids incurred heavy losses so they switched to nights, aiming to break civilian morale and hit Britain’s war industries to halt the output of aircraft, ships and tanks.

And Clydebank and the river, awash with shipyards and industry, came high on the Nazi target list.

When, on the evening of March 13, the authorities first detected Clydebank was “on beam” – targeted by the radio-guidance system of the German bombers

– no effort was made to raise the alarm or direct the residents to shelter or flight. Within the hour, a vast timber-yard, three oil-stores and two distilleries were ablaze, one pouring flaming whisky into a burn that ran blazing into the Clyde itself in vivid ribbons of fire.

The Luftwaffe had also developed Knickebein (crooked leg), a system of twin radio beams that crossed exactly above the target town or city, so they could locate and bomb it accurately at night despite the blackout.

March 13-14 further helped them with a full moon and clear skies. For two nights, hundreds of bombers emptied their deadly cargoes on Clydebank and adjacent Yoker and Dalmuir, flattening or badly damaging vast areas and killing innumerable men, women and children.

Only seven buildings in the entire town were undamaged. Many who survived had to move elsewhere, so total was the destruction. Yet the shipyards were largely able to carry on.

John McLeod’s book is long (430 pages) and covers not just the raid but also Clydebank’s history, plus much information and comment on the war generally, the decades leading up to it, the aftermath of the raids, a list of all the victims and how Clydebank has changed over the years since.

It is not light reading, but for those who seek a definitive account of that darkest moment in Scottish wartime history, it is a must-read.