大象传媒

My mother and father both worked in the baking industry in Hamilton during the war. In fact they met at work. Occasionally, female workers had to do fire-watch duties, in case an incendiary bomb fell on the premises; they would stay after work until a baker arrived for the night shift.

My mother and a female colleague (I think her name was Hilda) were on duty one night and, to while away the hours, decided to make tea and enjoy some cakes; this was a rare treat during wartime rationing. They had just sat down when the air raid warning went off. My mother said that the colour drained out of Hilda's face and she felt herself go white too.

At first they thought it would be the usual pattern: maybe an hour before the all clear was sounded but not this time: wave after wave of bombers passed overhead and the anti-aircraft guns were firing constantly. The two of them were terrified and, even worse, the baker coming in for the night shift seemed to have been delayed by the air raid.

Towards midnight, he finally arrived and told the girls they could go home. By this time it was very late and the last bus had gone. The raid was still continuing and the girls decided the safest thing to do was to take two metal mixing bowls as helmets and walk home. In the streets the shrapnel was raining down and my mother used to say she would never forget the sound as it struck the streets: she described it as "pinging all around us". The mixing bowls, by the way, would have been little protection if a piece of shrapnel had hit them; it would probably have gone right through.

As they got to Barncluith Road in Hamilton, which my mother called the Broken Cross, they heard the sound of a bus approaching. It must have been a worker's bus coming from a munitions factory as there were no service buses at that time of night. They both stood out in the middle of the road, waving frantically until they forced the driver to stop. They did get home safely and the raid still continued well into the night. It was the first night of the Clydebank Blitz!

漏 Copyright of content contributed to this Archive rests with the author. Find out how you can use this.