大象传媒

From a letter donated to the McLean Museum and Art Gallery, Greenock

My dear Fred and Peg

I have been trying to get time to write you my experiences of the blitz as I promised, but up till now it has been hopeless, one could never dream that 6 hours of bombing could cause such devastation and destruction and misery.

To begin at the start we got the alert on the Monday night about 12am. I was already up and dressed as I had heard the sound of a plane overhead about 15 minutes before, and then the gun up at Millar's farm started to fire. I hate to hear the guns as the Jerries always start to drop their load, we had two hours of it that night, the worst we had up till then. Mrs.Thomson and I were with Mum and Mrs.Honeybull and wee Jason came in to our room - those 3 got below mum's bed and I crouched over the top of mum and covered her with pillows. You couldn't stand on your feet as they were dropping heavy stuff all around us, and my hat, the whistling bombs, they make your blood run cold. That night we had a couple of lulls of about 5 minutes and the air raid warden and police sergeant who lives next door managed to come in to see how we were as they knew mum couldn't go to a shelter. I was congratulated on my coolness. However the next hour got worse, I had mum's stretcher all laid out in readiness, the doors got burst, often pots and pans and dishes came clattering down off shelves and cupboards, and we could hear things falling upstairs, and then horrors, we could hear the cracking of fire and water started to pour in on us from all directions of the ceiling and the kitchenette was flooded. During a lull, Betty Honeybull and I went to the door to shout to the warden as we thought the roof had caught fire and the A.F.S. men were putting it out with the pumps but all we could see was roofs on fire all around and fires quite near, big ones, the whole place was lit up. We hadn't our noses outside the door when we heard a real big one come swishing through the air, we made to fall flat and we were thrown right back into the living room, and we had to just stay there then below the bed, one with mum. It came to 4am and we knew we would soon get the all clear as the moon would soon be gone and they always get back to their bases before the light comes. Betty and I ran to have a look outside, our place seemed alright, but the houses across the street had all their windows and even the frames wrenched out and doors and palings down. All the hills were burning furiously for miles, the flames 100's of feet high. Someone came in and said M.E. Crawford has had a direct hit and the people sheltering in the cellars are all trapped below the debris. Mrs. Thomson nearly fainted, "that's my close", she said "my daughter and grandson will be with them", - the husband is an Auxiliary Fireman.

Everyone was running about, the Services came up to see if we were alright, the Ritchies and Aunt Nan, and then Mrs. Thomson's daughter and grandson came in crying - they had been trapped, but a man had discovered a big hole, crawled through and came out in Hillend Drive - it must have been an old sewage and they all got out that way. It was queer to see the people come out of their shelters and all go to look up their friends, several Anderson shelters within 200 yards of our house suffered direct hits, in one, 11 were killed - 8, 6, 4 and 10 - all people we know. Cars came around with loud speakers telling the bombed out people where to go to rest centres. I gave mum a sleeping draught and she was just settling nicely when we were all told to vacate our houses - time bombs, one at the bottom of our garden and two more just up a bit. It took six wardens to get mum shifted, we took her to a house across the Street, she was so bad I thought she was going to pass out. The Dr. came in and he said she had done well - by the way Fred, old Keith is dead and left 拢28,000. This Dr. is a gem, only charged me less than half. He advised us not to shift her that day, so when night came and the sirens blew again just before midnight, everyone ran to their shelters, Mrs. H. and Sam went too, they were quite right:, but Mrs. T. stayed with me.

Well Fred I never knew anything could be like the next four hours we put in, for 4 hours he never stopped, they came over in waves from all directions - it's been estimated at 700 planes, the target area was from just before Cathcart Square west to the boundary at Port Glasgow. They dropped everything on us, first of all he got the distillery in Ingleston Street and the Berryyards Sugar House in Drumfrochar Road and you know how that would blaze. He dropped incendiaries by the million I'm sure, high explosives, the smaller bombs were 500lbs or 1,000 pounders, he dropped 6 land mines around us within 1/4 mile square. He machine gunned each street - they started from the hills and worked down every street till he came to the docks. The centre of the town is nearly all away, all up Ingleston St., Baker St., R and B is wiped out, all the old sugar houses, Belville St., Crescent St., St. Lawrence St., Lauriston St., Fanny Ross's shop had a big land mine drop beside it so those shops are all gone and it did for the top of St. Lawrence St., low Belville and Lauriston St. There were lots of fires too and then they dropped bombs there besides, they dropped 60 H.E. on the distillery and the people were in the shelters. A big vat of whisky caught fire and they were told to run for it and the devil's machine gunned them when they took to the hills - quite a lot of people were killed up the hills by machine gun shrapnel or incendiaries, you had to walk to the Gryffe before you were safe. A lot of the Steel Houses up at the top of the hill are burned out, all the near housing schemes are either burned or else bombed out. Bawhirley Road from the farm down this end to East Crawford Street is just a heap of rubble, the Services' house got it that night, so did Robbie's and all up that row are all bombed so is Hillend Drive at the back; all the Co-op at the corner, the big tenements are about down, and across the street too - the whole of the east end will need to be blasted away and rebuilt - its like looking at the ruins of Pompey.

I never thought we would survive it, the ceiling fell, the windows blew out, the black out went too, and Mrs. T., mum and I were all crouched up on the Dickson's kitchen bed, thinking every one that came whistling down was for us, or else the swish they make - it's terrifying. We could see the fires raging and hear them, the flames were coming nearer, they never stopped a second, no one could come to us as the bombardment and gunfire were terrific, however, slowly the time dragged on, I felt certain everybody must be dead but Mrs. T., mum and I, several times we thought she was dead as I passed my hand over her face and she was quite cold. However, when 4 o'clock came at last, the house got full of wardens. We all lay so still and quiet, I think we were petrified with horror. We had to lift her and take her back home as the house we were in was nearly tumbling down. I just got her comfortably settled at home when round came the cars telling us to get out - there were two big land mines 9ft long x 4ft wide weighing 1 ton lying up on the railway at the back of the house. The only place we could go to was Mrs. Ritchie's and her place is gey shaky, our rest centres were all bombed or burning and we couldn't walk her in the stretcher to Greenock Academy. All the streets were big burnt craters and unexploded bombs lying around and buildings blazing - never will I forget it, we were all black with the soot that the blast blew down the chimney, and thirsty with the fumes of powder. I can't describe the scene. However, I must cut it short, I couldn't get a Dr. - they were all so busy with casualties so I got the Provost who lives in Grant Street and managed to wangle to get mum evacuated. By the way they have just started to do that today with the children and old people so he said she would need to go to Smithston Hospital. We couldn't get an ambulance and a car was no use, so I eventually got an old cement lorry from outside Kincaids and tipped him well and we took her there. Mrs. R. and I sat beside her and hung on to the stretcher to keep her on - never will I forget it. It had taken me from 5am that morning to accomplish that - no one could help me - everyone was busy with their own problems, then Betty, Sam and I ran away to get out of the place and we got on a bread van and went to Glasgow and spent the night with her sister. I think I told you the rest about going to Dumbarton.

Mum

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