´óÏó´«Ã½

The Greenock Blitz

Memories/recollections by George Darroch born 7th April 1935.

My memories/recollections of the Greenock Blitz of 6th/7th May 1941 are about how it affected the Loch Thom area(the reservoir which lies about 2 miles south of the town in the hills) as at the time of the Blitz I was living at Waterside Cottage, Loch Thom with my parents and sister, as my father was the Waterman there.

My father was George Morrison-Darroch, my mother Dorcas, and my sister Margaret.

Waterside Cottage was two houses(upper and lower) and the lower house was occupied by Archie and May Wilson. Archie being the other Waterman. On the first night of the Blitz, Archie and May left earlier(afternoon of the 5th) to go down to Greenock as May wanted to be at her mothers, and they drove down in Archie’s pride and joy, he had an Austin 7(baby Austin)

When the planes came over we stayed in the house and watched from the windows. The searchlight unit at Shielhill Farm was in operation and the sky was lit up by them and others.

Over to the east end of the Loch the sky was lit up like day with all sorts of colours, towards Port Glasgow and the river.

The next morning we didn’t go to school and my sister and I went to the Lochside, just at the angling hut, and the edges of the Loch were littered with hundreds of fish — trout, perch, either dead, dying or stunned. My father said that a bomb had probably landed in the loch and had done for the fish. We went to school in the afternoon driven by Peter McIntyre(from Inverkip) along with Jenny and Willie Baird from Cornalees Farm. We went to Inverkip School(as Loch Thom was in the county). On the second night it was worse(and closer) and seemed to last along time. My father decided that we should leave the house and head to the lea of Hillside Hill. We left the house and as we were going, a young man came up the road coming from Greenock, he said he was heading for the cave area of Shielhill Glen as a lot of people were living there, but my father told him to come with us as it would be safer. If the Germans had hit the embankment then Shielhill Glen and Inverkip would be swept away. He came with us but I never knew his name.

While crossing the moor to the Southside of McNoble Hill a bomb came down on the other side of it and during the confusion my mother lost her handbag. We reached the lower slopes of Hillside Hill where we took shelter in the scattered boulders which occur there.

Once again the sky to the east was ablaze with colour and parts of the moorland were on fire from the incendiaries. When the all clear went we headed back to the house, the front outer door had been blown open, but the rest was okay.

Later in the morning the shepherd, Matthew Laird from Killochend Farm came over and he found my mothers handbag(which had all the family papers in it). He said that part of their barn roof had been blown off but the farm house was alright. About dinner time Archie Wilson came up the road to let us know that Thom St had been hit and as my granny Steen lived there we walked over the hill road to Overton, down the field to the Waverley St bridge and then to Thom St, passing the damaged houses in Waverley St on the way. My grannies house was okay as it was the Wallace St end of Thom St that had been hit and she stayed at the Police Club end.

The next morning(8th May) my father and I went round the loch to Killochend to see the Lairds. On the way we passed a land mine crater about 50 yards north of where the tunnel outflow now is. It was a huge crater and my father got some bits of the parachute rope and my mother used them as curtain tie-backs. Further on we came across a crater filled with heavy oil(an oil bomb which hadn’t gone off). My father struck a match or two and threw them into it, but they had no effect(just as well). It probably needed an explosive charge to set it off.

Two of my uncles, Jack and Clem Steen came up to see us, and to enjoy a good cup of tea as the town water was heavy chlorinated, but ours came from a spring. On the way they found an incendiary bomb which hadn’t gone off and they brought it to the house and my father took it in to the shed, put it in the vice, and they tried to unscrew the head. No luck so they dropped it off the stairs on to the concrete path and it went off and burned itself out.

About a week after the blitz two policemen came up(on bikes) and said that an unexploded bomb had landed on the island in Loch Thom. It was heard coming down during the raids but no explosion, and they were up to look for it. My father got the boat out and we rowed over to the island. The island was a mass of seagulls, chicks and nests all over the place, but no sign of the bomb(it was later thought to have landed over by the Gryffe reservoir) One of the policemen who was an Islander seemed to know which gull’s eggs were okay to eat and he filled his hat with them, to cook later.

Loch Thom at that time had telegraph poles moored in random pattern so it was thought that the Germans would try a seaplane landing to destroy the embankment as the water was vital to the industry in Greenock, and also to replenish the shipping, and the poles would hole the hull of seaplanes.

About a year later we moved back to Greenock and my father was called up and served in the engineers in North Africa, Sicily and Italy till the wars end.

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