大象传媒

This story was submitted to the People鈥檚 War site by Vijiha Bashir, at 大象传媒 Scotland on behalf of J. Brunetti from Paisley and has been added to the site with the permission of Johnstone History Society. The author fully understands the site鈥檚 terms and conditions.

On the first night of the Clydeside Blitz I was working overtime in Reid Gear Company, Linwood, in Renfrewshire and if I remember correctly the time was around 8 p.m. There was a full moon in a cloudless sky when the bombs started dropping along the Clydeside.

There was an Air raid shelter at the work for all employees, but my friend and I went into the field beside Reid Gear and stood below the thick branches of the trees so that we would not be struck by any shrapnel from the Anti Aircraft Guns. In the light from the searchlight battery, Inkermen you could see tracer bullets being fired down the light beam which resulted in one of the searchlights being put out of action.

That night I cycled to my home to Kilbarchan and the journey in the dark was most unpleasant although, happily I arrived home safely. A few days later I cycled to Erskine Ferry and passed a good number of fields where burned out Incendiary bombs lay. They were white in colour as they were full of Phosphorous and there main function was to cause fires where ever they landed.

I was in my garden, in Kilbarchan, when two land mines were dropped from the German bombers onto Paisley. I saw three flares, which had parachutes attached and these drifted down to ground very slowly and one of the land mines scored a direct hit on a Firs Aid Post where several of the First Aid Workers were killed instantly. There was a Gas work several hundred yards from where I was standing, and I heard shrapnel falling on to the gas tanks.

One Sunday afternoon the air raid siren sounded and a German plane flew over the area, the anti aircraft guns were firing but they never hit a target. A few nights later the bomber returned and a bomb was dropped in Kilbarchan. Luckily it landed in a field hurting no one and all you could see was a red glow for a few seconds in the clouds above.

When the Greenock bombing started a few days later I was at that time cycling just outside Kilmalcolm, I found a piece of shrapnel on the road and I have it to this day.

I almost forgot to mention the Home Guard of LDV (Local Defence Volunteers). The guards were posted at various sites between towns and villages and I remember one encounter when my fiend from Linwood and I were about to cross the 鈥楽hooglie鈥� Bridge at Mill o Cart when we were stopped by the Home Guard and asked to produce identity cards. The Guard demanded who demanded our card was a well known Johnstone character by the name of Hector Steel. We said to him 鈥渟ure you know us鈥�, but he wanted the cards just the same. Sadly he was murdered at the same spot around thirty or forty years later.

Later in 1942 my friend and I were cycling in the Highlands. The far side of the Caledonian Canal was a prohibited area and at all the crossing places there were soldiers who expected everyone to show their permits before allowing them to cross. During the war all signposts were taken away as too were the milestones bur as we had cycled this area many times before, so we never got lost.

If anyone cares to look there is still a milestone in this area 鈥� It is at the West end of Paisley in a corner beside a shop, which now is a Chinese takeaway, but used to be known as the Milestone Dairy.

My friend and I were both employed in the engineering trade and so were classed as being exempt for milestone service; even so, my friend joined the Naval Reserve. He told them when joining that he was a labourer 鈥� if he had told the truth and said he was a tool grinder then he would not have been accepted 鈥� he was called up for the Navy and he was sent home after about three of four weeks. About a year before the war was ended my friend was called back to the Navy and was killed six days after the allies invaded France鈥t seems that an 鈥楨鈥� Boat had launched a torpedo which caused depth charges to explode killing around 30 or 40 of the crew.

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