大象传媒

"This story was submitted to the People鈥檚 War site by Alison Gowdy of [your organisation] on behalf of Ruby Macaulay and has been added to the site with her permission. The author fully understands the site's terms and conditions."

Most vivid memorary is the Blitz- 13th March 1941. She was eleven at the time and lived in a tenement in Clydebank with younger sister and two younger brothers. On the night of the Blitz Ruby's Dad was working in John Brown's shipyard as a crane driver, he was working late that night. The children were in bed when thwe siren's went so they got dressed and went to the close of the tenement and went into one of the houses there. The first sign that it was more serious then previously was that the staircase window was blown out and they all went into the lobby of the house. They realised that lots of German planes were overhead and her Dad held the door of the house as it was rattled and it was blown out of his hand. When they looked throught the room they saw that the houses across the road were turned upside down. So, they all decided to go out into the street to up to the park and whenever a plane came over they went into the nearest close for shelter. They stayed for a little while before realising the roofs were on fire. Ruby's Dad and her neighbour thought they should go back to their home to rescue their belongings. When they got to the first story house they discovered the ceilings had crashed onto the floor. He managed to salvage her younger brothers push chair and blankets as he had pneumonia. When he returned they made their way up to High Park and on their way up the hill the planes came over again. Ruby remebers seeing the iron cross on the wings of the plane. They dropped incendiary bombs which burst open but as there was nothing to catch fire they fizzled out. But, one burst open and fell on her mother's coat. They were able to shake the fire out. They made their over the park and onto the boulevard. The Germans thought the Boulevard was the river Clyde- where the ships were. So, they had dropped some very heavy bombs onto the boulevard which made huge creators. A lorry went into one of these. Ruby's Dad helped stop traffic from doing the same. Along the boulevard there was a sand quarry with a workman's hut, the family made their way over to and realised there was already people in it. Ruby remebers sitting in an upturned shiovel and falling asllep. She was wakened by the 'all-clear'. The family returned to their house and it was just a pile of rubble with a wee trik sticking out- it was her wee brother's. They walked from one end of Clydebank to the other to see if her Granny was alright and there they met with her aunties and uncles. Her Uncle and Dad went to the townhall to get train tickets to Oban as a friend had a holiday house in the island Luing. The family walked the eight miles or so to Glasgow Central station. There they got on a train and when they got off at Oban aroun nine o'clock pm the sirens went again. That was the second night of the Blitz. The wardens had to go on duty so they were left at the station hotel. They were taken to a warden's post and they slept the night- Ruby remembers everyone being cheery. Her Dad left them on the island and went back to Glasgow to work. He contacted relatives in Ayrshire amd they eventually went to live in Catrine where they stayed untill 1946.

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