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This story was submitted to the People’s War site by Vijiha Bashir, at ´óÏó´«Ã½ Scotland on behalf of J. Carnduff from Lochwinnoch and has been added to the site with the permission of Johnstone History Society. The author fully understands the site’s terms and conditions.

In the early part of 1941 Clydebank was blitzed and over 500 people were killed and thousands injured. My father and I cycled to the Renfrew Ferry a few days later and went to Clydebank to see what damage had been done. The destruction was truly
I was only 9 when the war was declared on September 1939 living with my family in Paisley and going to school where we were all issued with gas masks. We had to keep the masks with us at all times and carry them everywhere. I remember helping my father collect turf and soil from the dummy railway (a spur from St. James station to the factory near Linwood) the turf was to cover the Aderson air-raid shelter which had just been erected by the Council in our back garden, and it would act as extra protection during bombings or if there were any explosions near by. It took me 5 weeks to cover the shelter.

In 1941 one of the wartime slogans was ‘Dig for Victory’, which for us, meant a good part of the back garden being turned over to a vegetable plot and it was up to me to collect sheep droppings, place them in a 5 gallon drum, add water and stir to help it ferment and this was used as fertiliser and was ideal feeding for the vegetables — leeks, onions, potatoes etc.
awesome. Along the banks of the river a number of oil tanks had been hit and I could see three had been demolished with one still burning. But the thing that sticks in my mind was the sight of the gable ends only of the red sandstone tenements standing on the side of the hill. People were still being rescued from closes which had been reinforced with steel supports and baffle walls.

During April the same year there were further bombings in Greenock and a few days later Paisley suffered its worst air raid of the war when two land mines were dropped by parachute. The first was dropped on the West School Fire Station and the other on the First Aid Post at Woodside. 92 people were killed at the First Aid post including on of the scouts from the same troop as me, his name was John Farrow.

Then there were great celebrations on V.E Day everywhere we went people were hanging out flags and bunting. Blackout procedures were not adhered to and I have never seen people so happy. Laughing and crying at the same time. There were crowds of people at Barshaw Public Park singing and trying to dance to Bagpipe music. There were a few slightly inebriated revellers paddling in the boating pond, and a few competing to see who could jump overt the smaller bonfires without getting singed.

Later that night some of the boys and I went back to the Scout Hut and had a mug of N.M/C (National Milk Cocoa), and blethered until after midnight when we eventually wound our way home. What a night! A night to remember!

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