大象传媒

This contribution is taken from the collections of the McLean Museum and Art Gallery, Greenock

'Well, we lived in a tenement and at the bottom of this tenement there were places where every person in the tenement was allowed to keep their coal, so, one for each side of the tenement. On the left hand side there had been iron struts put up against the wall and a door put on it. We had to use that as a shelter. which we did.

Now I had three children aged between 5 months and 4 years. Up to 2 years you were allowed a very large respirator which had to be pumped by hand. The child was put into this respirator and you used the pump. Over 2 years you were given a face mask. As I had 3 children that was a sheer impossibility for me to pump 2 respirators and look after another child. Needless to say I didn't take the very large respirators down.

"How many people were there in your air raid shelter?'

"Well, I would say there were 4 of us, my mother, my sister - that was 6 - a young boy and his girlfriend, 8, the boy from the top flat, 9, and the two people in the first' flat, 11 - 11 altogether. '

"And did you take any special food or anything with you when you went down?"

"We took absolutely nothing but someone had placed benches alongside the wall, up against the struts. In fact, when one of the bombs landed actually close to us, they were the very first bombs that fell in Greenock; my mother's head was hit up against one of the struts and the entire building shook. '

"How did the bombs fall in Belville Street?"

"Well, first of all the very first five bombs to fall in Greenock alone on houses - one fell at the bottom of Belville Street, down at Carwood Street, the second and third, forty five and forty three Belville Street, then there was one that completely demolished thirty seven Belville Street. There was a bit of luck there because it was in a - as everything fell it went down into the steps which sloped down towards St Lawrence Street and left quite a clearance to allow anyone who was in the shelter to be taken out.

There was a great deal of dust. The last bomb, which should have fallen on top of us, went into spare ground and the blast from it blew our door in up against the iron struts. We were caught, in the thingummy but not hurt."

"In other words you were trapped in the shelter. How eventually did you manage to get out?

"Well, when the dust settled my brother and brother-in-law who were the air raid wardens for our particular area, came down the back stairs and got some sort of iron thing and prised the door off the iron stanchions. But we didn't come out because the air raid was still on."

"How did people react to this situation in the shelter?"

"Well, I would say very calmly because well we had already had a priest from St Lawrence's Church who had come round every shelter throughout the raid and had given us his blessing. This was a Father Doherty, an Irish priest.
More or less - there were funny things to happen. One woman said it was time that she had her cup of tea and wanted her husband to go upstairs and make her a cup of tea because it was time she had one. Which of course he didn't.

My brother and my brother-in-law went back into their place opposite the school where - that was their position as air raid wardens. On looking up into the air they saw this land mine.

Well they knew if this land mine came right down we would all be blown away. And their orders were if a land mine came down there was only thing could be done was to go forward and turn it on its side. It would not then explode. So as it came down towards the tower of the school and they were all prepared just to do exactly as they should a wind came driving it the opposite way. Unfortunately, it went over past Bawhirley Road into the next road that run parallel and landed on a land mine in which everyone was killed - sorry I mean a shelter in which every person was killed.

Well, the 'all clear' went on at 6 o'clock in the morning and we hastened up the stair although we were warned that the house might be ready to collapse - tenement. I went up alone - found things quite good - and got the children upstairs with my mother and my sister. We began to take off the children鈥檚 clothes and prepare them with day clothes to see if we could possibly get out of Greenock, only to find that the oldest boy - four years of age - was covered with German measles!!

When the children dressed my mother said we would need some food - milk for the children. So I went to the end of Belville Street for there was one shop I was told was open: the co-operative. I went in and prepared to buy anything I could possibly get but everything was free!

And people were all in the shop and were very good. No one took one thing more than they really required. I managed to get some tinned milk and some jam. I am not quite sure if I got bread. But I brought it home and that's what we had.

"What did you do about getting out of Greenock?

'Well, I decided the first thing we ought to do was try to get to Glasgow where I had a brother and a sister who had plenty of accommodation for us. So I left the children with my mother and went along to the end of Belville Street. This one person that I saw on the street - he was a fireman he had no hat on and he put his hand on my shoulder and he cried for all he was worth.

And I said!"What was wrong?". He said he had been standing by all night at a blaze in Ingleston Street in which there was no possibility of them being able to do anything about. But it was his job to be there. And when the 'all clear' went and he went to see how his wife and two children were he found they had been killed during the night while he was standing doing nothing. It was very sad.

However, I carried on to the end of Belville Street, turned down into Crescent Street, that was the back entrance of number one Belville Street and by this time it was 7 o'clock in the morning. And there was a woman washing the back steps - white washing the back steps of her place. She said no German aeroplane was going to stop her taking her turn on the stairs."

"Would you describe what you saw as you walked down to Crescent Street?"

"Well, there's not much to describe. 'Immediately after I spoke to that woman who continued washing her stairs, I was turned back. The street - it was impossible to get down the street for hosepipes. Actually I saw no burning by this time because it was after 7 in the morning and the men had closed off that part. But there were lots of people going down to the Cartsburn Church where all the bodies had been taken. And people were going down to find if any of their relatives were there. There were some very sad scenes.

I turned back - went home - I was told I might be able to get down Crescent Street to Charing Cross but as a place at Charing Cross had been badly hit. They could tell me no more.

So we got the children, my mother, and my sister, and we got down to Charing Cross. Now owing to the amount of pipes: they were across the street; coming from the harbour with water; it meant that any traffic went very slow and as this large lorry started to go towards Glasgow, very slowly, we threw the children on them and gathered my mother up onto and jumped up while they were still moving and there we sat up to Glasgow."

"How did you know the lorry would take you to Glasgow?"

"We didn't, the lorry would take us to Glasgow - it was on the way to Glasgow, on that road and we hoped - he was trying to get out of Greenock the same as we were. Fortunately that's exactly what did happen."

"How did your three little boys react to all this situation?!'

"Well, they just took it as everyday going out. They didn't really know ~ at four years of age, it was more fun to be jumping on the lorry and they actually knew nothing about it - they were too young to know anything."

"Did the lorry take you right in to Glasgow?"

"Yes - exactly right up to Argyle Street and we went right on to the Kelvin Hall. My sister was on one side of it and my brother's house was on the other side of it. We decided to go to my brother's house and stopped there. We got the children into their clothes and started to prepare them as it was nearly night time by this time - and prepared them for bed when the sirens went. The actual place we were staying in was absolutely surrounded by Molotov Cocktails, everything you could mention. All we could do was go down and stand in the passageway till it passed over.'

"How long was it before you managed to get "back home to Belville Street in Greenock?"

"Well, not many days. The first thing I thought on was to go down to the Post Office which was close by - phone up to Lochgilphead - a place my mother had been going to for 45 years for holidays and we knew practically everyone there. And we phoned up to see if there was any possible place we could go and stay. But, unfortunately, there was no way of getting to Lochgilphead - boats and everything had been stopped - the boom defence was up and in no way could we get.

So we went back to my brother's house - stopped till the next day - and then started to make our way home. We find by this time our own house was in quite good condition. But my husband who had gone off to the war - I had no idea where he was - what I did not know was that he was in Glasgow.

Knowing that there had been a raid on Greenock he got permission, to come down to see what had happened. He had got down to Greenock as I had got up to Glasgow for he had got on a lorry. And when he got to the bottom of Crescent Street where he could look straight up at Belville Street which he had been told had been wiped out completely he was so glad to see that our house was still standing.

I said "What would you have done if it hadn't been?" He said "I would have gone straight away." I don't know how funny that sounded to me then but he came up and was very glad to see that we were alright. He returned straight away as he had to because his mission was quite - not to be mentioned.

There were funny incidents and sad incidents as often happens in cases like this. There was one young boy whose boat was in the harbour who had just come into the harbour. He came off the boat of his own accord, without permission and raced up to his mother's in Belville Street - very glad to see that she was alright gave her a kiss and hurrying back to his boat - that was the last she ever saw of him. His boat was hit.

Then two aunts came that day or the day before that to stay in Belville Street. When the sirens went they made for the hills along with a nephew and they were among the first to be shot on the hills by the 'planes as they came over. The three of them were killed. Their bodies next day were taken to the co-operative mortuary in Regent Street in Greenock and that night a bomb fell on the mortuary and that was the end of them - they were never seen again.

Then there was another case - communications had gone down with all the bombing and they were using young boys who had volunteered and boys who were in this, as messengers to go between air raid shelter and the other - the next one all throughout the town. There was a boy belonging to 23 Belville Street, he was a messenger and he was awarded a medal after the war. On that particular night of the blitz he used 15 bicycles to carry one message from one warden to another - everyone being blasted from underneath him. He really deserved that medal."

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