大象传媒

This story was submitted to the People鈥檚 War site by Mairi Campbell of the 大象传媒 on behalf of Sir Eric Yarrow and has been added to the site with his permission. The author fully understands the sites terms and conditions.

From 1939 鈥� 1945, the yard delivered one ship every ten weeks throughout the War. No-one minded the hard work as everyone was eager to co-operate. During this time Yarrows built 15 destroyers (C-Class and Hunt Class), 8 sloops and 4 gunboats.

On March 13th 1941, the worst night of the air raids on Clydeside, a force of German planes battered the shipyards none more so than Yarrows. Two bombs and one land mine fell on the yard. 47 men died as a result of a direct hit on the air raid shelter. This bomb also completely demolished the electrical department office, tracing office, galvanising shop and damaged the boiler shop. The Landmine demolished the cost office; severely damaged the east end of the engine shop, blew the main office block roof off and killed one man. The second bomb did only slight damage to the stock yard. The following day the majority of the men were sent home as the vast amount of debris and glass were too dangerous to work in. The yard appeared completely destroyed but miraculously most vital services had survived and none of our four ships in the building berths had been disturbed. The clean up began and work was only slightly interrupted. The raid happened on a Thursday night. The boiler shop was again working on the Friday, the shipyard on the Monday and the engine room two weeks later. It had been the worst night in the history of the yard and the loss of life was grievous but the survivors rose to the occasion. Delivery dates were hardly affected.

Extracts and Photos from 鈥淵arrow and Company Limited 1865-1977鈥� by kind permission of Sir Eric Yarrow.

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