It is 76 years now since the Clydebank blitz happened on March 13th and 14th 1941. Officially 528 people died (though that figure is said by some to be very low, STV suggest 1200 deaths) and over 600 were badly injured during the Luftwaffe World War II campaign that largely destroyed the town. The devastation was so great that out of 12,000 homes only seven remained unscathed with 35,000 people (over 40,000 according to the BBC) being made homeless over the two days. With over 430 bombing raids dropping over 1000 bombs, it is strange to note that one of the main targets, John Brown Shipyards, got off very lightly indeed. One of the main defences those nights was a Polish Warship ORP Piorun which was back for a refit at John Browns Shipyard, where she had been built a few years previously. Near Clydebank Town Hall in Solidarity Plaza is a memorial plaque to those brave Polish sailors who fired the ships guns whilst bombs rained around them.
Kilbowie St Andrews Parish Church in Clydebank has a Blitz Chapel and hosts an annual Remembrance Service. It also had a book or remembrance which has the unusual style of listing people by address, rather than alphabetically. With a many families living in one tenement, there can be a lot of different names for one location, a very moving and powerful read for those looking at history today.
Remembrance Services such as these should use local printers to produce professional quality Orders of Service, so that not only will we remember, but also learn and be educated about what happened.
