Wartime victims remembered

Published on Monday 14 March 2011 13:55

Shoppers observed a one-minute silence yesterday to mark the 70th anniversary of a World War Two raid on a Scottish town.

Clydebank in West Dunbartonshire was devastated by two nights of bombing on 13 and 14 March, 1941.

The blitz killed 528 civilians and seriously injured at least 617, while tens of thousands of people were left homeless.

Yesterday, around 30 people gathered beneath the distinctive maritime clock in Clydebank Shopping Centre to mark a minute's silence at midday.

Among those paying tribute was survivor Margaret Young, 85, whose memories of those two nights in March are still vivid, seven decades on.

She was at the cinema when the air raid sirens went off, and hurried home to spend the night with her family huddled in their close. They later emerged to scenes of devastation.

The grandmother-of-three said: "After the all-clear siren went we all came outside but the atmosphere was terrible, it was smoky and going for your throat, and some of the buildings were on fire and some had holes in them and windows were out, it was just chaotic."

On the second night of the raids, she, her mother and brother sought safety on the moors and watched the destruction rain down on the town below as German bombers swept past. Her father could not join them as he was an air raid warden.

She said: "We went up to the moors thinking we're out in the open and we'll be okay up there but we could see them coming in, it was a pale, pale blue sky, I've never seen one since like it."