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Meeting of the Parliament 17 March 2011

17 Mar 2011 · S3 · Meeting of the Parliament

Item of business

Clydebank Blitz 70th Anniversary

Aitken, Bill Con Glasgow Watch on SPTV

I congratulate Des McNulty on bringing the matter before the Parliament.

I speak as a member of a fairly blessed generation. Born post-war, I did not have to go and fight. My father had to, as did his father, who lost an arm in the process. Nor did I, as a child, live under the threat of being bombed. The second world war was the first war that the United Kingdom experienced in which the civilian population, in some cases, was targeted and, in many cases, suffered as a result of the bombing of strategic targets such as the shipyards in the Clydebank and upper Clyde area.

The memories of childhood are such that I recall the way in which the Luftwaffe planes had deposited the residue of their bombs over Glasgow as they went. Des McNulty referred to that. Indeed, for many years, there was a site near where he now lives, at the corner of Queen Margaret Drive and Doune Gardens, where bombs had fallen and demolished a building with significant loss of life.

The situation in Clydebank was, of course, very much worse. A carpet-bombing approach had been employed in order that the effectiveness of the shipyards could be nullified. It was inevitable that there would be significant collateral damage to private property and commercial properties, accompanied by very significant loss of life.

One of the most disturbing aspects of the event was the difficulty in identifying the precise number of people who were killed. That was partly because in wartime the population was much more transient than it was in peacetime: nobody knew who was staying where. Many people were killed and simply not accounted for. Many others were injured to the extent that it affected them for the rest of their lives. Other people were mentally scarred—there could be no more terrifying experience, particularly for a child, than undergoing direct bombing. Indeed, I saw one gentleman on the television last week who, aged four at the time of the blitz, said that he recalled it to this day and would take the memory to the grave with him.

Man’s inhumanity to man has made countless people mourn; many mourned in Clydebank following the events about which we are talking. They will never happen again, I hope. It is all changed now. War is different but nonetheless threatening.

The way in which the Clydebank community built on a resilience that had, perhaps, arisen out of hard times was remarkable. From going as a child in the 1960s to play football in the areas that I have mentioned, I recall seeing the gap sites and dereliction that were caused by the terrible events of that night. It is correct that the local authority should remember those events. It is also correct that we in Parliament pay tribute to those who died and, at the same time, express the fervent prayer that such events never occur again.

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