aWITH reference to the story about the bombing of Bankhead primary school, Knightswood (Feb 19), I lived in Langholm Street (now Spiershall Close) about 500m from the school. My family on the top flat of the tenement sheltered in the hall during the course of that blitz. At one point I looked through the kitchen window and actually saw the landmine floating down and exploding on to the school.
The Royal Commission on Ancient Monuments has a catalogue of aerial photographs taken by the Luftwaffe in late 1939 and used by the German bombers. The relevant one used in the Clydebank blitz (GB8322bc) is actually centred on Yoker and the school is only 1500m from the map centre. The possible targets for the landmine are the (at that time) extensive and very busy marshalling yards between Dyke Road and Kelso Street or the many yards on the Clyde, including Yarrows. Both targets were only about 500m from the school.
Earlier in the war, on July 19, 1940, a lone bomber, possibly targeting Yarrows, dropped a bomb on the Blawarthill end of Langholm Street. The gable end of the tenement there was demolished, killing and injuring several families. My young brother, who was playing in the street at the time, was almost hit by falling masonry.
James Linn,
47 Chesters View, Bonnyrigg.
I AM pleased to hear, from your feature on February 19, that the tragic bombing of Bankhead primary school on the night of March 13, 1941, is to be remembered.
We lived in Waldemar Road in Knightswood and on the night after the bombing of Bankhead school our small area of Waldemar Road and Lincoln Avenue was hit by two landmines when some 28 homes were destroyed and several others damaged. Fortunately, as I recall, only two people were killed, a girl of 10 and a middle-aged man, but I believe another man died subsequently from his injuries.
Although nothing of the scale of devastation suffered by Clydebank, I have never seen Knightswood mentioned previously in any article about the Clydebank blitz.
Margaret B McQuarrie,
33 Buchanan Drive, Bearsden.
Paisley suffered a similar landmine disaster to that at Knightswood primary during the war (Feb 19). Just before dawn on May 6, 1941, two Luftwaffe parchute mines were seen floating towards the Woodside area of the town. One made a direct hit on First Aid Post number 5 in the grounds of William Street children's and maternity hospital.
Around 100 personnel were on air-raid duty. Only four survived. A local minister had brought his wife and daughter along for safety. All died. Identification of the bodies was well-nigh impossible and a communal grave was used at Hawkhead cemetery. The official German records report that the mines were discarded by planes returning from raids elsewhere. No official memorial to the tragedy has been erected.
W Raymond Shaw,
9 Drimvargie Road, Oban.
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