EXCLUSIVE: Clydebank Blitz survivor shares memories ahead of 80th anniversary
Sarah Kelly had just turned 14 when the town was razed to the ground by Nazi bombers.
Last updated 11th Mar 2021
Ahead of the 80th anniversary of the Clydebank Blitz, Clyde 1 News is speaking exclusively to a 94-year-old survivor.
Sarah Kelly had just turned 14 when, on the 13th of March 1941, 236 Nazi bombers dropped 272 tons of high explosive and 1,650 incendiary containers on Clydebank and the surrounding area.
They were targeting the town’s munitions factories and shipyards. Clydebank had John Brown’s shipyard dedicated to the war effort, the Royal Ordnance Factory in Dalmuir, the Singer Factory working on munitions contracts, and the Admiralty Oil Tanks at Dalnottar holding thousands of gallons of fuel vital for the war effort.
The Queen Elizabeth had been launched at John Brown’s in 1938 and, together with her sister ship the Queen Mary, were converted to troopships. The only ships large enough to carry an entire division of 15,000 troops, they ferried over one million American troops across the Atlantic .
In the process of the two-night raid over 1,000 lives were lost and around 35,000 people were left homeless.
A survivor's story
Sarah recalls the events of those nights in vivid detail.
She was living in Granville Street in the town with her parents and ten of her brothers and sisters, and says the air-raid sirens didn’t actually come as too much of a shock: “Several nights before the Blitz, on several occasions, the siren had gone off. Everyone had gone to the shelter and whatnot, but nothing happened.”
“So the night of the Blitz, when the siren went off, we were getting ready to go to bed. My mammy came through and said “it’s OK, just carry on and go to bed.” Shortly after that she came back through and said it was a bit more serious.”
Sarah describes how it felt when the bombs started falling.
“They made a terrible sound. They whistled down. And every time one came down you thought it was coming for you.”
Sarah and her family were left homeless after the first night of the Blitz, and spent the second night in a shelter – where she and her sister became separated from the rest of the family.
“During the night we were told that the shelter next door had been destroyed by a high explosive bomb. Josie and I thought my mammy and daddy and the rest of the family were there, so we were very worried.”
Life after the Blitz
After being reunited with her parents Sarah and some of her other brothers and sisters went to stay with family in Kilmaurs in Ayrshire, along with their mum. Their dad stayed behind in Clydebank to look for a new home, while sleeping in the office of the factory where he worked.
Sarah says the first night of the Blitz would mark the end of life as their family knew it: “We were never together again as one family. Two of my brothers got married, and my sister went to London to the Civil Service. It made a big difference to us.”
Sarah’s is just one of thousands of lives shaped by the events of March 13th and 14th 1941. Their legacy, and the lives of those who didn’t survive the Blitz will be honoured in a stripped-down ceremony in the town on Saturday due to Coronavirus restrictions.
West Dunbartonshire Council has commissioned a piece of music from The Royal Scottish National Orchestra to mark the 80th anniversary, and it’s hoped that can be unveiled at a gala concert later in the year when lockdown restrictions are lifted.
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