Eighty-five years ago, between the 13th and the 15th of March 1941, Clydeside was targetted by German bombers. While it's generally referred to as the Clydebank Blitz, locations were targetted along the length of the Clyde from Cambuslang to Greenock. The raids involved over 200 German aircraft which dopped 272 tonnes of bombs as well as 1,650 incendiary devices.
Cont./
Within Glasgow itself, around 600 people died, including 110 killed by a parachute mine on Nelson Street in the Tradeston area of the city (as far as I can work work out, this is one of the highest civilian body counts from a single bomb in the whole of the UK during World War Two). Some of those who died across the city in these raids were never identified and were buried in mass graves, such as this one on Eastwood Cemetery.
Cont./
While there is a memorial to the people killed in Clydebank, which bears the names of 512 people from the town who died, there is no public memorial to the similar number killed in Glasgow itself. However, if you know what to look for, you can still see traces of the scars these raids left across the city.
@thisismyglasgow The parachute mines (SB [Spezialbombe] 1000) were pretty devastating, they were an air dropped anti-shipping mine that had been adapted for land use. The slow descent by parachute was very susceptible to any wind so they were impossible to target with any accuracy. They were first used against London in September 1940.
A couple were dropped on Folkestone in November 1940 killing 14 and causing a lot of damage to housing, with one area of houses and hotels near the harbour being so badly damaged it was cleared and remains a car park: https://battle-of-britain-diary.org.uk/1940/11/18/two-parachute-mines-land-on-houses-in-folkestone/
This Is My Glasgow
Orde Saunders 🔟
Human after all