Glasgow at War, 1939–45

By Craig Armstrong

An in-depth look at how Scotland’s largest city and its residents were affected by the Second World War, with photos included.
 
Scotland was of grave strategic importance during World War II because of its geographical position, and Glasgow was the location of a significant number of important military and civil organizations as well as housing industry vital to the national war effort. As a result, Glasgow attracted enemy attention on many occasions—with the city and its hinterland being heavily raided by the Luftwaffe. These included the infamous raid on Clydebank in March 1941, which killed over five hundred civilians and left only seven houses undamaged in the town.
 
Although Glasgow’s shipyards, munitions factories, and other industries were all vital, so too was the location of the city itself. The River Clyde was the end point for many Atlantic convoys bringing precious food, material, and men to the war-struck British Isles, and the city was thus a vital link in the nation’s war effort. No member of the population of Glasgow escaped the war. Huge numbers of men and women from the area came forward for service in the military or in roles involving the Home Guard, ARP services, nursing, and vital war industries. Residents struggled to maintain a household under strict rationing and the stresses of wartime life, and children were evacuated from the city to rural areas to escape the bombing campaigns. Glasgow was also home to a sizable Italian community, which was badly affected by internment and tight restrictions on movement and civil rights. The Italian community was also subjected to violent attacks when rioting mobs attacked Italian-owned business throughout the city.
 
Glasgow at War 1939-1945 paints a portrait of a city fighting to survive, and poignantly commemorates the efforts and achievements of workers, fighters, and families divided.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Open Road Integrated Media
• Release date: May 30, 2019
• ISBN: 9781473879690

Craig Armstrong

Born and bred in Northumberland, Dr Craig Armstrong is an experienced historian with a special interest in the history of the North East of England and the Anglo-Scottish Borders. He has expertise in 19th and 20th century history with a particular focus on social and military history.Dr Armstrong currently splits his time between teaching at Newcastle University and working as a freelance researcher and writer on the history of North East England and Scotland.

Book preview

CHAPTER ONE

1939-1940

From Bore War to Crisis

1939

At the start of the war the rearming process saw many Clyde shipyards with full order books. John Brown had orders for a battleship, a cruiser, four destroyers and three depot ships, whilst Fairfield had orders for a battleship, an aircraft carrier, two cruisers and four destroyers. The other large firms such as Yarrow also had full orders. With the large numbers of vessels under construction there were many who saw Glasgow and the Clyde as being a prime target.

Although the Clyde was famed for its shipyards, the area also supported a wide range of ancillary industries. Steel production had been in the doldrums before the war but had also been a lifeline for industries mainly concentrated on the west coast and in the wider Glasgow area. Firms such as Frederick Braby, Clyde Alloy Steel, Colville’s, Dixon’s, Lanarkshire Steel, Smith & McLean, Steel Company of Scotland and John Williams’ employed thousands. Production in Scotland averaged almost two million tons of steel per year throughout the war. Other businesses were also boosted by the shipbuilding boom including iron founding, heavy metal and sheet metal works and rope manufacturers.

The Scottish Co-operative Wholesale Society (SCWS) had a number of different factories and stores across the Glasgow area including a sheet metal works at Shieldhall. In the immediate aftermath of the start of the war an order was placed with the factory for 140,000 2" naval rockets which were to be used to defend airfields which saw service during the Battle of Britain in 1940 from low-level attack.

Evacuation

The first three days of September had seen the successful evacuation of anywhere between 119,000-190,000 children, mothers and teachers. The authorities were disappointed. It had been estimated that far greater numbers would turn out and many of the trains which had been reserved departed only half full and thirty-five were cancelled altogether. Some of the evacuees were sent into the countryside whilst large numbers were also sent to the suburbs such as Cathcart, Knightswood and Pollockshields; even areas such as Clydebank were told to expect evacuees; in the event only 5,159 evacuees turned up at Clydebank of an expected 11,700. Others found themselves evacuated into completely unfamiliar surroundings, such as rural Lanarkshire, whilst over a hundred blind children were removed to the Glen Nevis Youth Hostel. Children who had been patients at the Southern General Hospital found themselves ensconced within wards which had been prepared at Culzean Castle, home of the Marchioness of Ailsa.

There were numerous reasons for people failing to take up the offer of evacuation. Many had come to the conclusion that whatever happened it would be better to face it as a family. Others could not, when it came to it, face the possibility of separation from their children, and some suspected the motives of officialdom. Although the train journeys went relatively smoothly, some who were evacuated by steamer were anxious and upset as this was their first ever experience of seeing the sea. Groups of evacuees who arrived at Oban were taken to a nearby school to be fed before being transported by car to their billets. This caused some problems as many of the children had no experience of travelling in a motor vehicle and were extremely reluctant to get into the cars. Further problems at Oban occurred when a second group of 500 evacuees from Govan arrived only to be told that the billets which had been offered had now been withdrawn.

Despite the disappointment of some within the authorities, the response in Glasgow had in fact been considerably better than in many areas, including Edinburgh. It was estimated that the turnout in Glasgow was approximately 50 per cent of those who had been registered. There were the usual shocks for evacuees and for those upon whom they were billeted, with culture shock being severe at times when children and families from poor inner-city areas came into contact with middle-class families. Homesickness and discontent with billeting arrangements led to a massive wave of early returning evacuees, especially when it became clear that the anticipated immediate bombing was not happening.

When possible, children were evacuated by school. On 2 September, for example, fifty-seven Glasgow schools were evacuated and on the following, and busiest, day over seventy schools took part. The take-up of evacuation places improved as the process went on. After a fairly slow start on 1 September numbers improved steadily. On the next day it was estimated that 41,236 people had been evacuated, 70 per cent of those registered for that day, whilst on 3 September it was estimated that a further 80,000 would leave the city. At Scotstoun the procedure seems to have been particularly well organised with over 500 mothers and children entrained and on their way to Lanarkshire in just twelve minutes. The authorities were at pains to express how smoothly the process had gone, with the greatest difficulty being finding billets for large families who did not wish to be broken up.

In an effort to provide reassurance, and perhaps aware that take-up had not been as high as expected, the authorities through the press, urged parents ‘not to worry about their children, as they will be in good hands. They will be allowed to write home regularly, and as soon as arrangements have been completed parents will be allowed to visit them.’¹ Over the days immediately following the implementation of the evacuation plan the press attempted to reassure anxious parents that their children were happy and being well cared for. Part of this attempt to convince people of the benefits of evacuation was the publication of a series of photographs. One such photograph, which appeared in the Sunday Post, was of two seemingly happy evacuees. The caption read: ‘Not much homesickness here! First day in the strange household. Sister writes to Mother while Brother goes over the morning comic.’

Another more sophisticated photograph showed evacuees from Glasgow cooperating with refugee children from Danzig, Poland and Germany to get in the harvest whilst they stayed at Ardgaith Farm, near Errol, Perthshire.

There was at least one unexpected evacuee from Glasgow. One pregnant woman gave birth whilst she was entrained for evacuation. Thankfully, there were several nurses on the train who assisted. The birth took place as the train passed through Leuchars and both mother and child were doing well when they were taken off the train at Tay Bridge Station, Dundee.

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A happy pair of evacuees. (Sunday Post)

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Glasgow evacuees assist refugees from Danzig, Poland and Germany to bring in the harvest whilst they stay at Ardgaith Farm, near Errol in Perthshire. (Aberdeen Press and Journal)

Sinking of the SS Athenia

One section of evacuees even found themselves given a barrage of abuse as they left the city. The transatlantic liner the SS Athenia, of the Donaldson Line, sailed from Princes Dock shortly after midday on 1 September carrying 421 passengers, made up of Jewish refugees, Canadian and US citizens and, crucially, 72 UK subjects who had decided to abandon their homeland for safer climes; also aboard were 315 crew. As the liner steamed past Fairfield’s shipyard, where she had been built in 1922-1923, many workers lined the river to yell abuse at the passengers, calling them cowards.

The ship picked up a further 682 passengers at Belfast and Liverpool before setting course for the Atlantic. At dinner the nervous passengers were reassured by the calm demeanour of Captain James Cook (of 35 Herries Road, Pollockshields) but just after 7pm on 3 September the Athenia was 60 miles south of Rockall when the captain of the German submarine U-30 (Oberleutnant Fritz-Julius Lemp) sighted her in his periscope. Despite having orders not to engage unarmed merchant vessels, the submarine fired four torpedoes at the liner. Two missed and one failed to fire correctly but the final torpedo exploded beside her engine room. The Athenia immediately began to settle by the stern. Aboard, there was pandemonium, but the crew reacted well and quickly began to organise passengers as they reached the deck. Unfortunately, one group of Eastern European refugees proved problematic. Few of them spoke English, many were already afraid of the sea and now they were in a state of absolute panic. Their actions badly disrupted the lifeboat drill on the starboard side of the liner. So great was the panic that one of the refugees, attempting desperately to get on an already full lifeboat, had to be threatened with an axe. Many of them had also taken up passenger space with luggage, but the crew salvaged the situation by the simple expedient of throwing the luggage overboard.

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The SS Athenia. (Public Domain)

There were scenes of heroism as men stood aside so that women and children could be placed in crowded lifeboats. Many of the terrified passengers were drowned when they panicked and jumped into the sea. In boat 11A a frightening situation arose when the boat’s stern fell heavily into the sea throwing at least one passenger overboard and badly injuring others. By 9.30pm all lifeboats had been launched and were awaiting rescue. Captain Cook, however, and a small number of passengers remained aboard the Athenia.

Response to the distress call from the Athenia was prompt with three destroyers (HMS Electra, Escort and Fame) being joined by the Swedish yacht Southern Cross, the Norwegian tanker MS Knute Nelson and the American steamer City of Flint (a nearby German liner, the SS Bremen received the distress call but ignored it). Between these vessels some 981 passengers and crew were rescued.

The recriminations over the sinking of the Athenia were long and bitter. The U-boat commander later claimed that the liner had been blacked out and was sailing a zig-zag course leading him to believe it was an armed merchantman. This was a smokescreen. He had known the identity after picking up the liner’s distress call and had immediately admitted his error. This error was later covered up by the Nazi authorities. In Glasgow the opinion of those aboard the Athenia underwent a radical shift and there was considerable anger expressed at what was interpreted as an egregious sinking of a civilian vessel and the murder of innocents.

Early on 5 September the destroyers HMS Electra and HMS Escort put in at Greenock’s Albert Harbour. Astonishingly, no preparations had been made to accept the survivors (the destroyers were originally meant to make for Old Kilpatrick but were diverted due to fog) and there were subsequent complaints that the survivors, numbering over 500, should have been kept on board the destroyers until facilities had been arranged. However, the ordinary people of Greenock rose to the occasion magnificently. A ship carrying sugar was being unloaded nearby and many of the dockers immediately began sharing their own food with the survivors, whilst the women of the town organised themselves and quickly began gathering supplies of food and clothing.

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Survivors from the SS Athenia alongside the City of Flint. (Public Domain)

Many of the survivors were injured and twenty-seven were admitted to Glasgow Western Infirmary, nine to the Greenock Royal Infirmary and two to the Greenock Eye Infirmary. One of those admitted to the Greenock Royal Infirmary, Rose Griffin of Toronto, died there shortly afterwards, bringing the death toll to 98 passengers and 19 crew. Of these, 54 were Canadian and 28 were American citizens. One particular death as a result of the sinking was particularly tragic. John and James Lenehan of Gairbraid Avenue, Maryhill, had been rescued from the liner but, unaware of this, their mother Mary had suffered a heart attack on hearing the news of the sinking and she died a few hours later.

With over 500 survivors to cater for, the authorities in Greenock were almost overwhelmed. Once