WW2: The Deadliest Blitz?

Warfare

History Hit

History

4.5 • 943 Ratings

🗓️ 28 July 2023

⏱️ 36 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

When you think of the Blitz and the devastation enacted by the Luftwaffe during the Second World War, British cities like London or Coventry typically come to mind first. With deadly bombings happening across the United Kingdom throughout the entire world war, other locations and casualties are often forgotten or left off official Blitz classification lists. However, during March 1941, Glasgow and the surrounding Clydeside areas faced one of the deadliest Luftwaffe attacks during the War. Despite this, the true death toll remains unknown, leading to the question of why this Blitz has seemingly been forgotten, and whether an accurate death toll will ever be compiled.

In this episode, James welcomes Marc Conaghan to the podcast to talk about his years of research and study on the Clydeside and Clyde Bank Blitz, taking us through the 48 hours of destruction this region faced. They will explore the bombardments used, the lack of defenses Glasgow was able to employ, and the damage still visible today. Why was this area so heavily targeted, and could anything have been done to prevent it?

You can find more of Marc's research and work here.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	When we think of the Blitz on London that devastating period of destruction by the
0:08.3	Luftwaffe on Britain's capital. But the truth is that there so many blizzes and heavy bombardments on towns and cities
0:16.7	right across the UK during the entirety of the war. I'm your host, James Patton Rogers Rogers and here on warfare over the last three years.
0:25.4	I've chosen to focus on so many of these forgotten bombings and raids that impacted
0:30.8	every section of the UK from Plymouth to Belfast, Hull to Coventry, Birmingham to Swansea and with this in mind today we're going to focus in and explore a blitz that we've never covered on this podcast. This is known as the Clyde
0:45.4	Side Blitz or otherwise known as a Clyde Bank Blitz or the Blitz on Glasgow. And to make sure I got this history right I travelled up to Scotland to Glasgow. And to make sure I got this history right, I travelled up to Scotland to
0:54.5	Glasgow to speak with an expert local historian Mark Conahan.
0:58.4	Mark's been working on the lesser-known aspects of the Second World War for
1:02.2	years and the archival material, the first-hand
1:05.2	research and first-hand accounts he's unearthed are revelatory. In fact, it's from Mark's research that
1:12.0	the bombing of the Glasgow region might need to be
1:14.4	reconsidered and re-designated as the heaviest most lethal blitz of the
1:19.4	Second World War. I'm going to war.
1:25.0	Hi Mark, welcome to warfare.
1:28.0	How you doing?
1:29.0	Oh, very well.
1:30.0	Well, thank you so much taking the time to come on the podcast.
1:33.2	This is a rare treat.
1:34.3	We get to sit in person and chat about a topic
1:37.8	that we're both passionate about.
1:40.0	And that is about the Blitzes that took place
1:42.1	during the Second World War.
	...

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