Unexploded Nazi bomb lay five feet from Stirling gasworks for almost 30 years after Luftwaffe raid on city

Daily Record

2 days ago

The only time the Luftwaffe bombed Stirling during the Second World War was on Saturday, July 20, 1940, when a German bomber dropped two bombs on the town.
Stirling narrowly avoided a catastrophic explosion that could have obliterated a significant portion of the town nearly three decades after the Luftwaffe's sole air raid on the city during World War 2.
‌
This month commemorates 85 years since the Nazis unleashed bombs on Stirling, leading to the obliteration of a football ground, injuries to several locals and damage to many buildings.
‌
Yet, over 28 years following the attack, a second 1,000-pound bomb, which hadn't exploded, was unearthed in the old gasworks yard on Goosecroft Road – in the area mnear where Stirling bus station and the Thistles Centre car park is now located.
‌
Saturday, July 20, 1940, marked the ominous day when the German bomber released the explosive over the home of Stirling's King's Park FC.
The club had been playing at Forthbank Park, located where Springbank Roundabout now stands, near the railway line, from the late 19th century until it was bombed.
The only attack by the Germans on the city during the conflict demolished one of the stands and the turnstiles at the ground. Remarkably, the pitch was reported to have "escaped with only a bombardment of large-sized boulders".
‌
It was assumed that two bombs were dropped, but just one went off, with the other believed to have fallen deeper into the countryside.
It wasn't until September 4, 1968, when the second device was discovered by workmen during "digging operations" in the former gasworks yard.
‌
Remarkably, the explosive device had been lying just five feet from a gasometer which, until its demolition three months before the ordnance was found, had held "one million cubic feet of gas".
Warrant Officer J Bater, from the ammunition inspectorate of the Royal Arms Ordnance Corps, Edinburgh, who was responsible for disposing of the bomb, said it "could have been dangerous".
‌
Detailed in a news report from the day after the bomb's discovery, workmen digging for main gas pipes in preparation for the start of the second phase of the Stirling inner relief road "came across the bomb at a depth of two feet".
They described how the warhead of the explosive was roughly a foot in diameter and they promptly alerted police who "summoned the bomb disposal squad".
The account continued: "During the air raid on Stirling two land mines were also dropped. One caused considerable damage to property at the Forthside Ordinance Depot and the other completely destroyed Forthbank, the home of the former King's Park FC, as well as houses in the immediate neighbourhood."
‌
Earlier this month, the Stirling Observer reported how the German bombing raid demolished several buildings and left local residents with injuries. A July 1940 report in the Observer detailed the aftermath of the bomb that struck a football ground, causing significant destruction and leaving many without homes.
‌
The article stated: "One of the bombs fell on a football ground enclosure and the blast wrecked a two-storeyed cottage and so extensively damaged a row of two-storeyed houses opposite the ground entrance that many families were rendered homeless.
"There were a number of casualties, all of which were stated to be slight."
The Observer added: "In the cottage near the football ground, a Mr and Mrs Hugh M'Coll were in an upstairs bedroom, and their two daughters, Miss Minnie and Miss Anne, were in a bedroom on the ground floor. Mr M'Coll's injuries necessitated his removal to an infirmary. His daughters received slight cuts.
‌
"Residing in another part of the same building were Mrs Tom Tetstall and her three children, and Mr James Campbell, a blind man, all of whom escaped serious injury, although Mrs Tetstall and her young son required institutional treatment after being extricated from the debris.
"Mrs Tetstall and her children were saved from serious injury because the bed they were in half-telescoped and gave them a ready-made safety barrier from falling masonry."
Mr Campbell was caught in an upstairs room but was quickly saved by ARP workers who brought a ladder to rescue him.
‌
The explosion also led to the demolition of the football ground's stand and turnstile entrance, while nearby residential and business windows, including plate-glass ones over a quarter of a mile away, were also damaged.
In what might be described as the most extraordinary event of the air raid, a pet goldfish in a bowl in one of the destroyed cottages had its tail blown off. The Observer reported: "It seemed to be dead, but when a few drops of brandy were put in the water the goldfish revived."
A local joiner was surprised to find his windows unscathed, yet the locks on his doors had been blasted away by the explosion. A door handle was also forcefully ejected, embedding itself into the wall across from it.
Emergency ARP workers and ambulances were quick to respond to the incident.
Numerous families left without homes were "temporarily lodged in a poor law institution", impacting a total of 29 households.
King's Park FC didn't waste time in making temporary fixes to their ground, managing to host two further matches before the club eventually folded.
Five years after the demise of King's Park, a new football club emerged. Local business man Thomas Ferguson started up Stirling Albion in 1945 and shortly after purchased the Annfield estate to construct the club's former Annfield home.
Annfield stood as Stirling's main football venue until 1993, when Stirling Council erected Forthbank Stadium on the city's fringes, less than a mile from the original Forthbank Park.