THE 82nd anniversary has just passed of the Greenock Blitz which claimed more than 270 lives and left thousands injured in May, 1941.

Clydeside industrial towns such as Greenock and Clydebank were obvious targets for German bombers.

I have previously written about local residents and businesses being fined for failing to observe blackout conditions during the Second World War.

Civilians could also be called upon to minimise threats to the district in other ways.

In January, 1943, a Port Glasgow man pleaded guilty at Greenock Sheriff Court to failing to perform fire-watching duties in Port Glasgow on 17 days during a period covering several months during the previous year.

The fiscal stated the accused had been enrolled in the civil fire guard scheme under the compulsory enrolment order and given duties at Clune Park School, pictured, near to where he lived.

He turned up at the school on a required date in June and attended a lecture there in October.

However, the man was absent on other dates, and when asked for the reasons said he had been working overtime in a local shipyard.

Inquiries were made at the yard and it was discovered the accused had not been working overtime on any of the dates mentioned in the charge. These covered days in July, August, September, October and November.

The accused told the court he had met with an accident in the yard in July, and his doctor had ordered him to rest for a few days.

He stated: “I was engaged on heavy work as a shell furnaceman and when I get home I’m not fit to go out. I have been attending the doctor at different times, and I was off work from December 6 until last week.”

Sheriff Inglis pointed out that the charge did not cover any period in December, and the accused replied he suffered severe pain.

The sheriff then told the man if he had met with an accident on July 21 and was ordered to take a few days’ rest that might have excused him from fireguard duty on July 27 but not after that.

The accused was fined £5 or 21 days’ imprisonment.

At the same court a full-time member of the National Fire Service was fined £1 for being absent from duty on three occasions without reasonable excuse.