0:00:02 > 0:00:04I was sitting in the living room with my dad and my brother.
0:00:04 > 0:00:08My dad was reading the papers, my mum was next door at a neighbour.
0:00:08 > 0:00:13We'd been at school and out playing, and then came up and my brother and I were getting ready for bed.
0:00:13 > 0:00:16The nine o'clock news was on the radio.
0:00:21 > 0:00:25I turned the wireless on to hear the news, and the sirens went.
0:00:25 > 0:00:29You could hear a sort of low whine.
0:00:30 > 0:00:37In the spring of 1941, the town of Clydebank experienced Scotland's biggest civilian loss of life.
0:00:40 > 0:00:42All the windows fell in,
0:00:42 > 0:00:45the balcony started to collapse.
0:00:47 > 0:00:50On the 13th and 14th of March, almost 1,000 tonnes of explosives
0:00:50 > 0:00:55and incendiaries were dropped on and around the town.
0:00:55 > 0:01:00Over 1,200 people were killed, another thousand were seriously
0:01:00 > 0:01:05injured and 50,000 people were left homeless.
0:01:05 > 0:01:12The refugees came streaming up the road dragging what precious belongings they could save.
0:01:12 > 0:01:14And headed for the hills.
0:01:15 > 0:01:22Despite the enormous scale of the disaster, the truth about the raid never hit the headlines.
0:01:22 > 0:01:27There was a lot of blood, a lot of quite ugly scenes which was...
0:01:29 > 0:01:31not very nice.
0:01:31 > 0:01:35But the story of one of the most intense and deadly bombing raid
0:01:35 > 0:01:41in wartime Britain lives on in the minds of the children that survived.
0:01:49 > 0:01:51I'm only a boy of nine. I didn't really understand war.
0:01:51 > 0:01:56I didn't really think that people got killed and got blown to pieces and never ever came back again.
0:01:56 > 0:01:59I never ever thought that way at all. War didnae matter.
0:01:59 > 0:02:02It didn't matter. I didn't understand it.
0:02:02 > 0:02:04Until 13th March.
0:02:06 > 0:02:12At the beginning of 1941, the war seemed a long way from the west of Scotland.
0:02:12 > 0:02:15The battle of Britain and the German bombing campaign that followed it had mostly happened in England,
0:02:15 > 0:02:19and the war had brought a lot of extra work to Clydebank.
0:02:19 > 0:02:23The town was, in fact, booming.
0:02:23 > 0:02:25A trip down the Clyde affords the truest evidence.
0:02:25 > 0:02:30At every yard are ships being built to the cheerful sound of riveting.
0:02:30 > 0:02:37Sitting seven miles down the River Clyde from Glasgow, Clydebank was bursting with war orders.
0:02:37 > 0:02:39At John Brown's shipyard they were building and repairing warships, and
0:02:39 > 0:02:47at several other factories they were making munitions, especially at the huge Singer sewing machine works.
0:02:50 > 0:02:54John Brown's, Beardmore's, ROF, Singer had turned to munitions.
0:02:54 > 0:02:58They were making tank tracks, stain guns, bullets, millions
0:02:58 > 0:03:02of bullets, millions of fuses, anything to help the war effort.
0:03:02 > 0:03:07Everybody was employed, every factory was working round the clock,
0:03:07 > 0:03:13and of course, you know, the pubs would have been exactly the same, and the shops and commerce.
0:03:13 > 0:03:16So it's this odd kind of black irony, that you know,
0:03:16 > 0:03:20it's happy times in Clydebank, albeit the world is at war
0:03:20 > 0:03:22and jackboots are storming across Europe.
0:03:24 > 0:03:30But the war-work that made Clydebank so busy also made it a prime target for a German bombing raid.
0:03:33 > 0:03:36Eastern Scotland had been almost continuously harassed by German
0:03:36 > 0:03:40bombers since the beginning of the war, but the massive bombing raids
0:03:40 > 0:03:46that became known as the Blitz were most largely felt in cities like London and Coventry.
0:03:46 > 0:03:51The King has been to see how the people of Coventry were carrying on after their terrible ordeal.
0:03:51 > 0:03:54These cities were held up as examples of the "Blitz spirit"
0:03:54 > 0:04:01but in reality the raids only underlined how vulnerable Britain was to intense aerial bombardment.
0:04:03 > 0:04:10And in March 1941, a new German bombing campaign began.
0:04:10 > 0:04:14On Saturday 8th March, London was the target,
0:04:14 > 0:04:19on Sunday and Monday nights Portsmouth was badly hit.
0:04:22 > 0:04:24Birmingham was attacked on Tuesday,
0:04:24 > 0:04:27and on Wednesday, Liverpool.
0:04:31 > 0:04:37Now, on Thursday 13th March, 236 Junker and Heinkel bombers were
0:04:37 > 0:04:44being prepared in German-occupied Europe, for their next and biggest raid of the campaign so far.
0:04:47 > 0:04:51The key military objectives had been clearly identified from aerial photographs and
0:04:51 > 0:04:55the place they planned to attack was almost at the limit of their range.
0:04:55 > 0:04:59It was a Scottish target they had codenamed "Gregor" -
0:05:00 > 0:05:04the industrial town of Clydebank.
0:05:07 > 0:05:10Clydebank was riddled with military targets.
0:05:10 > 0:05:16The most important was the huge Admiralty Oil depot on the western edge of the town.
0:05:16 > 0:05:19Further up river lay plenty more targets.
0:05:19 > 0:05:24The Royal Ordnance Factory, or ROF, was making armaments at Dalmuir.
0:05:24 > 0:05:27Part of the Beardmore shipyard next door had been taken over for
0:05:27 > 0:05:31war work by their old rival and neighbour, John Brown's.
0:05:31 > 0:05:34Most famous for building the transatlantic liners
0:05:34 > 0:05:38Queen Mary and Queen Elizabeth, it was now building battleships.
0:05:40 > 0:05:45The largest target was the Singer's complex of factories, sidings and
0:05:45 > 0:05:49wood yards, almost entirely turned over to the making of munitions.
0:05:49 > 0:05:55And all around lay more targets, including railway lines, docks and scores of smaller factories.
0:05:55 > 0:05:59Surrounding them, 12,000 overcrowded homes.
0:06:01 > 0:06:06The population of Clydebank was about 55,000. It is a small area.
0:06:06 > 0:06:08Already, it was packed.
0:06:08 > 0:06:14In Dalmuir, in the west of Clydebank, Brendan Kelly lived with his family
0:06:14 > 0:06:18in one of the many tenements originally built by the Beardmore shipyard.
0:06:20 > 0:06:23There was my mother and father.
0:06:23 > 0:06:25One, two, three, four,
0:06:25 > 0:06:27five brothers.
0:06:29 > 0:06:34Three sis... four sisters. Nine. 11.
0:06:34 > 0:06:36Counting my mother and father.
0:06:36 > 0:06:40And it was a two room and kitchen.
0:06:40 > 0:06:45Isa Mackenzie stayed in a tenement in Bannerman street, close to the Singer works.
0:06:45 > 0:06:50There was my mum, my dad, my twin brother and myself.
0:06:52 > 0:06:57In this room and kitchen and WC on the top floor of a tenement building.
0:06:59 > 0:07:03Charles Grozier had only just moved from a crowded tenement
0:07:03 > 0:07:08to a recently completed house at Park Hall, in the north of the town.
0:07:08 > 0:07:11It was a brand new house.
0:07:11 > 0:07:15A bathroom, a toilet, a bath,
0:07:15 > 0:07:19two bedrooms, a living room, a hall and a kitchen.
0:07:19 > 0:07:22Plus the big garden at the back.
0:07:25 > 0:07:28Up above me was Granda Swan,
0:07:28 > 0:07:33and his son, and his daughter-in-law, and his grandson.
0:07:33 > 0:07:37Across from there was old Granny and Granda Robertson.
0:07:37 > 0:07:41Mr Robertson was the steel buyer for John Brown's shipyard.
0:07:41 > 0:07:46Up above them was Mr Robertson's married daughter, Mrs Young,
0:07:46 > 0:07:50and her husband and two sons. They were my pals.
0:07:50 > 0:07:52Across the landing from there was the McColl family.
0:07:54 > 0:08:00And old man Swan, he'd an airlock, and every now and again it'd go, "bu-bu-bu-buh."
0:08:00 > 0:08:02You would hear the banister rattling.
0:08:02 > 0:08:05You even hear somebody coughing up the stairs.
0:08:05 > 0:08:08Tom McColl used to go out at night time.
0:08:08 > 0:08:10I always knew when he was going up the stairs,
0:08:10 > 0:08:17cos every time he hit the bottom of the stair he whistled a tune and his mother knew to open the door.
0:08:17 > 0:08:19I still remember and I can still hear it to this day.
0:08:34 > 0:08:40As the sun began to set, the first of the German aircraft took off and headed towards Scotland.
0:08:40 > 0:08:44Leading the raid was the elite Kampfgeschwader 100 Pathfinder unit.
0:08:44 > 0:08:47It was their job to pinpoint the target,
0:08:47 > 0:08:53mark it with bombs and incendiaries, and leave the rest to the waves of bombers that would follow.
0:08:53 > 0:08:55They were good at their job.
0:08:55 > 0:09:01Almost exactly four months earlier, they had successfully led the devastating raid on Coventry.
0:09:07 > 0:09:09Britain was well aware that industrial centres like Glasgow
0:09:09 > 0:09:13and Clydebank were likely targets for a German bombing raid.
0:09:13 > 0:09:20Anti-aircraft guns were in place, barrage balloons hung in the sky and on the ground, metal Anderson
0:09:20 > 0:09:24shelters had been supplied to those properties that had gardens.
0:09:24 > 0:09:27But thousands of tenements had little or no garden.
0:09:27 > 0:09:29Some communal shelters had been built in the streets, but often
0:09:29 > 0:09:33people had to take cover in the entrance to their close which had
0:09:33 > 0:09:40been strengthened with struts and with a baffle wall built outside, designed to deflect any blast.
0:09:42 > 0:09:50By 8.30, the full moon had risen well above the horizon in a clear sky.
0:09:50 > 0:09:57It was a "bomber's moon", making the town and its targets clearly visible from above.
0:09:57 > 0:10:00On the night of the blitz, Tommy Rocks and my brother and I and
0:10:00 > 0:10:04a couple of other pals were sitting on the wee step out at the close.
0:10:04 > 0:10:07Tommy looked up at the moon and, "God," he says,
0:10:07 > 0:10:10"if a Jerry comes over tonight," he says, "he cannae miss."
0:10:10 > 0:10:12He did.
0:10:17 > 0:10:19But the specially-equipped Pathfinder bombers
0:10:19 > 0:10:23weren't just relying on the moon to find their target.
0:10:23 > 0:10:28They closed in using directional radio beams transmitted from the continent.
0:10:28 > 0:10:35Below them, the people living in and around Clydebank still knew nothing of what was to happen to them.
0:10:36 > 0:10:42I was sitting in the living room, with my dad and my brother, and my dad was reading the evening papers.
0:10:42 > 0:10:45My mum was next door at a neighbour. She was knitting a pullover for me.
0:10:45 > 0:10:48I was writing to the school to tell them I wasn't coming back,
0:10:48 > 0:10:52cos my mum had kept me off for some reason in the afternoon and
0:10:52 > 0:10:56I hated the school, so I was writing a letter.
0:10:56 > 0:10:59It must have been a lot of gibberish cos I couldnae spell.
0:11:08 > 0:11:12We'd been at school and been out playing, and then came up and my brother and I were getting
0:11:12 > 0:11:16ready for bed, the nine o'clock news was on the radio.
0:11:16 > 0:11:20I was doing my homework for school,
0:11:20 > 0:11:24and I turned the wireless on to hear the news and the sirens went,
0:11:24 > 0:11:27and I says to my dad, "That's the sirens, Dad."
0:11:27 > 0:11:31So he says, "If you don't put that off and get to bed you'll get a leather."
0:11:38 > 0:11:41My mother, she came flying out, came into the close.
0:11:41 > 0:11:43She says, "I don't like the sound of this."
0:11:43 > 0:11:48You've maybe what, maybe about 20 or 30 of them in the town
0:11:48 > 0:11:50all going at the one time.
0:11:50 > 0:11:53It was a terrible noise. It was, em...it was quite frightening.
0:11:53 > 0:11:58At just about two or three minutes past nine o'clock, the sirens went.
0:12:00 > 0:12:04We just shrugged the shoulders in the best Gaelic fashion.
0:12:04 > 0:12:06We'd heard all this before.
0:12:11 > 0:12:17There had been up to 40 false alarms in the months leading up to the blitz.
0:12:17 > 0:12:22The siren would go, perhaps because a single aircraft was flying overhead.
0:12:22 > 0:12:26So in the events, when the sirens went on 13th March,
0:12:26 > 0:12:30a lot of people thought initially, it's another false alarm.
0:12:35 > 0:12:37We saw the German plane above this house here.
0:12:37 > 0:12:40The pilot, the gunner,
0:12:40 > 0:12:45and the tail with these German signs, flying towards Knightswood.
0:12:48 > 0:12:51All the lights went out,
0:12:51 > 0:12:57and then we heard one or two crumps here and there - the first bombs starting to fall.
0:13:02 > 0:13:09The next thing was an explosion into the air, just a helter-skelter of debris.
0:13:09 > 0:13:13We knew this was no longer fun, we were a target.
0:13:13 > 0:13:16Davie had seen one of the first bombs to drop on Clydebank.
0:13:16 > 0:13:19The warehouses at the old Yoker distillery were badly hit
0:13:19 > 0:13:23and burning whiskey sent flames high into the sky.
0:13:23 > 0:13:29My father went through into our back bedroom and he looked out, and the next thing he says to my mother is,
0:13:29 > 0:13:32"There's a big fire over by Singer's.
0:13:32 > 0:13:34"I think it's Singer's wood yard."
0:13:36 > 0:13:41The second big fire was quickly established at the westernmost end of the Singer's site.
0:13:41 > 0:13:48The wood stored there had now become a huge burning beacon that could easily be seen for miles.
0:13:48 > 0:13:53My father tried to push us under the bed. He says, "Get under the bed,"
0:13:53 > 0:13:56but there's no way I was going under the bed, cos something kept saying
0:13:56 > 0:13:59to me, "You're better outside, you're better outside."
0:13:59 > 0:14:05The prime target also took an early hit when the first of the Admiralty's oil tanks caught fire.
0:14:05 > 0:14:10Bombs were now exploding everywhere, but these three large fires meant
0:14:10 > 0:14:15that Clydebank was now clearly marked as a target for every following bomber to find.
0:14:17 > 0:14:25The walls of the house were heaving with the explosions and the noise was incredible.
0:14:29 > 0:14:33I was sitting on one of these sort of pouffe things at the fireside.
0:14:33 > 0:14:37I got blown off it and my aunt says, "Oh, my God we'll need to get out of here."
0:14:37 > 0:14:43For the people living between the targets, this was their first experience of a bombing raid.
0:14:43 > 0:14:50And even as the bombs and incendiaries rained down, not everyone took to the shelters.
0:14:50 > 0:14:54My mother says, "Go upstairs," she says, "and get the neighbours and bring them all down here.
0:14:54 > 0:14:57"We'll put them all in under the stairway."
0:14:57 > 0:14:59We brought them all down
0:14:59 > 0:15:02and put them into our house.
0:15:02 > 0:15:06My father had us all lined against the walls of the house and he was telling
0:15:06 > 0:15:10people don't go near the windows, keep to the wall, keep to the wall.
0:15:10 > 0:15:13My dad put us in the coal cellar.
0:15:13 > 0:15:15Sat my mother in a chair.
0:15:15 > 0:15:18We sat on a sort of a wee bench.
0:15:18 > 0:15:22We came down to the bottom floor. Went in this neighbour's,
0:15:22 > 0:15:30what you called the lobby, and the lady ARP warden she stood at the entrance to the close
0:15:30 > 0:15:34and when she heard the bomb coming down, it made a whistling noise,
0:15:34 > 0:15:36she heard a bomb coming down, she would shout DUCK!
0:15:38 > 0:15:43However the threat was not just from high explosives but from the thousands and thousands
0:15:43 > 0:15:51of incendiary bombs, small sticks of burning phosphorous that ignited almost everything they touched.
0:15:51 > 0:15:55All the bombs started falling through, and this one came right in
0:15:55 > 0:15:59the coal cellar where I was sitting and hit my mother in the foot.
0:15:59 > 0:16:06And because it was a concrete floor, it couldnae burn, just sparked away.
0:16:06 > 0:16:12My dad pulled my mother out, lifted Gordon out, he was only three, lifted him out,
0:16:12 > 0:16:14I jumped over the bomb.
0:16:14 > 0:16:16Alastair wouldnae come out.
0:16:16 > 0:16:19He was in the corner screaming his head off.
0:16:19 > 0:16:22So I'd to go back in and pull him out.
0:16:22 > 0:16:26This woman came down the stairs, she'd a wee baby.
0:16:26 > 0:16:30And my dad says, "Put the baby in there in the bed recess."
0:16:30 > 0:16:33She put it away over in the corner.
0:16:33 > 0:16:37It was a wee girl. Maureen was her name, Maureen Scanlon.
0:16:37 > 0:16:40And my father drew the big heavy curtains across.
0:16:40 > 0:16:42He says, "The baby'll be all right there," he says.
0:16:42 > 0:16:46Anyway there's a bomb fell nearby and our windows came in and the soot
0:16:46 > 0:16:50came down the living room and everyone was blackened.
0:16:50 > 0:16:53And this woman she let out a scream.
0:16:53 > 0:16:57"Ma wean, ma wean!" she says. "She's away through the window."
0:16:57 > 0:16:58She made to go and my father pushed her back.
0:16:58 > 0:17:01He says, "Get back, the baby's all right.
0:17:01 > 0:17:03"It's the cat that's went out the window."
0:17:05 > 0:17:07And then you'd hear boom-boom! Boom!
0:17:11 > 0:17:15Then you'd hear you'd hear one a wee bit nearer. "Oh, God, that one that was pretty close, that one."
0:17:15 > 0:17:18And my dad says, he says, "This is getting heavier,"
0:17:18 > 0:17:21he says, "I think it's time we'd be better getting out into the shelters."
0:17:21 > 0:17:24And he started to move us out in groups.
0:17:24 > 0:17:31Took out so many out there, through the back close and across and into the shelter.
0:17:31 > 0:17:34And then he'd another group waiting. Maybe took over half an hour.
0:17:34 > 0:17:36But he got everybody all herded
0:17:36 > 0:17:38into the shelter quite safe.
0:17:38 > 0:17:43The emergency services in Clydebank were quickly overwhelmed
0:17:43 > 0:17:46and the call went out to Glasgow and elsewhere for assistance.
0:17:46 > 0:17:5217-year-old schoolboy Bill Taylor was one of the ambulance men called in to help.
0:17:52 > 0:17:54It was quite
0:17:54 > 0:17:57a sight. The whole place was burning.
0:17:57 > 0:18:01You were driving down a street and both sides of the tenements were on fire.
0:18:01 > 0:18:03There'd been forced closures so people could sit in them
0:18:03 > 0:18:08and they'd built a baffle wall in front to stop the blast.
0:18:08 > 0:18:11But it was, unfortunately the opposite happened.
0:18:11 > 0:18:15The bomb had burst quite close and had blown the baffle wall right into
0:18:15 > 0:18:18the close mouth, there was quite a few killed.
0:18:18 > 0:18:24We'd to leave them and took the worst wounded. By the time we got to the hospital two of them were dead.
0:18:24 > 0:18:28So that became the pattern for the rest of the night.
0:18:28 > 0:18:31You would went down a street and they stopped you and you took on the
0:18:31 > 0:18:34casualties and you attended to them and you went back to the hospital
0:18:34 > 0:18:38and that became the pattern.
0:18:38 > 0:18:42You just, all the time the bombs were dropping, the fires were burning and
0:18:43 > 0:18:46it just became quite a chaotic scene.
0:18:49 > 0:18:53One person sheltering in the centre of town was Betty Norwood.
0:18:53 > 0:18:57She had been attending a concert, here, at the Co-op Hall in Hume Street.
0:19:03 > 0:19:06The hall is still owned by the Clydebank Co-operative Society,
0:19:06 > 0:19:09but now it is home to their funeral service.
0:19:09 > 0:19:14Oh, that's the undertaker's. Oh!
0:19:14 > 0:19:17Big changes since I was here.
0:19:17 > 0:19:20The hall has undergone quite a few changes since 1941.
0:19:20 > 0:19:24I haven't been here since the blitz, you know, when it was a hall.
0:19:24 > 0:19:27That's amazing.
0:19:27 > 0:19:32The MC had just got up on the platform and said,
0:19:32 > 0:19:34"The sirens have gone."
0:19:34 > 0:19:37But they'd been going regularly so we never paid any attention to it.
0:19:37 > 0:19:44And we've decided to continue and that was it, all the windows fell in,
0:19:44 > 0:19:50the balcony started to collapse, we were caught under all these chairs, because panic...
0:19:50 > 0:19:53That's the first time I've ever seen panic in my life.
0:19:54 > 0:19:56Betty and her mother were pulled from the wreckage
0:19:56 > 0:20:01and everyone in the hall headed for the relative safety of the basement.
0:20:05 > 0:20:07Oh, my!
0:20:07 > 0:20:11Oh, my goodness me.
0:20:11 > 0:20:14- Take your time. - Oh, I will. Don't worry.
0:20:14 > 0:20:17The basement has hardly changed from that night.
0:20:17 > 0:20:20Then as now, the lights were not working.
0:20:22 > 0:20:30I think this is probably the door we came through because it wasn't a tall door, if I remember rightly.
0:20:30 > 0:20:33Oh, my.
0:20:33 > 0:20:37Think of all the years that have gone by since I've been in here.
0:20:37 > 0:20:39Oh, dear.
0:20:44 > 0:20:50To think we spent from, what, nine o'clock till half past seven the next morning in here.
0:20:50 > 0:20:52Absolutely amazing.
0:20:53 > 0:20:55Absolutely amazing.
0:20:55 > 0:20:58And not knowing what you were coming out to in the morning.
0:20:58 > 0:21:03My mother, she didn't know if my father had gone to work or not.
0:21:03 > 0:21:08He was on constant night shift and we'd heard Brown's had been bombed.
0:21:08 > 0:21:10And she didn't know whether he'd gone to work or not.
0:21:16 > 0:21:19Just think of us all running around here.
0:21:19 > 0:21:22And there were a lot of children here, if I remember rightly.
0:21:22 > 0:21:26A lot of children. Cos it was a family night out.
0:21:26 > 0:21:28It's amazing, isn't it, what you...
0:21:29 > 0:21:32..what happens during a war.
0:21:34 > 0:21:37I never ever expected to see this again, that's for sure.
0:21:43 > 0:21:47Above the town, the RAF had brought into play a new defence plan.
0:21:47 > 0:21:53It was called Operation Fighter Night and some of the 602 City of Glasgow squadron of Spitfires
0:21:53 > 0:21:58took part in the mission to fly over the Clyde and wait for the German bombers.
0:21:58 > 0:22:03Four of them took off and they orbited at 20,000 feet. Once the fires started
0:22:03 > 0:22:06and started to spread
0:22:06 > 0:22:09they could see quite clearly from 20,000 feet the River Clyde.
0:22:09 > 0:22:11The plan was simple.
0:22:11 > 0:22:14Anti-aircraft fire, known as ack-ack, would drive
0:22:14 > 0:22:18the bombers up to a height where RAF fighter aircraft could engage them.
0:22:18 > 0:22:23In between the anti-aircraft fire and the fighters would be a buffer zone.
0:22:23 > 0:22:29This would ensure that fighters were not hit by flying shrapnel from the exploding anti-aircraft shells.
0:22:29 > 0:22:31They could see the German bombers below them.
0:22:31 > 0:22:36The ack-ack were not getting them. The fighters weren't allowed to come down to attack them.
0:22:36 > 0:22:42As Hector McLean said, one of the pilots, "All we got was a better view of the bombs."
0:22:44 > 0:22:47Apparently there were so many aircraft up there,
0:22:47 > 0:22:52that pilots spent more time trying to look after themselves
0:22:52 > 0:22:55than look out to see what was happening below.
0:22:55 > 0:22:58Any request to come down was denied, they had to stay where they were.
0:22:58 > 0:23:02The Germans had flown over Clydebank at a much lower height than expected,
0:23:02 > 0:23:06choosing to take their chances with the ack-ack.
0:23:06 > 0:23:12When the fighters came back for refuelling, they were told to stand down. The plan had failed.
0:23:12 > 0:23:16602 pilots came back rather angry, very frustrated.
0:23:16 > 0:23:23It was bad enough watching it over London, but watching it over your own home city was something else.
0:23:23 > 0:23:27Fighter Night was a total disaster, and it was never used again.
0:23:27 > 0:23:29This is the one and only occasion it was used.
0:23:29 > 0:23:33The first wave of bombers left at around 11pm.
0:23:33 > 0:23:38Hundreds of people lay dead and dying in the rubble and burning streets.
0:23:38 > 0:23:41Somehow, you almost became, it was a strange thing to...
0:23:41 > 0:23:44you almost became immune to it.
0:23:45 > 0:23:49There was a lot of blood and a lot of quite ugly scenes which were...
0:23:51 > 0:23:52It was not very nice.
0:23:57 > 0:24:00One Clydebank man has made the Blitz his work.
0:24:00 > 0:24:05Artist Tom McKendrick became so fascinated by the Blitz stories he'd heard as a child,
0:24:05 > 0:24:12he studied the terrible event and turned it into an artistic statement about the horror of what happened.
0:24:17 > 0:24:19This is the size of a parachute mine.
0:24:19 > 0:24:22There were basically two types.
0:24:22 > 0:24:26There was one about 650kg and there was one which almost weighed a metric tonne,
0:24:26 > 0:24:31and this was this beast here. Now, these things could create devastating walls of blast.
0:24:31 > 0:24:35For a quarter of a mile on each side of that, that would lift the roofs.
0:24:35 > 0:24:37That would shred houses. It would destroy.
0:24:37 > 0:24:39And these things were dropped,
0:24:39 > 0:24:43maybe 30 or 40 of these things were dropped in a place like Clydebank.
0:24:43 > 0:24:46And you can see why the devastation was so extensive.
0:24:46 > 0:24:50Because rather than blowing up a house, that'll take down a tenement.
0:24:50 > 0:24:52There's stories of people watching these things coming down
0:24:52 > 0:24:56and the first thing they think is, "Oh, my God it's a pilot.
0:24:56 > 0:24:57"Somebody's bailed out." You know,
0:24:57 > 0:25:01ARP, we'll go and arrest them. And they're running towards these
0:25:01 > 0:25:06and all of a sudden they realise it's a bomb, so they jump over a fence or a hedge and it goes off,
0:25:06 > 0:25:10and they're literally lifted, and taken for 200 yards across the road.
0:25:10 > 0:25:12There's this great sheet of flame.
0:25:12 > 0:25:18But one of the very interesting sort of stories you hear about these is the peculiarity of blast.
0:25:18 > 0:25:24You get that enormous blast and flame and the big ring going out, but you also get the vacuum as well
0:25:24 > 0:25:26and that's what kills an awful lot of people.
0:25:26 > 0:25:30Suddenly you've got this massive air pressure then a sudden vacuum and their lungs collapse
0:25:30 > 0:25:33and they're almost killed instantly because the air's sucked out of them.
0:25:35 > 0:25:41At midnight, the next wave of aircraft arrived, flying in from the west.
0:25:42 > 0:25:47One plane following another, they approached from the direction of Loch Lomond,
0:25:47 > 0:25:50past the Kilpatrick hills,
0:25:50 > 0:25:54and then followed the course of the moon-lit River Clyde
0:25:54 > 0:25:56to the burning target up ahead.
0:25:57 > 0:26:01As the Germans dropped their bombs, Isa McKenzie and her neighbours
0:26:01 > 0:26:04continued to shelter at number 12 Bannerman Street.
0:26:04 > 0:26:11But after five hours cowering in the entrance lobby of one of the downstairs flats, they had to leave.
0:26:11 > 0:26:18This lady ARP warden shouted, "You have to evacuate the building, it's on fire."
0:26:18 > 0:26:20In actual fact,
0:26:20 > 0:26:22what we thought
0:26:22 > 0:26:28we heard was slates falling off the roof, this slap, slap, slap.
0:26:28 > 0:26:32But, in fact, this was incendiaries falling.
0:26:32 > 0:26:37The residents of the tenement ran out to the shelters that were being built in the street.
0:26:37 > 0:26:41There were four walls, but the roof was still unfinished.
0:26:41 > 0:26:46We ran into these shelters, but, of course, the sparks were falling in between the girders.
0:26:46 > 0:26:53So we came out, and we started to go up this slope, run up this slope...
0:26:53 > 0:26:59and we had to turn, and come back, because we could hear bullets
0:26:59 > 0:27:02hitting this wall. So we run back
0:27:02 > 0:27:08and there was a back entrance at the end of our street,
0:27:08 > 0:27:11into a billiard room.
0:27:11 > 0:27:13And we went
0:27:13 > 0:27:14in there
0:27:14 > 0:27:17and sheltered under the tables.
0:27:17 > 0:27:23At two in the morning, the four anti-aircraft guns just north of Clydebank ran out of ammunition.
0:27:23 > 0:27:28But shortly after, came another lull in the bombing as the last plane in
0:27:28 > 0:27:34the second wave flew back to the continent, leaving behind even more crushed and shattered buildings.
0:27:41 > 0:27:45Many buildings still bear shrapnel scars from bombs that exploded nearby.
0:27:45 > 0:27:49This street of tenements in Dalmuir survived the Blitz
0:27:49 > 0:27:53while many of the neighbouring properties were completely destroyed.
0:27:53 > 0:27:56Now they have a very different death sentence hanging over them.
0:27:56 > 0:28:01They are to be demolished to make way for a new social housing scheme.
0:28:10 > 0:28:14For thousands, this was where they had to hide out during the Blitz,
0:28:14 > 0:28:17in their own close, at the bottom of their stairwell.
0:28:20 > 0:28:24If you never had a garden to build a shelter in, this was your shelter.
0:28:24 > 0:28:30They built struts inside the closes, almost like a mine to actually prevent the close caving in.
0:28:30 > 0:28:36So they've maybe up to 20, 30, 40 people huddled in places like this.
0:28:36 > 0:28:39Within a hundred yards of where we are, there was
0:28:39 > 0:28:4316 bombs and three parachute mines in this small concentrated area.
0:28:43 > 0:28:50Over 120 people died, 140 were seriously injured, just in this tiny little area,
0:28:50 > 0:28:53trying to take shelter in buildings exactly like this.
0:28:53 > 0:28:56'The lull did not last long.'
0:28:56 > 0:29:01Less than an hour later the third wave approached Clydebank.
0:29:01 > 0:29:05At three o'clock, one of the first bombs hit the Central Library
0:29:05 > 0:29:10and knocked out the telephone lines to the local control centre below.
0:29:10 > 0:29:14Extra firemen, police, rescue workers and ambulance crews had been drafted in,
0:29:14 > 0:29:20but they were now working on their own in chaotic streets filled with rubble.
0:29:20 > 0:29:23All the main arteries were severed.
0:29:23 > 0:29:27The town was, if you like, trapped in its own environment.
0:29:27 > 0:29:34Some of the roofs were just burning from end to end, and rubble went down, falling into the streets.
0:29:36 > 0:29:38The firemen were out in that all the time,
0:29:38 > 0:29:43which must have been pretty terrible for them because they were fighting a terrible losing battle.
0:29:43 > 0:29:45They just... It was impossible.
0:29:45 > 0:29:46You just
0:29:46 > 0:29:50seemed to be in a bit of a vacuum.
0:29:50 > 0:29:54I mean, you knew this was going on, but you...
0:29:54 > 0:29:57you didn't know how long it was going to be.
0:29:57 > 0:30:01Most of these tenements were sandstone. You know, blocks of sandstone.
0:30:01 > 0:30:05To try and move them and get in, it was very, very difficult.
0:30:05 > 0:30:10And trying to get people out through these places, without hurting them worse than they were,
0:30:10 > 0:30:13it was very difficult indeed.
0:30:13 > 0:30:16And all the time there were stuff falling down.
0:30:16 > 0:30:21You were into places and the whole place was burning up above you and falling in.
0:30:25 > 0:30:28By about four o'clock, the whole system's down.
0:30:28 > 0:30:33The whole apparatus is down. The fire service has been overwhelmed.
0:30:33 > 0:30:36The telephone communications have almost been cut.
0:30:36 > 0:30:39They're now using youngsters as messenger boys.
0:30:39 > 0:30:45The police are all fully occupied trying to direct and trying to make sure that no-one's trapped.
0:30:45 > 0:30:49The noise, there seemed to be an awful lot of noise.
0:30:49 > 0:30:51These bombs were making a noise.
0:30:51 > 0:30:56The planes were making a noise, and the roaring of the fires, the crash of the buildings,
0:30:56 > 0:31:01and there seemed to be a lot of noise and smells. Burning smells.
0:31:01 > 0:31:05Almost burning flesh some of them when they were getting burned.
0:31:05 > 0:31:07People you couldn't get out.
0:31:07 > 0:31:09Buried.
0:31:14 > 0:31:21At 5.47am, just before sunrise, the last bomb exploded on Clydebank that night
0:31:21 > 0:31:24and the last of the German raiders headed back to its base.
0:31:28 > 0:31:30As a school-kid...
0:31:32 > 0:31:38..you weren't aware of what you were going to come out and face in the morning.
0:31:41 > 0:31:45At 6.20 in the morning, the all-clear sounded
0:31:45 > 0:31:50and the people of Clydebank slowly emerged to a scene of terrible devastation.
0:31:53 > 0:31:59There were big gaps, just facades of some of the buildings.
0:31:59 > 0:32:02People coming out and...
0:32:02 > 0:32:03gasping and...
0:32:05 > 0:32:06Absolute chaos.
0:32:06 > 0:32:10I looked up at the house, my mum was standing crying with my dad.
0:32:10 > 0:32:18Everything was, from that mark in the wall you can see, collapsed.
0:32:18 > 0:32:23And the place was just burning inside, it was like inside a fire.
0:32:33 > 0:32:35This is the third model
0:32:35 > 0:32:40that Brendan Kelly has made of the scenes he saw that Friday morning.
0:32:40 > 0:32:43There was my... my father, my mother,
0:32:43 > 0:32:45mate Dennis and myself.
0:32:45 > 0:32:48And we just kept looking along
0:32:48 > 0:32:50at the debris, totally silent.
0:32:50 > 0:32:56My mother was silent, my father was silent, and I was silent and we were just standing looking.
0:32:56 > 0:32:58Just like a vacuum.
0:32:58 > 0:33:01I felt nothing, absolutely nothing.
0:33:07 > 0:33:13Although Brendan's tenement was still standing, all those to one side had been destroyed.
0:33:13 > 0:33:17Buried in the rubble were the neighbours he still can't forget.
0:33:17 > 0:33:21Soldiers started to arrive in the street, and they were shouting,
0:33:21 > 0:33:25and they would shout, shout to everybody, "Still! Still!"
0:33:25 > 0:33:27They'd shout, "Hello!
0:33:27 > 0:33:30"Can you hear me? Is there anybody down there?"
0:33:30 > 0:33:34And they would come round our close and go up the back and...
0:33:34 > 0:33:37these guys, these guys were bleeding.
0:33:37 > 0:33:43Bare hands, they were pulling big chunks of sandstone literally by their hands.
0:33:43 > 0:33:46Lumps of steel pipe and God knows what.
0:33:46 > 0:33:49Desperate but... at that particular...
0:33:49 > 0:33:54As I say, I felt nothing but when you look back, there was no chance of anybody coming out of there.
0:33:56 > 0:33:59It was a total disaster.
0:33:59 > 0:34:03I saw them taking somebody out, I don't know who it was, it could have been anybody.
0:34:03 > 0:34:05But again, I wish I'd never seen it.
0:34:07 > 0:34:11I must have some kind of camera up here, damn thing keeps running.
0:34:14 > 0:34:17Brendan's closest friend Tommy was one of
0:34:17 > 0:34:22fifteen members of the Rocks family that died in the tenement next door.
0:34:24 > 0:34:27Tommy's father was not amongst them as he had been working
0:34:27 > 0:34:30at the Royal Ordnance Factory when the sirens sounded.
0:34:30 > 0:34:34The father was on a night shift, over on the other side of the canal.
0:34:34 > 0:34:39In fact, they were telling me that, when the all-clear went and he looked out and saw the building,
0:34:39 > 0:34:45he ran out of the factory across the railway, across the field, dived into the canal and swam over.
0:34:45 > 0:34:47That's what I heard.
0:34:47 > 0:34:50That's what I heard. I've no reason to doubt it.
0:34:50 > 0:34:53I remember seeing the man going about
0:34:53 > 0:34:58that morning. I definitely remember Mr Rocks going about
0:34:58 > 0:35:06and now as I'm getting older I'm looking back at the picture, the man was obviously beside himself.
0:35:06 > 0:35:09Up that whole close, I think it was the highest fatality
0:35:09 > 0:35:12in one dwelling in, I think, maybe the whole of Britain.
0:35:12 > 0:35:15Even London.
0:35:15 > 0:35:1734 people up that close.
0:35:19 > 0:35:22When we approached
0:35:22 > 0:35:25our own close
0:35:25 > 0:35:27it was nothing but debris.
0:35:27 > 0:35:31And there was my mum and dad standing looking
0:35:31 > 0:35:36at what had been 27 years of married life together.
0:35:37 > 0:35:40All these years of hard work.
0:35:42 > 0:35:46Scrubbing, cleaning, polishing.
0:35:46 > 0:35:50Everything we owned was in a pile of rubble
0:35:50 > 0:35:53at the bottom of the...
0:35:53 > 0:35:54the stairway.
0:35:58 > 0:36:01We came out the shelter at half past eight in the morning.
0:36:01 > 0:36:08I decided to go and look in the shelters further up in the gardens.
0:36:08 > 0:36:13And I looked in one, there was a lady over a baby.
0:36:13 > 0:36:17The family was dead but the baby was alive.
0:36:17 > 0:36:21She was more or less protecting the baby.
0:36:32 > 0:36:34A lot of people were getting out of town.
0:36:34 > 0:36:37There was a sort of exodus.
0:36:37 > 0:36:39People were grabbing what they could
0:36:39 > 0:36:41and getting out and they moved away.
0:36:41 > 0:36:46And the roads, some of the roads were blocked completely.
0:36:46 > 0:36:48Getting out was actually quite difficult.
0:36:48 > 0:36:52They were driving down streets with piles of rubble and things like that.
0:36:52 > 0:36:56Tens of thousands were now without homes and possessions.
0:36:56 > 0:37:01And with a real expectation that the Germans would be back to finish off the job that night,
0:37:01 > 0:37:05they left as soon as they could, by whatever means.
0:37:05 > 0:37:08A soldier says to my mother, "Get yourself and your family out,"
0:37:08 > 0:37:12"Get out," he says, "because Hitler's going to flatten Clydebank.
0:37:12 > 0:37:16"He's going to flatten it and take it off the face of the Earth."
0:37:21 > 0:37:25They weren't waiting for transport, they weren't waiting for permission.
0:37:25 > 0:37:30They made their way out best way they could. But other people were
0:37:30 > 0:37:35either in the town hall or in some of the rest centres, waiting to be evacuated.
0:37:35 > 0:37:39But the communications were down and it wasn't always realised that
0:37:39 > 0:37:43people were where they were, or that they were waiting for assistance.
0:37:45 > 0:37:47We knew nothing about buses.
0:37:47 > 0:37:49Nobody told us anything.
0:37:49 > 0:37:52Nobody told us there were buses waiting to take anybody anywhere.
0:37:54 > 0:38:00All the refugees from the centre of town came streaming up the road,
0:38:00 > 0:38:04people with arms in slings and walking with crutches
0:38:04 > 0:38:10and pushing prams and dragging what precious belongings they could save,
0:38:10 > 0:38:12and heading for the hills.
0:38:16 > 0:38:18When I was interviewing people, I'd say things like,
0:38:18 > 0:38:22stupidly in retrospect, "Have you got a photograph of your..."
0:38:22 > 0:38:25And they would say, "No, we don't have anything."
0:38:25 > 0:38:31All the family bits and pieces, all the wee things that we treasure, photographs of the weans or the kids
0:38:31 > 0:38:34or Uncle Joe or something like that, they were all destroyed.
0:38:34 > 0:38:38There were very, very few things actually survived,
0:38:38 > 0:38:43so people left with nothing. They literally had what they were actually standing in.
0:38:47 > 0:38:53As the people of Clydebank tried to leave the town or seek help from the authorities, rescue workers fought
0:38:53 > 0:38:57to save people from buildings in which they had become buried.
0:39:03 > 0:39:08Just behind these wrecked trams in Dalmuir lay the ruins of Robert Cochrane's house.
0:39:09 > 0:39:12I'm still lost at the moment at this part here.
0:39:12 > 0:39:17Robert Cochrane is looking for the home in which he was buried alive, 70 years ago.
0:39:17 > 0:39:24He was not quite four years old at the time, but his memories of what happened are still very strong.
0:39:24 > 0:39:26It's amazing the changes.
0:39:27 > 0:39:31Yep, so... Castle Street now.
0:39:31 > 0:39:33This is Castle Street we're on now.
0:39:33 > 0:39:36Our house was up at the corner here.
0:39:39 > 0:39:44Robert's house at number 2 Castle Street collapsed after the bombs had fallen.
0:39:44 > 0:39:50Like many properties in the town, it had been seriously weakened by the nearby explosions.
0:39:53 > 0:39:55The tramcars would be...
0:39:57 > 0:40:03..about halfway down, the bus stop there, towards the taxis.
0:40:03 > 0:40:05That's where the tramcars were sitting.
0:40:05 > 0:40:08And that's the ones that were wrecked.
0:40:09 > 0:40:10The corners of the room
0:40:10 > 0:40:13at ceiling level all separated and opened up
0:40:13 > 0:40:17and it was limestone and dirt and muck that came down,
0:40:17 > 0:40:20then crash, the whole three storey down on top of us.
0:40:20 > 0:40:26The army rescue workers, they had put planks up to the back window and they brought us out
0:40:26 > 0:40:31so I remember being carried through all this rubble in total darkness with all the dust,
0:40:31 > 0:40:35and brought down, assisted down a plank with the rescue workers.
0:40:35 > 0:40:39Everyone in the family came out of the ruin alive,
0:40:39 > 0:40:41except Robert's younger brother Wallace.
0:40:41 > 0:40:47The rescue workers handed him to Robert's mother with instructions about what to do with the body.
0:40:48 > 0:40:50She'd to take him across to Pattison Street.
0:40:50 > 0:40:55There was an aid station over there and of course he was certified dead.
0:40:55 > 0:40:59She gave them the particulars, lay him down there, which she did.
0:40:59 > 0:41:02But with so many bodies left laying together,
0:41:02 > 0:41:05it was perhaps inevitable that mistakes would be made.
0:41:05 > 0:41:08Wallace's body was lost.
0:41:08 > 0:41:13Now my father was round the mortuary in Clydebank to try and locate Wallace's body.
0:41:13 > 0:41:19Couldn't find it. Went to the town hall and the various schools and churches where the mortuaries were.
0:41:19 > 0:41:21So finally he's at St James Church,
0:41:21 > 0:41:26and the mortician up there has said to him they'd had a wee laddie answering that description,
0:41:26 > 0:41:31but he'd just left a few minutes ago for the mass burial for the unidentified.
0:41:31 > 0:41:35So my father, oh, he started to go berserk.
0:41:35 > 0:41:38A policeman said, "Hold on, son, just calm down."
0:41:38 > 0:41:41He said, "Look, I'll phone the gatehouse,
0:41:41 > 0:41:46"and if we can get the hearse stopped at the gatehouse, we'll get the body brought back."
0:41:46 > 0:41:50He said, "If it's already through and into the cemetery, we've no chance.
0:41:50 > 0:41:54"The body'll be in the hole along with the rest of the bodies for up there."
0:41:54 > 0:41:59But as it was, he phoned up and by luck he was able to stop the hearse
0:41:59 > 0:42:01and Wallace's body was brought back.
0:42:03 > 0:42:10By late afternoon on Friday the 14th of March, tens of thousands had left the town.
0:42:10 > 0:42:12Many, though, were left behind.
0:42:12 > 0:42:17They either had no means to get away or nowhere to go.
0:42:18 > 0:42:22Charles Grozier and his family also had nowhere to live and no possessions.
0:42:22 > 0:42:24His mother was now injured,
0:42:24 > 0:42:29but the rest of the family had to walk to an aid centre one-and-a-half miles away.
0:42:29 > 0:42:32Bare feet, pyjamas, nothing.
0:42:32 > 0:42:36And you saw all the houses on the way down, all bombed.
0:42:36 > 0:42:40On the main Kilbowie Road, right in the middle of the hill,
0:42:40 > 0:42:43there was men working on a bomb that hadnae went off
0:42:43 > 0:42:45and all the houses were burning.
0:42:45 > 0:42:48When David Thornburn emerged from his shelter,
0:42:48 > 0:42:52he joined hundreds of exhausted survivors sitting in the small park
0:42:52 > 0:42:55that overlooked the pitiful sight of their homes on fire.
0:42:55 > 0:43:01If you wanted to see the sight in Clydebank, this was where to see it at close quarters.
0:43:03 > 0:43:05It was all a mass of flames,
0:43:05 > 0:43:10a distant mass of flames, so that it was evident, standing here,
0:43:10 > 0:43:12they'd be back the next night.
0:43:12 > 0:43:15And everyone in Clydebank knew that.
0:43:18 > 0:43:22While the people of Clydebank left behind in their homes and church halls
0:43:22 > 0:43:24prepared themselves for another raid,
0:43:24 > 0:43:27the Luftwaffe prepared 203 bombers
0:43:27 > 0:43:30for their second night of destruction.
0:43:30 > 0:43:35At 8.40pm the air raid sirens in Clydebank sounded yet again.
0:43:35 > 0:43:37This time we had sheltered immediately
0:43:37 > 0:43:41because...everybody knew what was happening.
0:43:41 > 0:43:44Everybody. It wasn't long after the sirens stopped.
0:43:44 > 0:43:46In fact, the first bomb started falling
0:43:46 > 0:43:48when the sirens was still wailing.
0:43:49 > 0:43:56Charles Grozier had ended his journey from their burned-out house in this church near Rothesay Dock.
0:43:56 > 0:44:02Now derelict, that night the church was sheltering Charles, his family and scores of others.
0:44:06 > 0:44:11Well, that's the hall there that we slept in, on the right-hand side.
0:44:11 > 0:44:14Everybody was upset and frightened.
0:44:14 > 0:44:17We were feart in case the church got a hit, a direct hit.
0:44:17 > 0:44:20It would have killed quite a lot of people.
0:44:20 > 0:44:25Cos it was, the whole hall, we were all lying on the floor and the kids were just running about.
0:44:25 > 0:44:30They didn't realise what the Blitz was or the war.
0:44:31 > 0:44:34As the bombs crashed down on the second night,
0:44:34 > 0:44:39Isa McKenzie was yet again holed up in the billiard room near her wrecked tenement.
0:44:39 > 0:44:41As children, you know, you're just...
0:44:41 > 0:44:46we're listening for the next time, the next lot of bombs.
0:44:49 > 0:44:52And you also had the thought that, "Hope it doesn't hit here,"
0:44:52 > 0:44:55because if there had been...
0:44:55 > 0:44:59if that billiard room had been hit, there would have been hundreds,
0:44:59 > 0:45:02as there was in other parts of the town.
0:45:02 > 0:45:08There was a public house cellar full of people sheltering
0:45:08 > 0:45:13and a landmine... it got hit by a landmine.
0:45:13 > 0:45:15They didn't rescue anyone.
0:45:15 > 0:45:17They just filled it with lime
0:45:17 > 0:45:20because people would have been in bits.
0:45:23 > 0:45:27The final all-clear of the raid sounded at 6.25am on Saturday
0:45:27 > 0:45:34and those still in the town looked out on a landscape vastly changed from the night before.
0:45:35 > 0:45:38Again the Dalmuir district had been badly hit
0:45:38 > 0:45:42and Brendan and his family emerged from their second night in the shelter
0:45:42 > 0:45:46to find that all the tenements in his street had now been destroyed,
0:45:46 > 0:45:47apart from his own.
0:45:54 > 0:45:56The back was totally gone.
0:45:56 > 0:45:58The walls just collapsed in,
0:45:58 > 0:46:01everything just eventually became one big pile of rubble.
0:46:01 > 0:46:06Throughout the town, only seven or eight buildings had escaped damage,
0:46:06 > 0:46:10and almost all the housing in the borough was now uninhabitable.
0:46:10 > 0:46:15In the streets, the remaining refugees left the town on foot or in lorries
0:46:15 > 0:46:18or waited for the authorities to get them out of Clydebank.
0:46:18 > 0:46:22A fleet of 200 buses were now running a continuous shuttle service
0:46:22 > 0:46:26to reception centres throughout the West of Scotland.
0:46:26 > 0:46:29My father's brother, Uncle Bob,
0:46:29 > 0:46:32his wife Annie and himself were there
0:46:32 > 0:46:36and when it came their turn, Annie got on to this bus
0:46:36 > 0:46:38and the guy in charge put his hand across and he says,
0:46:38 > 0:46:41"That's enough. The bus is full. No more."
0:46:41 > 0:46:43And Bob says, "Hey, wait a minute!
0:46:43 > 0:46:46"That's my wife that's just got on. Can I not get on with her?"
0:46:46 > 0:46:49"No, the bus is full." He said, "Where are you taking her?"
0:46:49 > 0:46:53He says, "We're no' allowed to tell you." And so they...
0:46:53 > 0:46:56Poor Bob! They drove away with his wife and there he was left.
0:46:56 > 0:46:59He'd no idea where she'd gone and it took him...
0:46:59 > 0:47:01I think it was something like three to four weeks
0:47:01 > 0:47:04before he discovered through various agencies
0:47:04 > 0:47:07where they'd taken these refugees.
0:47:08 > 0:47:12Clydebank had become a virtual ghost town.
0:47:12 > 0:47:16Out of 60,000 people two days earlier,
0:47:16 > 0:47:19only about 2,000 were now left.
0:47:22 > 0:47:27The Clydebank Blitz had been even more deadly than the raid on Coventry,
0:47:27 > 0:47:32but all details about the Scottish attack were strictly censored.
0:47:32 > 0:47:34There was a clampdown.
0:47:34 > 0:47:41All that was said the morning after the Blitz was, there had been some bombs dropped in the Clydeside.
0:47:41 > 0:47:44Newspapers were unable to give an account of what had really happened,
0:47:44 > 0:47:46or where.
0:47:46 > 0:47:48Instead, they published vague reports
0:47:48 > 0:47:50and pictures of dogged Blitz spirit.
0:47:50 > 0:47:55The censorship also meant that some relatives, like soldier John Bowman,
0:47:55 > 0:47:59had no idea what had happened to his town or his family.
0:47:59 > 0:48:01Well, I was quite excited
0:48:01 > 0:48:05inasmuch as I hadn't had leave for about four or five months,
0:48:05 > 0:48:11so I thought to myself, "Ach, well, I'll not tell the folks
0:48:11 > 0:48:13"I'm coming home on leave.
0:48:13 > 0:48:15"I'll just turn up and give them a surprise."
0:48:15 > 0:48:20The only thing I'd read was that there were a few casualties.
0:48:20 > 0:48:23That was all it said at that particular time.
0:48:23 > 0:48:28As John arrived in Clydebank and walked up the hill towards his home,
0:48:28 > 0:48:33he soon realised that there were clearly more than the few casualties that he had read about.
0:48:33 > 0:48:37He found someone he knew in the ruins of a local shop.
0:48:37 > 0:48:42So I shouted in through the shop because the windows had got blown out,
0:48:42 > 0:48:45said, "Bobby, what's happening here?"
0:48:45 > 0:48:50He says, "John, don't, whatever you do, go up to where you lived."
0:48:50 > 0:48:55He says, "Your house is destroyed and all your family are dead."
0:49:00 > 0:49:05Where I actually lived there were four long terraces
0:49:05 > 0:49:07and they were all gone.
0:49:14 > 0:49:16John returned to the town centre,
0:49:16 > 0:49:20where casualties and missing persons were being registered.
0:49:20 > 0:49:23The woman at the desk gave him the bad news he had feared.
0:49:23 > 0:49:25She says, "I'm sorry, John,"
0:49:25 > 0:49:29she says, "But your mother's dead,
0:49:29 > 0:49:35"your two brothers... Archie and Albert are dead,
0:49:35 > 0:49:39"your sister Hannah's dead."
0:49:39 > 0:49:43Things just had gone from bad to worse.
0:49:43 > 0:49:47The next step was for John to try and identify the bodies of his family
0:49:47 > 0:49:49at one of the makeshift mortuaries.
0:49:49 > 0:49:55And I walked inside and I was not prepared for what I saw.
0:49:55 > 0:49:58There must have been over 100...
0:49:58 > 0:50:01things, that's all you could call them.
0:50:01 > 0:50:07Things stretched out up and down in rows along the floor.
0:50:10 > 0:50:15It was... They were actually corpses.
0:50:15 > 0:50:20No arms, no legs, badly burnt,
0:50:20 > 0:50:22you just couldnae recognise anything.
0:50:22 > 0:50:28So I walked out of the church hall and lo and behold,
0:50:28 > 0:50:31walked straight into my father.
0:50:31 > 0:50:34So he says, "Who sent for you?"
0:50:34 > 0:50:36I says, "Nobody sent for me.
0:50:36 > 0:50:39"I've been given leave and I thought I'd come and surprise you all."
0:50:39 > 0:50:44The Bowmans had lost their home and four members of their family.
0:50:44 > 0:50:48John spent the rest of his leave attending their funerals.
0:50:51 > 0:50:55There were numerous acts of heroism both during and after the raid.
0:50:55 > 0:50:59Many ambulance men, firemen, police and rescuers risked their lives to save people
0:50:59 > 0:51:04and two Polish sailors furiously fired anti-aircraft guns
0:51:04 > 0:51:08at the bombers from their destroyer in the shipyard.
0:51:08 > 0:51:13But despite all the anti-aircraft fire, barrage balloons and fighter aircraft,
0:51:13 > 0:51:19439 German bombers had still managed to drop over 500 tonnes
0:51:19 > 0:51:24of high explosives and over 600 tonnes of incendiaries in the raids,
0:51:24 > 0:51:26almost without hindrance.
0:51:28 > 0:51:32Within Clydebank, 4,000 houses were destroyed,
0:51:32 > 0:51:36another 4,500 were severely damaged.
0:51:38 > 0:51:40By far the worst-hit area was Radnor Park
0:51:40 > 0:51:42and the area they called Holy City,
0:51:42 > 0:51:45where John Bowman's family had lived.
0:51:45 > 0:51:49Here, almost all the tenements and shops were destroyed.
0:51:52 > 0:51:57The industrial targets, however, were not as badly hit as the German raiders might have liked.
0:51:57 > 0:52:02Although the 11 oil tanks that were now alight took weeks to put out,
0:52:02 > 0:52:05it was less than a fifth of the total.
0:52:05 > 0:52:09John Brown's shipyard and the vessels being built there were little affected
0:52:09 > 0:52:14and 70% of the labour force had returned to work after only 2 weeks,
0:52:14 > 0:52:17some travelling great distances each day.
0:52:17 > 0:52:21The Singer's munitions factory lost a huge amount of timber in the wood yard
0:52:21 > 0:52:23and several offices were badly damaged,
0:52:23 > 0:52:26but here again, production resumed within weeks.
0:52:29 > 0:52:32It took much longer to fix the housing problem.
0:52:32 > 0:52:36Unsafe properties were demolished, and repairs undertaken
0:52:36 > 0:52:39so that at least some people could return to Clydebank.
0:52:39 > 0:52:43But the town they returned to was a shadow of its former self.
0:52:55 > 0:53:01We were back in Clydebank, I think, round about maybe June or July.
0:53:02 > 0:53:05Right up to the Blitz, you'd go in and you could shout,
0:53:05 > 0:53:09"Whoo," and you'd hear an echo coming back down and hitting you,
0:53:09 > 0:53:12but when we went back after the Blitz it was like in here... "Howf!"
0:53:12 > 0:53:15It just...falls flat.
0:53:15 > 0:53:21I mind this my brother and I saying to my father, "There's no echo in the close."
0:53:21 > 0:53:22"No," he says, "no."
0:53:22 > 0:53:26He says, "Eventually," he says, "eventually it will come back."
0:53:28 > 0:53:34Some of them left the town on that day after the raid, and they never ever returned.
0:53:34 > 0:53:37They thought they would, but they never ever returned.
0:53:37 > 0:53:40Because they went away to places like Kirkintilloch and Stirling
0:53:40 > 0:53:44and down the Ayrshire coast and down to Dumbarton and places like that.
0:53:44 > 0:53:48And by the time, you know, the town started to get rebuilt,
0:53:48 > 0:53:51they'd made lives elsewhere and they never ever returned.
0:53:51 > 0:53:55And that created an awful lot of kind of sadness and resentment.
0:53:55 > 0:53:56And that was a real shame,
0:53:56 > 0:53:59because it wasn't only the destruction of a town,
0:53:59 > 0:54:02it was the destruction of very close-knit communities,
0:54:02 > 0:54:03that had grown up together.
0:54:06 > 0:54:11That boy Tommy Rocks, I've often said to my family,
0:54:11 > 0:54:14a big chunk of my life got taken off me within 24 hours.
0:54:14 > 0:54:16Maybe Tommy Rocks, some of his family
0:54:16 > 0:54:18would have married some of mine, who knows?
0:54:18 > 0:54:21Who knows? I never...
0:54:21 > 0:54:24With that part of our future taken off us.
0:54:24 > 0:54:25Sad.
0:54:33 > 0:54:36At first the Government played down the number of dead,
0:54:36 > 0:54:39but they later gave the total killed in Clydebank as 528.
0:54:39 > 0:54:43But the bombs also fell well outside Clydebank's boundaries.
0:54:43 > 0:54:50One parachute mine landed next to a tram in Glasgow, killing over 100 people.
0:54:50 > 0:54:55In total, at least 1,200 are thought to have died as a result of the attack
0:54:55 > 0:54:59and many in Clydebank still think the true figure is much higher.
0:55:00 > 0:55:02A warden was told
0:55:02 > 0:55:07the Government had issued in the next few days, loss of 500.
0:55:07 > 0:55:10And this warden said, "What street is he talking about?"
0:55:12 > 0:55:17In a few places, you can still see evidence of Clydebank's Blitz,
0:55:17 > 0:55:20but the ruins were cleared away a long time ago.
0:55:20 > 0:55:23More recent buildings now fill most of the spaces left behind
0:55:23 > 0:55:27and retail parks have taken over from the streets of shops.
0:55:27 > 0:55:31But the town has never returned to the same population levels
0:55:31 > 0:55:34or regained the same sense of purpose that it once had.
0:55:38 > 0:55:41The old Singer factory has gone
0:55:41 > 0:55:45and the vast John Brown's shipyard site now awaits redevelopment.
0:55:47 > 0:55:50I used to go down to the Clyde and just stand looking up
0:55:50 > 0:55:54towards John Brown's, God, and you'd see a thousand faces.
0:55:56 > 0:56:00And man will never learn.
0:56:00 > 0:56:03We'll never learn. It's a shame, but it's always innocent that suffer.
0:56:08 > 0:56:11Row B I'm looking for. Row B.
0:56:13 > 0:56:18Although Robert's younger brother Wallace was saved from the mass grave of unidentified bodies,
0:56:18 > 0:56:21there was one final ignominy.
0:56:21 > 0:56:24His gravestone was broken a few years after he was buried
0:56:24 > 0:56:27and war shortages meant that it couldn't be replaced.
0:56:27 > 0:56:31The whereabouts of his body were again lost.
0:56:31 > 0:56:36I know the last time it was pretty high up and it seemed to look right down the town.
0:56:36 > 0:56:41Robert is now trying to find Wallace and mark the grave for the last time.
0:57:28 > 0:57:29The night of the Blitz
0:57:29 > 0:57:32he'd been playing with a potato, an old potato.
0:57:32 > 0:57:36And my grandfather was playing with this and the sirens went
0:57:36 > 0:57:40and my grandfather had picked this tattie up anyway and put it in his pocket.
0:57:40 > 0:57:43Now, he discovered that and he kept that for years.
0:57:43 > 0:57:46It actually finished up like a walnut, this potato
0:57:46 > 0:57:48and it shrunk down and it went hard.
0:57:48 > 0:57:51It was just like a wee walnut and that was the potato
0:57:51 > 0:57:54that Wallace had been playing with on the floor, you know?
0:57:54 > 0:57:56So that was another wee point
0:57:56 > 0:58:00that always stuck in my mind too, you know?
0:58:02 > 0:58:04Aye.
0:58:05 > 0:58:06Oh, I say, that's fine.
0:58:06 > 0:58:09Really glad to find this.
0:58:11 > 0:58:15It's sad that there's no marker there, you know.
0:58:15 > 0:58:17That's the part that really gets you.
0:58:37 > 0:58:40Subtitles by Red Bee Media Ltd
0:58:40 > 0:58:43E-mail subtitling@bbc.co.uk