0:00:03 > 0:00:05In September 1940,
0:00:05 > 0:00:08death and destruction came to the streets of Britain
0:00:08 > 0:00:10on a scale never seen before or since.
0:00:14 > 0:00:17The noise was deafening - bang, bang, tremendous explosions,
0:00:17 > 0:00:19one after another.
0:00:19 > 0:00:21They called it the Blitz.
0:00:23 > 0:00:26The whole city was aglow.
0:00:28 > 0:00:31In the space of little over eight months,
0:00:31 > 0:00:34more than 450,000 bombs rained down on British soil.
0:00:37 > 0:00:40But in the midst of the chaos and confusion,
0:00:40 > 0:00:42meticulous records were kept.
0:00:43 > 0:00:48This is a bomb map. Every single dot is where a bomb landed.
0:00:48 > 0:00:52Using this untapped archive, we'll identify individual bombs.
0:00:53 > 0:00:56That's the bomb that you're looking for.
0:00:56 > 0:00:57Oh, it is, yes.
0:00:58 > 0:01:02With consequences which rippled out from the point of impact,
0:01:02 > 0:01:04through the lives of people and beyond,
0:01:04 > 0:01:05to help shape modern Britain.
0:01:08 > 0:01:13Of all the houses that plane was flying over
0:01:13 > 0:01:17and one bomb, why did it hit us?
0:01:19 > 0:01:24In this episode, in one of the most brutal raids of the Blitz,
0:01:24 > 0:01:27a bomb falls on Jellicoe Street,
0:01:27 > 0:01:30in the Scottish town of Clydebank.
0:01:30 > 0:01:33I thought war was always fought away in far, far places
0:01:33 > 0:01:35and nobody got killed.
0:01:36 > 0:01:38Until March the 13th, 1941.
0:01:39 > 0:01:41Then I knew what war was all about.
0:01:42 > 0:01:45This bomb, and others like it, shattered lives
0:01:45 > 0:01:47and threatened total defeat...
0:01:48 > 0:01:51..in a city already riven by class warfare.
0:01:52 > 0:01:56Political activist, communist, commie,
0:01:56 > 0:01:58oh, I think the Government thought my father was a troublemaker,
0:01:58 > 0:02:00there's no doubt about it.
0:02:00 > 0:02:03They were fighting for better pay and conditions.
0:02:03 > 0:02:05They were fighting for security for their families.
0:02:05 > 0:02:07It was just basic survival.
0:02:08 > 0:02:11The people of Clydebank had to choose whether to stand together...
0:02:13 > 0:02:15..or fall divided.
0:02:16 > 0:02:19And it began with one bomb.
0:02:34 > 0:02:36March 1941.
0:02:38 > 0:02:40The aerial assault known as the Blitz
0:02:40 > 0:02:43had been ravaging Britain for more than six months.
0:02:45 > 0:02:48Across the country, dozens of cities,
0:02:48 > 0:02:51ports and industrial centres
0:02:51 > 0:02:53had been battered and burned by Luftwaffe bombs.
0:02:55 > 0:02:59But north of the border, it was a different story.
0:03:06 > 0:03:09Up to this point, Scotland had come through the Blitz
0:03:09 > 0:03:11relatively unscathed.
0:03:12 > 0:03:15But its luck was about to run out.
0:03:17 > 0:03:23Eight miles west of Glasgow lies the industrial town of Clydebank,
0:03:23 > 0:03:26Some Bankies, as the locals are known,
0:03:26 > 0:03:28dared to believe their town was
0:03:28 > 0:03:30beyond the range of the Luftwaffe bombers.
0:03:33 > 0:03:37But Clydebank's strategically vital industrial output
0:03:37 > 0:03:40hadn't gone unnoticed by the Germans.
0:03:46 > 0:03:49In the second week of March, 1941,
0:03:49 > 0:03:52German reconnaissance planes had been spotted above the town.
0:03:57 > 0:04:00Days later, on Thursday the 13th of March,
0:04:00 > 0:04:02all was still quiet in Clydebank,
0:04:02 > 0:04:05as people went about their normal business.
0:04:06 > 0:04:10But life in this working-class town was about to change forever.
0:04:14 > 0:04:17Little did the Bankies know that at that very moment
0:04:17 > 0:04:21a fleet of more than 200 bombers was heading straight towards them.
0:04:25 > 0:04:28In the tenement-lined streets, children were playing.
0:04:29 > 0:04:32In Jellicoe Street, Brendan Kelly
0:04:32 > 0:04:34was with his best friend, Tommy Rocks.
0:04:35 > 0:04:37Tommy sat right there.
0:04:37 > 0:04:39I was just this side of him.
0:04:39 > 0:04:41And suddenly, Tommy looked up,
0:04:41 > 0:04:44"Look at that moon," he says.
0:04:44 > 0:04:47"If the Jerries come over tonight," he says, "they cannae miss."
0:04:51 > 0:04:56So far, the war had brought jobs, not bombs, to Clydebank.
0:04:56 > 0:05:00The town's skilled workforce had been kept out of the armed forces,
0:05:00 > 0:05:03thanks to reserved occupation status.
0:05:03 > 0:05:07Their contribution was measured by industrial output
0:05:07 > 0:05:13for the British war machine...
0:05:09 > 0:05:13..everything from battleships to submachine guns.
0:05:13 > 0:05:15In the dockyards and factories,
0:05:15 > 0:05:18fathers and sons worked side by side.
0:05:18 > 0:05:21Shifts ran night and day seven days a week.
0:05:22 > 0:05:25A trip down the Clyde affords the truest evidence -
0:05:25 > 0:05:28at every yard are ships being built to the cheerful sound of riveting.
0:05:30 > 0:05:33Heavy industry was in Clydebank's very foundations.
0:05:35 > 0:05:37Established in the 1880s,
0:05:37 > 0:05:41the industrial cornerstones of the town were the enormous Singer sewing
0:05:41 > 0:05:47machine factory and the maritime giant of the John Brown shipyard.
0:05:47 > 0:05:49Nothing but work, work, work.
0:05:49 > 0:05:52We had the best shipyards probably in Europe,
0:05:52 > 0:05:54and wherever else. We had it all here.
0:05:55 > 0:05:57One ship after another was going out.
0:05:59 > 0:06:03John Brown's 5,000 employees, Singer at its peak 40,000 employees.
0:06:03 > 0:06:06That's a lot of people and a lot of social interaction.
0:06:09 > 0:06:12Clydebank's industrial machine was served
0:06:12 > 0:06:13by the densely populated
0:06:13 > 0:06:19tenement-lined streets surrounding it, like Jellicoe Street.
0:06:19 > 0:06:22Largely rebuilt after the war,
0:06:22 > 0:06:25its original tenement blocks, like many others in Clydebank,
0:06:25 > 0:06:28were constructed by employers to provide cheap,
0:06:28 > 0:06:30convenient housing for their workforce.
0:06:33 > 0:06:37Each block was four storeys high with two flats to a floor...
0:06:38 > 0:06:40..built around an open stairwell
0:06:40 > 0:06:44that ran the height of the building and was capped by a skylight.
0:06:47 > 0:06:51Patrick Docherty was seven in 1941.
0:06:51 > 0:06:54He lived a couple of miles from Jellicoe Street,
0:06:54 > 0:06:56on Southbank Street,
0:06:56 > 0:06:59in the shadow of John Brown's shipyard.
0:07:01 > 0:07:04There was no doors closed in the tenements at that time,
0:07:04 > 0:07:07and as children, when I'm going to meet you,
0:07:07 > 0:07:09I just walk into your house,
0:07:09 > 0:07:11and I could go into any house in the street and walk into it,
0:07:11 > 0:07:13and we'd all know each other.
0:07:16 > 0:07:17Cramped and communal,
0:07:17 > 0:07:19tenement life could be rough and ready,
0:07:19 > 0:07:23but for a child growing up here in the 1930s,
0:07:23 > 0:07:25it was like being part of one big family.
0:07:27 > 0:07:31That's what brought us all through that time, because there was no,
0:07:31 > 0:07:36"You are this," or, "You are that," we are all together.
0:07:36 > 0:07:40Just around the corner from Jellicoe Street was Scott Street,
0:07:40 > 0:07:42where seven-year-old Jack Tasker lived.
0:07:43 > 0:07:45Life was happy.
0:07:45 > 0:07:48We lived two up the middle, which was a room and kitchen,
0:07:48 > 0:07:52with an outside toilet, but it was fine.
0:07:52 > 0:07:54It's not as if you knew anything else.
0:07:56 > 0:08:02Two streets away, at six Kitchener Street lived the McDowell sisters,
0:08:02 > 0:08:05Lilian, Kathleen and Janette,
0:08:05 > 0:08:07with their parents Stuart and Edith,
0:08:07 > 0:08:09and their brothers John and Stuart.
0:08:12 > 0:08:16- We were born in Clydebank.- Aye, we were born in Dalmuir West.
0:08:16 > 0:08:18And my father was from Clydebank.
0:08:18 > 0:08:20On the 13th of March,
0:08:20 > 0:08:24a day that was soon to become infamous in Clydebank's history,
0:08:25 > 0:08:30Lilian was seven, Kathleen six and Janette just a day old.
0:08:33 > 0:08:35Running parallel to Kitchener Street,
0:08:35 > 0:08:39facing the canal, was Jellicoe Street,
0:08:39 > 0:08:43where the McDowells' grandparents and uncles lived at number 78.
0:08:45 > 0:08:49And three blocks down, at number 60, was Brendan Kelly.
0:08:51 > 0:08:54Good old Jellicoe Street.
0:08:54 > 0:08:56Brendan was eight years old in 1941.
0:08:58 > 0:09:01He was living in the ground floor flat at number 60,
0:09:01 > 0:09:04with his mum and dad, and seven brothers and sisters.
0:09:05 > 0:09:09It's been 75 years since Brendan lived in this street,
0:09:09 > 0:09:12but his memories are still vivid.
0:09:12 > 0:09:15Women used to come out and sit there
0:09:15 > 0:09:18in their chairs in the summertime.
0:09:18 > 0:09:20Come along here and they were chatter, chatter, chatter,
0:09:20 > 0:09:23kids fleeing up and down the place.
0:09:23 > 0:09:25I see Mrs Scanlan up there,
0:09:25 > 0:09:27shouting down, "Jackie, come up, your tea's ready."
0:09:31 > 0:09:33See the white building?
0:09:33 > 0:09:35That's where the Rockses were.
0:09:36 > 0:09:39Like the Kellys, the Rocks at number 78
0:09:39 > 0:09:41were a big Irish Catholic family
0:09:41 > 0:09:44occupying two flats in the tenement building.
0:09:47 > 0:09:51Patrick Rocks senior lived in one with his mother-in-law,
0:09:51 > 0:09:54his wife Annie and six of their children.
0:09:55 > 0:09:59In the other flat was his son Patrick Rocks junior,
0:09:59 > 0:10:02his wife and their five children -
0:10:02 > 0:10:0416 family members in all.
0:10:06 > 0:10:10Marion McDermid is a descendent of the Rocks family.
0:10:11 > 0:10:14Her loft is filled with family history.
0:10:15 > 0:10:18The Rockses were my great-grandparents.
0:10:18 > 0:10:22I have a picture in here somewhere, which I'll try and find.
0:10:25 > 0:10:28I don't actually know who's who in it,
0:10:28 > 0:10:32all I know is that it's the Rockses, and this is Jellicoe Street.
0:10:32 > 0:10:33The back of Jellicoe Street.
0:10:40 > 0:10:43Francis Rocks, he was an iron driller.
0:10:45 > 0:10:48Elizabeth Rocks, she was a mother.
0:10:48 > 0:10:50That means she done everything.
0:10:51 > 0:10:55There were 16 members of the one family lived in that close.
0:10:58 > 0:11:00Thomas Rocks, he was at school.
0:11:05 > 0:11:0613-year-old Tommy Rocks
0:11:06 > 0:11:09was eight-year-old Brendan's best friend.
0:11:09 > 0:11:12Tommy and I was great pals.
0:11:12 > 0:11:14He was a wee bit older than me, and he looked after me.
0:11:14 > 0:11:15He was my guardian.
0:11:17 > 0:11:19Every Saturday morning, Tommy was in our close,
0:11:19 > 0:11:21and he always sang,
0:11:21 > 0:11:23"When Irish eyes are smiling and the ham is on the pan,"
0:11:23 > 0:11:26and he would rap the door, "Mr Kelly."
0:11:26 > 0:11:27"Yeah, what is it, Tommy?"
0:11:27 > 0:11:30"Can Brendan come out?" That was us.
0:11:30 > 0:11:33You had your breakfast, now away you go out and play.
0:11:33 > 0:11:36The children of Clydebank's tenement homes lived right next door
0:11:36 > 0:11:38to prime strategic targets.
0:11:40 > 0:11:43But after more than 18 months of war,
0:11:43 > 0:11:46the wails of the air raid sirens had mostly been false alarms.
0:11:48 > 0:11:51I thought war was always fought away in far, far places,
0:11:51 > 0:11:52and nobody got killed.
0:11:52 > 0:11:55That was only in films people got killed.
0:11:55 > 0:11:58Until March the 13th, 1941.
0:11:58 > 0:12:01Then I knew what war was all about.
0:12:01 > 0:12:03As I say, I went to bed at night a boy and wakened up a man.
0:12:09 > 0:12:14At around 7:30pm on that Thursday night,
0:12:14 > 0:12:19British monitoring stations detected powerful radio beams
0:12:19 > 0:12:22emanating from Nazi-occupied Europe...
0:12:24 > 0:12:25..directed toward Scotland.
0:12:27 > 0:12:30Luftwaffe pilots used these beams to guide them to their targets.
0:12:33 > 0:12:35War was coming to Clydebank.
0:12:39 > 0:12:42Approximately 9:00pm.
0:12:42 > 0:12:44As Bankie families were getting ready for bed...
0:12:46 > 0:12:48..the air raid sirens started up.
0:12:50 > 0:12:54This time, it was no false alarm.
0:12:54 > 0:12:56My mother came flying in the door and she says,
0:12:56 > 0:12:58"I don't like the sound of this tonight,
0:12:58 > 0:13:00"never heard the siren so loud."
0:13:02 > 0:13:05The invisible radio beams were directed at Clydebank.
0:13:08 > 0:13:11And the menacing drone of more than 200 bombers
0:13:11 > 0:13:15loaded with high explosives and incendiaries could now be heard.
0:13:19 > 0:13:22She says, "Go upstairs," she says, "and get all the neighbours,
0:13:22 > 0:13:23"bring them down here."
0:13:27 > 0:13:29Looked at my sister and I says to her,
0:13:29 > 0:13:30"If my mammy is going to die here,"
0:13:30 > 0:13:32I says, "I'm going to die with her."
0:13:36 > 0:13:39All over Clydebank, families rushed to take cover.
0:13:39 > 0:13:42In Jellicoe Street and the surrounding area,
0:13:42 > 0:13:46some headed to air raid shelters, but many stayed inside.
0:13:46 > 0:13:48Sheltering in ground floor flats,
0:13:48 > 0:13:51or at the bottom of stairwells,
0:13:51 > 0:13:55believing the tenement's thick, reinforced walls would protect them.
0:13:55 > 0:13:58When the siren come on, we started to go into the hole...
0:13:58 > 0:14:00- You close the curtains.- The folk up the stairs,
0:14:00 > 0:14:03went for the two bottom houses and we all lay in behind.
0:14:03 > 0:14:05- Under the table, you know.- Aye.
0:14:05 > 0:14:12We went down the stairs to the bottom flat into Mrs Walker's lobby,
0:14:12 > 0:14:16they got a wee stool for me and I sat on this wee stool.
0:14:25 > 0:14:27As the bombs rained down,
0:14:27 > 0:14:31Brendan's family decided to make a dash for the air raid shelter in the
0:14:31 > 0:14:32backyard of 60 Jellicoe St.
0:14:36 > 0:14:39Come right along this wall like that.
0:14:39 > 0:14:40Down the two wee steps.
0:14:43 > 0:14:44We just ran straight across to the shelter.
0:14:46 > 0:14:48There must've been flames all around.
0:14:48 > 0:14:50I didn't see flames.
0:14:50 > 0:14:53All I saw was a shelter and I was heading straight for it.
0:14:54 > 0:14:56Just down the road,
0:14:56 > 0:15:00the Rocks huddled together in the ground floor flat of number 78.
0:15:03 > 0:15:06Directly behind them, in Kitchener Street,
0:15:06 > 0:15:08another branch of the Rocks family
0:15:08 > 0:15:10sheltered in their ground floor flat.
0:15:10 > 0:15:14Among them, was Marion McDermid's mother, Ann,
0:15:14 > 0:15:17just four years old at the time.
0:15:17 > 0:15:20She later wrote an account of that terrifying night.
0:15:22 > 0:15:24People were hiding under the kitchen table,
0:15:24 > 0:15:27children crying and wetting the floor in fright,
0:15:27 > 0:15:29other people being sick.
0:15:29 > 0:15:32During all the commotion, my mother's brother John
0:15:32 > 0:15:33came into the house.
0:15:33 > 0:15:36He called to make sure we were all right.
0:15:36 > 0:15:38I was very frightened and asked my uncle
0:15:38 > 0:15:41why the sky was red, as it was night-time.
0:15:41 > 0:15:46He told me God was polishing up the sun to make it a nice day tomorrow.
0:15:53 > 0:15:56By now the bombs had been falling for nearly three hours.
0:15:57 > 0:16:00At some point a high explosive bomb was released.
0:16:03 > 0:16:07It made its screaming descent through the night,
0:16:07 > 0:16:08heading towards Jellicoe Street.
0:16:10 > 0:16:14Some of the men stood out in the close and shouted,
0:16:14 > 0:16:16"Here's one coming."
0:16:20 > 0:16:24It struck the skylight on the roof of number 78,
0:16:24 > 0:16:28continuing its calamitous fall into the stairwell directly below.
0:16:33 > 0:16:35All of a sudden the ground moved.
0:16:35 > 0:16:37It was like being on an escalator,
0:16:37 > 0:16:39and you could hear a kind of...
0:16:39 > 0:16:41HE SLURPS
0:16:41 > 0:16:44Obviously it was the earth moving under us.
0:16:45 > 0:16:48My father, he looked out, he could see the big gap here, he says,
0:16:48 > 0:16:51"It's a building that's down," he says.
0:16:51 > 0:16:53He turned around and he says to my mother,
0:16:53 > 0:16:55"Rockses' corner is down to the ground."
0:16:55 > 0:16:58"Oh," she says, "I hope," she says, "they got out."
0:17:08 > 0:17:12My mum as a child can still remember
0:17:12 > 0:17:14seeing her mother screaming, running
0:17:14 > 0:17:18across the back court pulling with her hands,
0:17:18 > 0:17:23clawing at the dirt and the rubble to get to her family.
0:17:23 > 0:17:25And it must have been terrible.
0:17:29 > 0:17:31I happened to look up and I seen all these sacks,
0:17:31 > 0:17:33and I says to my brother, I says, "What's that?"
0:17:33 > 0:17:36He says, "It's dead bodies," he says.
0:17:36 > 0:17:38As they pulled the bodies out of the debris,
0:17:38 > 0:17:39and put them into these sacks.
0:17:42 > 0:17:45The bomb that destroyed 78 Jellicoe Street
0:17:45 > 0:17:49is designated as Bomb 187 on the official bomb map.
0:17:51 > 0:17:53It killed everyone inside the tenement block...
0:17:54 > 0:17:57..31 people in all.
0:17:57 > 0:17:59Men, women, children.
0:18:00 > 0:18:01Among the victims were
0:18:01 > 0:18:04the McDowells' grandparents and two uncles.
0:18:06 > 0:18:10The sisters still vividly recall the scenes of chaos and confusion when
0:18:10 > 0:18:13they emerged from their own tenement block in Kitchener street,
0:18:13 > 0:18:15directly behind Jellicoe Street.
0:18:16 > 0:18:18My father was shouting all the time,
0:18:18 > 0:18:20and it was to keep us from looking about,
0:18:20 > 0:18:23and he was shout, shout, shouting because...
0:18:23 > 0:18:25There must've been bodies.
0:18:25 > 0:18:27Bodies and everything as we were walking.
0:18:30 > 0:18:32The building was blasted forward,
0:18:32 > 0:18:36and blasted back and it was a grievous site.
0:18:36 > 0:18:38You know, when the rescuers arrived on the scene,
0:18:38 > 0:18:42to see so many dead people who were blasted out in to the canal
0:18:42 > 0:18:44and all across the road here.
0:18:47 > 0:18:50Tom McKendrick's mother Rachel was a nurse,
0:18:50 > 0:18:54and that night she was helping in an improvised casualty centre.
0:18:56 > 0:18:59And she said, "It was horror beyond your wildest dreams,
0:18:59 > 0:19:03"people burned and people had lost legs and arms."
0:19:06 > 0:19:09Numbered among the dead that Friday morning
0:19:09 > 0:19:14were 15 members of the Rocks family from 78 Jellicoe Street.
0:19:15 > 0:19:20This was one of the greatest losses of life from a single-family
0:19:20 > 0:19:21during the entire Blitz.
0:19:24 > 0:19:27I think to think that my granny lost all her family in the one day,
0:19:27 > 0:19:29it must've been horrific.
0:19:29 > 0:19:32To lose one person is bad enough,
0:19:32 > 0:19:35but to lose 15 all in the one go.
0:19:37 > 0:19:42Brendan's best pal, Tommy Rocks, died alongside his family.
0:19:44 > 0:19:46Tommy Rocks, my great friend.
0:19:49 > 0:19:51Maybe Tommy would have got married,
0:19:51 > 0:19:55and maybe some of his family would have married into my family.
0:19:55 > 0:19:58So their life was taken, my future was taken, their future was taken.
0:20:01 > 0:20:06But one of the Rocks family living at number 78 did survive.
0:20:06 > 0:20:08Patrick Rocks senior.
0:20:08 > 0:20:11He agreed to work his son's night shift at the factory
0:20:11 > 0:20:15so Patrick Junior could stay and help with his young children.
0:20:15 > 0:20:17A last-minute decision,
0:20:17 > 0:20:21it saved Patrick Rocks' life but at an unimaginable cost,
0:20:21 > 0:20:23as his granddaughter Ann later recalled.
0:20:25 > 0:20:28When he returned from work, his mother-in-law,
0:20:28 > 0:20:30his wife, his six sons,
0:20:30 > 0:20:32his daughter, his daughter-in-law,
0:20:32 > 0:20:35and five of his grandchildren were all dead.
0:20:35 > 0:20:37His home was totally destroyed,
0:20:37 > 0:20:41and all he had were the working clothes he was wearing.
0:20:48 > 0:20:52The shock waves of that night didn't just tear apart families,
0:20:52 > 0:20:54they also threatened the very existence
0:20:54 > 0:20:58of an industrial town already riven by conflict of another kind.
0:21:01 > 0:21:04The job that saved the life of Patrick Rocks senior
0:21:04 > 0:21:07had been at the Royal Ordnance Factory,
0:21:07 > 0:21:09across the canal from Jellicoe Street.
0:21:12 > 0:21:15In the weeks leading up to the Clydebank Blitz,
0:21:15 > 0:21:18Government investigators had reported on the mood
0:21:18 > 0:21:21in this vital strategic cog.
0:21:21 > 0:21:24They described a town at war with itself.
0:21:28 > 0:21:30Quite a lot of men are hating their bosses,
0:21:30 > 0:21:32just as much as they hate the fascists.
0:21:32 > 0:21:35Quite a lot of bosses are hating their men,
0:21:35 > 0:21:38nearly as much as they are hating Hitler.
0:21:39 > 0:21:42Brendan Kelly's dad, Thomas,
0:21:42 > 0:21:44worked at John Brown's as a general labourer,
0:21:44 > 0:21:47and knew all about working conditions in the shipyards.
0:21:48 > 0:21:51The shipbuilders, to be honest,
0:21:51 > 0:21:54way back in days gone by they were treated like muck.
0:21:54 > 0:21:56The working conditions were terrible.
0:21:56 > 0:22:00You were swallowing all kinds of fumes, breathing all kinds of fumes.
0:22:05 > 0:22:08Poor working conditions and a lack of job security
0:22:08 > 0:22:11were facts of life in Clydebank,
0:22:11 > 0:22:15which had a long and bitter history of industrial conflict.
0:22:15 > 0:22:17This was a working-class community.
0:22:17 > 0:22:22- Totally.- It identifies with working-class tradition.
0:22:22 > 0:22:26So there was a very strong, both communist and socialist,
0:22:26 > 0:22:29political scene here in Clydebank.
0:22:29 > 0:22:32You had, for instance, the 1919 riots in George Square,
0:22:32 > 0:22:34which some equated
0:22:34 > 0:22:36to a semi-communist revolt,
0:22:36 > 0:22:38and what was called the Red Clydeside.
0:22:42 > 0:22:45For thousands of workers along the Clyde,
0:22:45 > 0:22:48the communist system seemed a desirable alternative
0:22:48 > 0:22:52to the hard-nosed capitalism they experienced every working day.
0:22:54 > 0:22:58But with the Soviet Union having signed a pact with Nazi Germany,
0:22:58 > 0:23:02Communist sympathies were a cause of concern to the Government,
0:23:02 > 0:23:05as intelligence received by the Ministry of Information reveals.
0:23:08 > 0:23:11A serious situation seems to be developing in the Clyde.
0:23:11 > 0:23:15It would seem that the troublemakers are a large band of communists,
0:23:15 > 0:23:18probably numbering about 6,000.
0:23:19 > 0:23:22So when the bombs began falling on Jellicoe Street
0:23:22 > 0:23:24and the rest of Clydebank,
0:23:24 > 0:23:27the war effort wasn't the only thing on Bankies' minds.
0:23:28 > 0:23:32Like Patrick Rocks, the McDowell's father, Stuart,
0:23:32 > 0:23:35worked in the Royal Ordnance Factory making gun sights.
0:23:36 > 0:23:40He wasn't a Communist Party member, but he shared their grievances.
0:23:41 > 0:23:44You knew your parents were talking about those things,
0:23:44 > 0:23:46but it didn't mean anything to us,
0:23:46 > 0:23:49but there definitely was that feeling of animosity right
0:23:49 > 0:23:52enough, you know what I mean? With the workers and the people.
0:23:53 > 0:23:56John Moore, a 21-year-old apprentice,
0:23:56 > 0:24:00who worked alongside many of the residents of Jellicoe Street and the
0:24:00 > 0:24:03surrounding area, was passionate about workers' rights.
0:24:04 > 0:24:06Moore was a communist,
0:24:06 > 0:24:09and was dedicated to recruiting his fellow workers
0:24:09 > 0:24:10to the communist cause.
0:24:10 > 0:24:13Linden Moore is his daughter.
0:24:14 > 0:24:16So this is my father's
0:24:16 > 0:24:21Communist Party of Great Britain membership card,
0:24:21 > 0:24:25and inside you could see his paid-up stamps.
0:24:25 > 0:24:27He's fully paid up for that year.
0:24:30 > 0:24:34Though young, John Moore was a rising star in the party.
0:24:34 > 0:24:37My father knew Willie Gallacher.
0:24:37 > 0:24:41And Willie Gallacher was one of the original Red Clydeside leaders,
0:24:41 > 0:24:43but Willie Gallacher had met Stalin.
0:24:44 > 0:24:48So my father was only one place removed from Stalin.
0:24:48 > 0:24:50I mean, now we think of all that as quite shocking,
0:24:50 > 0:24:54but at that time, even Stalin was romantic.
0:24:55 > 0:24:56Some people might not think so.
0:24:59 > 0:25:01The struggle for the hearts and minds
0:25:01 > 0:25:03of the workers of Clydebank created
0:25:03 > 0:25:05deep divisions in this close-knit community.
0:25:07 > 0:25:10Brendan Kelly's father worked at John Brown's shipyard,
0:25:10 > 0:25:13where Moore was busy spreading the Communist word.
0:25:15 > 0:25:17The Daily Worker? No.
0:25:19 > 0:25:23No way. Communists, it was a Communist newspaper.
0:25:24 > 0:25:26My father stopped a guy at the bottom of Kilbowie Road
0:25:26 > 0:25:28selling the Daily Worker.
0:25:28 > 0:25:29He walked across to him, he says,
0:25:29 > 0:25:32"Your father would be turning in his grave."
0:25:33 > 0:25:35For Party members like Moore,
0:25:35 > 0:25:39loyalty to class trumped loyalty to country,
0:25:39 > 0:25:41even in times of war.
0:25:41 > 0:25:45The First World War, in particular, had been an imperialist war.
0:25:45 > 0:25:51He felt that the working classes were cannon fodder, really.
0:25:51 > 0:25:56And that the masters of war didn't really care about them.
0:25:56 > 0:26:01That was also shown in the way that the working classes were treated
0:26:01 > 0:26:02in Britain at the time.
0:26:07 > 0:26:10Just one week before the Clydebank Blitz,
0:26:10 > 0:26:13John Moore and his comrades decided it was time for action.
0:26:15 > 0:26:18He put himself at the head of a strike
0:26:18 > 0:26:20of Clydebank shipyard apprentices,
0:26:20 > 0:26:22a direct threat to the smooth running
0:26:22 > 0:26:25of the industrial war machine.
0:26:25 > 0:26:29Oh, I think the Government thought my father was a troublemaker.
0:26:29 > 0:26:30There's no doubt about it.
0:26:30 > 0:26:34Young Turk. Political activist, Communist, commie.
0:26:36 > 0:26:39The strike call fell on fertile ground.
0:26:39 > 0:26:43Apprentices were considered to be learning their trade,
0:26:43 > 0:26:47so they didn't really have to be paid properly.
0:26:47 > 0:26:49But some of them could be married men.
0:26:49 > 0:26:51Some of them could have families.
0:26:51 > 0:26:55It just was not regulated.
0:26:55 > 0:26:58There were fighting for better pay and conditions.
0:26:58 > 0:27:00They were fighting for security for their families.
0:27:00 > 0:27:02The loss of a week's wages
0:27:02 > 0:27:05was a catastrophe that could probably
0:27:05 > 0:27:07take you a year to recover from.
0:27:07 > 0:27:09So when people went striking,
0:27:09 > 0:27:12they knew they were threatening their own existence,
0:27:12 > 0:27:14so it had to be quite extreme.
0:27:20 > 0:27:24As the sun rose on March 13th, 1941,
0:27:24 > 0:27:26it must have seemed like just another day.
0:27:27 > 0:27:30The apprentice strike, led by John Moore,
0:27:30 > 0:27:34had been going for several days and was now beginning to bite,
0:27:34 > 0:27:37with 6,000 apprentices downing tools along the Clyde.
0:27:41 > 0:27:43The Government decided enough was enough.
0:27:45 > 0:27:49Bosses and workers were summoned to an emergency enquiry,
0:27:49 > 0:27:51under pressure to thrash out an agreement,
0:27:51 > 0:27:55and get the Bankies back to work.
0:27:55 > 0:27:59For John Moore, this was a chance to make his case.
0:28:00 > 0:28:03Clyde Boy Striker In Debate With Sheriff.
0:28:03 > 0:28:06Clyde apprentice strike leader, John Moore,
0:28:06 > 0:28:09made his way along deep-piled carpets,
0:28:09 > 0:28:13to the Arran room of the Central Hotel, Glasgow yesterday.
0:28:15 > 0:28:16Deep-piled carpets, indeed.
0:28:20 > 0:28:24Striking for better pay while the country was at war was contentious.
0:28:27 > 0:28:30But Moore was in no mood for patriotic lectures,
0:28:30 > 0:28:33as the press statement issued the day before reveals.
0:28:35 > 0:28:40We've been accused in not so many words of helping Hitler,
0:28:40 > 0:28:42for demanding a living wage.
0:28:42 > 0:28:46Yet the employers who are making hundreds of thousands of pounds
0:28:46 > 0:28:49refuse to concede to the demands of the boys,
0:28:49 > 0:28:52while claiming themselves to be patriots.
0:28:53 > 0:28:57Moore demanded extra time to prepare his argument.
0:28:57 > 0:28:59The enquiry was adjourned.
0:29:00 > 0:29:03On Thursday 13th March,
0:29:03 > 0:29:06the chairman scheduled a resumption of talks for Saturday morning,
0:29:06 > 0:29:09little knowing what the coming two days would bring.
0:29:20 > 0:29:24That night, the drone of bombers was heard over Clydebank
0:29:24 > 0:29:26for the first time.
0:29:30 > 0:29:33This was the night bomb 187
0:29:33 > 0:29:39crashed through the skylight of 78 Jellicoe Street.
0:29:51 > 0:29:56As word spread about the devastation wreaked in the tight-knit community,
0:29:56 > 0:30:01John Moore responded by immediately calling on the striking apprentices
0:30:01 > 0:30:04to offer whatever assistance they could to the authorities.
0:30:06 > 0:30:08I think that he felt it was the right thing to do.
0:30:08 > 0:30:12It had to be all hands on deck, basically.
0:30:12 > 0:30:16Everybody had to help each other to clear up the city.
0:30:16 > 0:30:17That was the priority.
0:30:25 > 0:30:26Back in Clydebank,
0:30:26 > 0:30:30another Bankie was busy dealing the aftermath of the Blitz.
0:30:30 > 0:30:32Air raid warden William Roberts.
0:30:34 > 0:30:37Rosabel Richards is his daughter.
0:30:37 > 0:30:38It does say ARP,
0:30:38 > 0:30:42but obviously it's an air raid precautions box,
0:30:42 > 0:30:43and I do know that they were
0:30:43 > 0:30:46issued to air raid wardens,
0:30:46 > 0:30:49and my father was an air raid warden.
0:30:51 > 0:30:53But apart from his ARP work,
0:30:53 > 0:30:57Rosabel has very few clues about what her father did during the war.
0:30:58 > 0:31:00He was born in 1905,
0:31:00 > 0:31:02I think in Clydebank,
0:31:02 > 0:31:06and he was brought up in a working-class area
0:31:06 > 0:31:09and I think went to work in Singers.
0:31:09 > 0:31:12And somehow or other, after the war,
0:31:12 > 0:31:17he ended up going to Balliol to study modern greats.
0:31:19 > 0:31:23What I wrestle with is, how did this man from
0:31:23 > 0:31:26a working-class background in Clydebank
0:31:26 > 0:31:30end up, after the war, studying at Oxford University?
0:31:34 > 0:31:38In order to piece together the puzzle,
0:31:38 > 0:31:42Rosabel is travelling up to Clydebank from London
0:31:42 > 0:31:43to try and find some answers.
0:31:46 > 0:31:48She's arranged to meet her cousin John,
0:31:48 > 0:31:51who she hasn't seen since the 1950s,
0:31:51 > 0:31:53in the pub where her father used to drink.
0:31:56 > 0:31:58Where is he?
0:31:59 > 0:32:02- Rosabel.- Are you John?- Aye.
0:32:02 > 0:32:04Hello, it's really nice to meet you.
0:32:06 > 0:32:11John remembers Rosabel's father as Uncle Willie.
0:32:11 > 0:32:12Have you got any photographs?
0:32:12 > 0:32:13I've got loads.
0:32:15 > 0:32:19- There's Uncle Willie and my dad. - Oh, yes.
0:32:19 > 0:32:22That, I think, must be his wedding day because,
0:32:22 > 0:32:23look, they're wearing carnations,
0:32:23 > 0:32:25and they're looking incredibly smart.
0:32:25 > 0:32:27- Yes.- Which I don't think they normally did.
0:32:27 > 0:32:30- No.- Did they?- No, they weren't, no.
0:32:30 > 0:32:35He always came across to me as a very educated man.
0:32:35 > 0:32:36Very quiet.
0:32:36 > 0:32:38You could talk to him about anything.
0:32:38 > 0:32:41You know what I mean? He was, how can I put it?
0:32:41 > 0:32:43Cool, calm and collected.
0:32:43 > 0:32:45I know he was involved in politics,
0:32:45 > 0:32:47because my dad told me that.
0:32:47 > 0:32:49You see, I don't know anything about that.
0:32:49 > 0:32:51So what do you know about that?
0:32:51 > 0:32:54I don't know if I should say this on camera,
0:32:54 > 0:32:58but he used to bring a load of stuff up from the House of Commons -
0:32:58 > 0:33:01- whisky.- Oh, well he liked whisky.
0:33:01 > 0:33:04He did, he did. So did my dad.
0:33:04 > 0:33:05But what was he doing in the House of Commons?
0:33:05 > 0:33:07- I don't know.- Are you sure?- Yes.
0:33:07 > 0:33:10He'd come up and the bottles were embossed,
0:33:10 > 0:33:14property of Her Majesty's Government.
0:33:14 > 0:33:17And I remember him sitting there and my dad saying, "Oh, Willie,
0:33:17 > 0:33:19"that's a lovely drop of whisky you've got."
0:33:22 > 0:33:27Rosabel knows little beyond the fact that her dad was an ARP warden
0:33:27 > 0:33:28during the war. So she's surprised
0:33:28 > 0:33:32that he seemed to have connections to Westminster.
0:33:32 > 0:33:35She's hoping she can find out more from official records.
0:33:36 > 0:33:41I thought my father hadn't made a great fist of his life,
0:33:41 > 0:33:44and he didn't seem to have much of a career.
0:33:44 > 0:33:46My mother was the breadwinner,
0:33:46 > 0:33:48so he tended to follow where she went,
0:33:48 > 0:33:52and find work locally wherever we happened to be living in Scotland.
0:33:53 > 0:33:58Rosabel has a declassified Government intelligence document,
0:33:58 > 0:34:02from December 1940, three months before the Clydebank Blitz.
0:34:02 > 0:34:07It's a minute sheet, industrial campaign, and it's from, oh,
0:34:07 > 0:34:10it's from the regional intelligence officer in Scotland.
0:34:12 > 0:34:14Oh, hang on, I've just spotted something.
0:34:14 > 0:34:19The very last sentence says, the man's name is William Roberts.
0:34:19 > 0:34:21His address is 14...
0:34:23 > 0:34:26Right, I'd better read the rest of it.
0:34:26 > 0:34:30Mr William Roberts is a Clydebank man who
0:34:30 > 0:34:33has eschewed the prospects of large wartime wages,
0:34:33 > 0:34:36and is working whole time on ARP.
0:34:37 > 0:34:40He has had two years at Newbattle Abbey College...
0:34:40 > 0:34:43Oh, that's where my mother taught.
0:34:43 > 0:34:46..the adult education college in Scotland, and is at present,
0:34:46 > 0:34:47in his spare time,
0:34:47 > 0:34:51taking a diploma in social studies at Glasgow University.
0:34:53 > 0:34:56He has special experience and training
0:34:56 > 0:34:58in conducting small meetings.
0:34:58 > 0:35:01He has also been invaluable as an advanced outpost
0:35:01 > 0:35:05against Communist infiltration through shadow organisations.
0:35:07 > 0:35:11Rosabel has discovered that her father worked for the Government's
0:35:11 > 0:35:13industrial areas campaign,
0:35:13 > 0:35:16which had been set up to counter the message
0:35:16 > 0:35:18of Communists like John Moore.
0:35:20 > 0:35:25His job was to try and get people to understand that the way forward
0:35:25 > 0:35:27wasn't the Communist way.
0:35:28 > 0:35:30Well, I never.
0:35:30 > 0:35:32Well, well, well.
0:35:32 > 0:35:35Daddy. You kept that very quiet.
0:35:39 > 0:35:42William Roberts was fiercely anti-Communist.
0:35:42 > 0:35:46He believed that party members were undermining the war effort to pave
0:35:46 > 0:35:48the way for a Communist takeover.
0:35:52 > 0:35:56In the weeks immediately before the bombing of Clydebank,
0:35:56 > 0:35:58Roberts was working to counteract the influence of
0:35:58 > 0:36:01John Moore and his comrades,
0:36:01 > 0:36:03one tenement at time.
0:36:04 > 0:36:06"One woman of my..."
0:36:06 > 0:36:09This is my father writing now.
0:36:09 > 0:36:13"One woman of my acquaintance came to me one day and asked me to come
0:36:13 > 0:36:16"up to her house on the Wednesday of that week and attempt to
0:36:16 > 0:36:20"discredit the Communist family who lived next door to her."
0:36:21 > 0:36:23"The first time I called,
0:36:23 > 0:36:27"I just listened to the woman Communist Party member.
0:36:27 > 0:36:31"She really had no more consciousness of what she was saying
0:36:31 > 0:36:33"than a gramophone record.
0:36:34 > 0:36:36"After criticising her,
0:36:36 > 0:36:40"she told me that her husband would be a match for me.
0:36:41 > 0:36:44"The husband was as hopeless as his wife, in fact.
0:36:44 > 0:36:47"He used such terms as 'dialectics'
0:36:47 > 0:36:51"and 'materialist conception of history,' et cetera,
0:36:51 > 0:36:54"which I asked him to define, but he couldn't."
0:36:56 > 0:37:02I feel very, I don't know, I'm really very surprised.
0:37:04 > 0:37:06It's like...
0:37:06 > 0:37:08..a totally different person.
0:37:08 > 0:37:11This is not the man I knew as my father.
0:37:14 > 0:37:18I mean, I find this whole thing quite astonishing and I'm very proud
0:37:18 > 0:37:19of him.
0:37:35 > 0:37:38Less than 24 hours after Jellicoe Street had been hit,
0:37:38 > 0:37:42the sirens sounded over Clydebank again.
0:37:43 > 0:37:45The Luftwaffe had returned.
0:37:46 > 0:37:49The second attack was different from the first.
0:37:51 > 0:37:54The first night, the target had been the dockyards and the factories of
0:37:54 > 0:37:58Clydebank, but the second night...
0:38:00 > 0:38:03..it felt as if it was the morale of the Bankies themselves
0:38:03 > 0:38:05that was being targeted.
0:38:07 > 0:38:09This is a bomb map I made up.
0:38:09 > 0:38:12Every single dot is where a bomb landed.
0:38:12 > 0:38:16Every bomb has got a blast ring diameter.
0:38:16 > 0:38:18There's a 1,000kg line.
0:38:18 > 0:38:19There's another one in there.
0:38:20 > 0:38:26You're talking about a bomb that has got half-a-mile blast damage radius.
0:38:26 > 0:38:28So this is the intensity.
0:38:28 > 0:38:30This is the bombing of Clydebank.
0:38:30 > 0:38:31It's just a saturation.
0:38:31 > 0:38:33An absolute saturation.
0:38:35 > 0:38:39The consequences for this small town were cataclysmic.
0:38:40 > 0:38:45Out of 12,000 houses, only eight were left undamaged.
0:38:47 > 0:38:51In just two nights, the town had been virtually wiped out.
0:39:00 > 0:39:04Tom McKendrick has pieced together a devastating picture of the impact
0:39:04 > 0:39:05on Clydebank...
0:39:07 > 0:39:11..after more than 400 high-explosive bombs and thousands
0:39:11 > 0:39:13of incendiary bombs
0:39:13 > 0:39:17had fallen on this densely populated area of just two square miles.
0:39:19 > 0:39:23Just right here there was a massive crater on the road there.
0:39:23 > 0:39:26The windows and the roofs were all lifted off of these.
0:39:26 > 0:39:30This road here, there's a photograph of that house smashed to pieces.
0:39:33 > 0:39:35This side here, there was garages,
0:39:35 > 0:39:38there's a photograph of burnt-out cars and stuff like that.
0:39:41 > 0:39:44Another bomb blast there and the these tenements
0:39:44 > 0:39:46bomb blasted back to there.
0:39:49 > 0:39:52You can see now the fireplaces that still remain after that bombing.
0:39:53 > 0:39:56Interesting to think that was somebody's living room at one time.
0:40:00 > 0:40:04And as you go along the tenement, here you have it, there's a gap.
0:40:04 > 0:40:07Every single one of these gaps tells a story - a bomb.
0:40:10 > 0:40:15After the second night's bombing, Brendan Kelly's tenement, number 60,
0:40:15 > 0:40:18was the only residence left standing in Jellicoe Street.
0:40:22 > 0:40:25But by then, the Kellys had gone,
0:40:25 > 0:40:28joining the mass exodus of bombed-out refugees
0:40:28 > 0:40:30who were fleeing the town on foot.
0:40:39 > 0:40:41Everybody was calm and orderly.
0:40:41 > 0:40:44But nobody had a clue where they were going,
0:40:44 > 0:40:46just anywhere out of the road they were bombing.
0:40:47 > 0:40:49Some of the soldiers, were saying to my mother
0:40:49 > 0:40:52"just take your families, because Hitler's not going to stop until he
0:40:52 > 0:40:54"flattens this place."
0:40:54 > 0:40:57Later in the day, a passing lorry picked the Kellys up.
0:40:59 > 0:41:01This is where the truck driver brought us.
0:41:01 > 0:41:03It was like a big furniture van.
0:41:05 > 0:41:06Right down this road.
0:41:08 > 0:41:13Brendan's family were just a small part of the stream of humanity
0:41:13 > 0:41:14leaving the town.
0:41:15 > 0:41:20By Saturday morning, a fleet of 200 buses was working nonstop,
0:41:20 > 0:41:22ferrying Bankies out of the danger zone.
0:41:24 > 0:41:26Many would never return to Clydebank,
0:41:26 > 0:41:30the future of their lives determined by the lottery of the bus
0:41:30 > 0:41:31they boarded.
0:41:34 > 0:41:39By the evening, two-thirds of the town's population of nearly 60,000
0:41:39 > 0:41:41had left.
0:41:43 > 0:41:48It was the largest evacuation in the history of these islands.
0:41:48 > 0:41:5440,000, between 40,000-45,000 people leaving over two nights.
0:41:54 > 0:41:56These islands have never seen anything like it since.
0:41:59 > 0:42:03For the Kellys, journey's end was the outskirts of a village called
0:42:03 > 0:42:06Furnace on the banks of Loch Fyne,
0:42:07 > 0:42:1160 miles and a world away from the terrors of Clydebank.
0:42:19 > 0:42:21In the ghost town of Clydebank,
0:42:21 > 0:42:25damage to the town's productivity was being urgently assessed.
0:42:27 > 0:42:31In spite of the intensive bombing, the shipyards and factories,
0:42:31 > 0:42:35though battered and open to the skies, were judged to be close to
0:42:35 > 0:42:40operational, if only the workers could be found to man them.
0:42:40 > 0:42:44The first obstacle in the way was the apprentices' strike,
0:42:44 > 0:42:45led by John Moore.
0:42:46 > 0:42:50That Saturday, at the Central Hotel, Glasgow,
0:42:50 > 0:42:52the industrial enquiry reconvened.
0:42:54 > 0:42:57In the 48 hours since the two sides had last met,
0:42:57 > 0:42:59life around them had changed forever.
0:42:59 > 0:43:04Many, including John Moore himself, had lost their homes.
0:43:04 > 0:43:07Some had lost friends and family.
0:43:08 > 0:43:12But the apprentices did not back down,
0:43:12 > 0:43:15as a statement from Moore and his comrades made clear.
0:43:16 > 0:43:20"There are apprentices in Clydebank who have been bombed.
0:43:20 > 0:43:25"And they go into a factory next week and earn 13 shillings
0:43:25 > 0:43:28"and fourpence, and their families, who've been bombed,
0:43:28 > 0:43:29"expected to keep them
0:43:29 > 0:43:32"on 13 shillings and fourpence."
0:43:35 > 0:43:39Nevertheless, a return to full production was a priority.
0:43:39 > 0:43:43The apprentices went back to work on condition that their terms of
0:43:43 > 0:43:45employment were reviewed.
0:43:45 > 0:43:49A week later, shipyard bosses agreed to John Moore's wage demands.
0:43:51 > 0:43:55The enquiry's chairman acknowledged the extraordinary backdrop to this
0:43:55 > 0:43:57bitter industrial dispute.
0:43:58 > 0:44:02"I would like to say to both the boys and those who this afternoon
0:44:02 > 0:44:04"have thrashed out this agreement
0:44:04 > 0:44:06"how deeply we appreciate the sense of public duty
0:44:06 > 0:44:11"and the responsibility that has actuated this situation
0:44:11 > 0:44:12"we are all in,
0:44:12 > 0:44:17"and with the desire which I am sure actuated us all to do justly by each
0:44:17 > 0:44:19"other in this issue."
0:44:21 > 0:44:24But despite the conciliatory words,
0:44:24 > 0:44:26the fact remained John Moore had won.
0:44:28 > 0:44:30I would say it was my father's finest hour.
0:44:31 > 0:44:33He was very pleased with his success.
0:44:34 > 0:44:39I'm proud of him. I'm proud of that young man who stood up and took on
0:44:39 > 0:44:42a case that other people probably wouldn't have taken on
0:44:42 > 0:44:45at a young age. So I'm proud of him.
0:44:47 > 0:44:51I'm sure at the time my father was viewed as a working-class hero in
0:44:51 > 0:44:54Clydebank and that to some extent
0:44:54 > 0:44:57he's still thought of a working-class hero.
0:45:03 > 0:45:07But William Roberts was not going to let John Moore claim a victory
0:45:07 > 0:45:10unopposed. Hanging up his ARP helmet,
0:45:10 > 0:45:12he continued with his mission
0:45:12 > 0:45:15on behalf of the Government, against the Communists.
0:45:16 > 0:45:19My father did do some work after the Blitz
0:45:19 > 0:45:21visiting people in rest centres
0:45:21 > 0:45:25and so on and tried to continue his work
0:45:25 > 0:45:30dissuading people from Communist sympathies.
0:45:35 > 0:45:39Even with the strike being resolved,
0:45:39 > 0:45:42there could be no certainty that the rest of the Bankies would return
0:45:42 > 0:45:44for their shifts on Monday morning.
0:45:46 > 0:45:48The town's once-cohesive workforce,
0:45:48 > 0:45:50used to having factories and dockyards
0:45:50 > 0:45:55on their very doorstep, were now bombed-out, shell-shocked refugees,
0:45:55 > 0:46:00scattered far and wide over the Clyde valley, Ayrshire, Argyll,
0:46:00 > 0:46:02Lanarkshire and Stirling.
0:46:03 > 0:46:07But old Bankie habits die hard.
0:46:07 > 0:46:09That Sunday night in the village of Furnace,
0:46:09 > 0:46:13where Brendan Kelly's family had found a refuge,
0:46:13 > 0:46:15Brendan's father, Thomas,
0:46:15 > 0:46:19prepared to negotiate the 60-mile journey back to Clydebank,
0:46:19 > 0:46:24anxious not to miss the start of his shift at John Brown's.
0:46:24 > 0:46:27My father took me up the road on Sunday night.
0:46:27 > 0:46:30He needed to go on the 6 o'clock bus out of the village.
0:46:30 > 0:46:33John Brown's shipyard started at half past seven.
0:46:41 > 0:46:44Thomas Kelly was not alone.
0:46:44 > 0:46:46All over the west of Scotland,
0:46:46 > 0:46:50Bankies were on the move, by bus, by car,
0:46:50 > 0:46:51hitching, on foot,
0:46:53 > 0:46:56flooding back to their battered home town to serve the war effort.
0:46:58 > 0:47:03The McDowells' father was one of the few who travelled in style.
0:47:03 > 0:47:06The story is he had the car and in those days
0:47:06 > 0:47:08you didn't need a licence.
0:47:08 > 0:47:12- For driving.- So the chauffeurs showed him the gear work,
0:47:12 > 0:47:16you know, the car, how to work the car, and he had followed...
0:47:16 > 0:47:18He went up to the main road and the bus came.
0:47:18 > 0:47:23So he wasn't quite sure, feeling confident to drive,
0:47:23 > 0:47:25so every time the bus stopped, he stopped.
0:47:27 > 0:47:30People did turn up for their work the next day
0:47:30 > 0:47:34and the day after and they returned and they walked great distances.
0:47:34 > 0:47:38They travelled great distances to actually come back here
0:47:38 > 0:47:41to their work because they needed to.
0:47:41 > 0:47:44And if your town is destroyed, if your home is destroyed,
0:47:44 > 0:47:49perhaps the only thing you've got left is your work because that is
0:47:49 > 0:47:53continuity, that is security, that is something you can hang on to.
0:47:55 > 0:47:58But that security came at a price.
0:47:58 > 0:48:01For Bankies who'd fled a long way from Clydebank,
0:48:01 > 0:48:04returning after their shift each night was simply not practical.
0:48:05 > 0:48:10So many, like Brendan's father, Thomas, slept in shelters,
0:48:10 > 0:48:13churches and in school halls,
0:48:13 > 0:48:15only seeing their families at weekends.
0:48:16 > 0:48:19Still traumatised by the Blitz,
0:48:19 > 0:48:22the strain on these families was enormous.
0:48:22 > 0:48:24I used to walk down and leave him.
0:48:25 > 0:48:27I used to cry, when I seen him going away on the bus,
0:48:27 > 0:48:30because I was frightened in case he'd get killed.
0:48:31 > 0:48:34I remember my mother crying with loneliness
0:48:34 > 0:48:37and she kind of broke down
0:48:37 > 0:48:40because my dad had been back up to work.
0:48:40 > 0:48:43And I always remember her crying that night and I said to her,
0:48:43 > 0:48:45"You'll be all right, you'll be all right."
0:48:48 > 0:48:52The family was scattered and it was breaking my mother's heart.
0:48:55 > 0:48:59But for some, the aftermath was even more challenging.
0:49:00 > 0:49:03For the surviving members of the Rocks family,
0:49:03 > 0:49:07the struggle to return to work was made worse by the grim necessities
0:49:07 > 0:49:11arising from the tragedy at 78 Jellicoe Street...
0:49:12 > 0:49:15..as Marion McDermid's mother, Ann, recalled.
0:49:18 > 0:49:20"During the day, my mother would have heard
0:49:20 > 0:49:22"that they had found some bodies
0:49:22 > 0:49:27"and she would plead with my father to go and see if it was her family,
0:49:27 > 0:49:29"as they had not been found yet.
0:49:29 > 0:49:33"So my father would walk back to Clydebank to make enquiries."
0:49:35 > 0:49:38When the bodies of the Rocks were finally recovered,
0:49:38 > 0:49:41Ann's father accompanied Patrick Rock Senior
0:49:41 > 0:49:45when he went to identify the family members
0:49:45 > 0:49:47he had so nearly died alongside.
0:49:47 > 0:49:51"My grandfather managed to keep his composure until he came to
0:49:51 > 0:49:54"his daughter, Teresa, whose face had been blown apart.
0:49:54 > 0:49:57"At that point, Grandfather fainted."
0:49:57 > 0:50:01Then Patrick Rock Senior came to the bodies of his wife
0:50:01 > 0:50:03and one-year-old niece.
0:50:04 > 0:50:06"She looked as though she was sleeping.
0:50:06 > 0:50:08"She had my cousin, Ann,
0:50:08 > 0:50:12"clasped in her arms and Ann was buried with her still clasped
0:50:12 > 0:50:15"in her arms. The two of them together, forever."
0:50:20 > 0:50:25Incredibly, within two-and-a-half weeks of the night Bomb 187 fell on
0:50:25 > 0:50:30Jellicoe Street, industrial output on Clydebank had largely returned to
0:50:30 > 0:50:32pre-Blitz levels.
0:50:33 > 0:50:38Official intelligence reports, so recently strident with alarm,
0:50:38 > 0:50:40now sounded a different note.
0:50:41 > 0:50:45"It was agreed by all observers that the bearing of the people of
0:50:45 > 0:50:46"Clydebank was beyond praise.
0:50:46 > 0:50:50"They are of a high moral and intellectual calibre.
0:50:50 > 0:50:54"The most vital sign of the toughness of the Clydebank worker
0:50:54 > 0:50:57"has been the desire to return to work."
0:50:59 > 0:51:00In the eyes of the authorities,
0:51:00 > 0:51:03the Bankies had shown which side they were on
0:51:03 > 0:51:07and the town's industrial output during the war backed this up.
0:51:08 > 0:51:12Over 50 naval ships were built at John Brown's alone,
0:51:12 > 0:51:14including 36 warships.
0:51:18 > 0:51:20Three months after Jellicoe Street,
0:51:20 > 0:51:24the attitude of John Moore and his comrades towards the war
0:51:24 > 0:51:27underwent a sudden and dramatic conversion.
0:51:28 > 0:51:32With the invasion of the Soviet Union by Nazi Germany
0:51:32 > 0:51:33on the 22nd June,
0:51:33 > 0:51:36the duty of Communist Party workers was clear.
0:51:38 > 0:51:41Increased production of arms and munitions
0:51:41 > 0:51:44to ensure the defeat of the Nazis.
0:51:46 > 0:51:49For the first time since the war began,
0:51:49 > 0:51:53loyalties to party and to country could be reconciled.
0:51:53 > 0:51:56My father did hand his politics on to me.
0:51:56 > 0:52:02As I've got older I've begun to appreciate what he fought for
0:52:02 > 0:52:05and I've begun to appreciate his politics
0:52:05 > 0:52:09and our family have always been a socialist family.
0:52:12 > 0:52:16With the Communists on side, and Clydebank back at work,
0:52:16 > 0:52:19you might think William Roberts would be out of a job.
0:52:19 > 0:52:21Far from it.
0:52:21 > 0:52:24This was from the Ministry of Information in Malet Street in
0:52:24 > 0:52:27London, so that was the intelligence service,
0:52:27 > 0:52:30saying that he's been appointed to the staff of the Ministry of
0:52:30 > 0:52:34Information at a salary of £300 a year.
0:52:36 > 0:52:40William Roberts' wartime appointment was a stepping stone to a place at
0:52:40 > 0:52:42Oxford after the war.
0:52:42 > 0:52:45The factory worker from Clydebank had come a long way.
0:52:53 > 0:52:57Today, Brendan Kelly is the last known survivor from the Jellicoe
0:52:57 > 0:53:00Street tenements at the time of the Blitz.
0:53:03 > 0:53:05After more than 70 years,
0:53:05 > 0:53:09he's still haunted by what happened to his friends and neighbours
0:53:09 > 0:53:12the night Bomb 187 hit.
0:53:14 > 0:53:18We grew up with the stories about Jellicoe Street
0:53:18 > 0:53:21and my dad reciting those stories over and over and over again.
0:53:23 > 0:53:26We always say that my dad had an 11th child.
0:53:26 > 0:53:29He had ten of us children,
0:53:29 > 0:53:32but his 11th child is Jellicoe Street.
0:53:32 > 0:53:34- Hello.- Hello.- Hiya.
0:53:34 > 0:53:35- Not bad.- How are things?
0:53:35 > 0:53:36- OK?- All right. Yes.
0:53:36 > 0:53:37- You?- Good, good.
0:53:40 > 0:53:42I'm going back down to Jellicoe Street again,
0:53:42 > 0:53:45just to stand outside that close.
0:53:45 > 0:53:48But that doesn't always make you feel good when you go to visit
0:53:48 > 0:53:50Jellicoe Street because you've said that to me in the past.
0:53:50 > 0:53:52But I can't, I've got to go back.
0:53:52 > 0:53:56- I know.- In fact, they'll say do you go to the cemetery?
0:53:56 > 0:53:57"Not very often," I said,
0:53:57 > 0:54:01"my head's full of tombstones." And that's no lie when I say that.
0:54:01 > 0:54:04You'd be amazed at the people I remember.
0:54:04 > 0:54:08There is something about the Blitz, and I don't know whether he feels
0:54:08 > 0:54:12unsettled because he survived and other people never.
0:54:13 > 0:54:19Or he wishes he could go back and he could make it better or he could get
0:54:19 > 0:54:21people back that he lost.
0:54:28 > 0:54:33Every year, on the nearest Saturday to 13th March,
0:54:33 > 0:54:36the community comes together to remember
0:54:36 > 0:54:39the more than 500 Bankies killed
0:54:39 > 0:54:42in the two-night Blitz of 1941.
0:54:53 > 0:54:56I think it's a sacred memory because it's part of folklore,
0:54:56 > 0:54:58it's part of the collective memory
0:54:58 > 0:55:01of the citizens of Clydebank and it's very much
0:55:01 > 0:55:04an established, fulcrum moment where Clydebank
0:55:04 > 0:55:06completely changed forever.
0:55:06 > 0:55:09THEY SING "THE LORD'S MY SHEPHERD"
0:55:11 > 0:55:16I feel it's important because what happened to the people of Clydebank
0:55:16 > 0:55:18has never been known.
0:55:22 > 0:55:25My granny's family was wiped out in the Blitz
0:55:25 > 0:55:27and she made us promise that
0:55:27 > 0:55:31we would never forget what happened, and we never will.
0:55:34 > 0:55:37After the Blitz, Clydebank was eventually rebuilt.
0:55:39 > 0:55:43But the hard-won gains of better pay and working conditions were
0:55:43 > 0:55:46short-lived, as shipbuilding gradually declined,
0:55:46 > 0:55:51with the last John Brown's ship being launched on the Clyde in 1972.
0:55:55 > 0:55:58The Clydebank of pre-Blitz days
0:55:58 > 0:55:59would never be seen again.
0:56:01 > 0:56:05This town paid its price and it should never be forgotten
0:56:05 > 0:56:08because people should be proud of this place.
0:56:08 > 0:56:12There needs to be a pride about what we did and how we continue to
0:56:12 > 0:56:13remember that.
0:56:14 > 0:56:18But although the effects of the Clydebank Blitz were far-reaching,
0:56:18 > 0:56:23ultimately the most profound legacy is deeply personal.
0:56:25 > 0:56:31At 85, Brendan Kelly is still living with the consequences of Bomb 187.
0:56:33 > 0:56:35The Rocks family. Ann Rocks.
0:56:35 > 0:56:38Annie Rocks. Bessie Rocks, as we knew her.
0:56:38 > 0:56:40Frank Rocks, James Rocks.
0:56:41 > 0:56:43James Rocks Junior. James Rocks Senior.
0:56:43 > 0:56:46Patrick, Tommy, Frank.
0:56:46 > 0:56:49Two Thomases. Thomas Junior, Thomas Senior.
0:56:58 > 0:57:00There's times when I like to be alone.
0:57:00 > 0:57:02I just close down.
0:57:02 > 0:57:04And my thoughts kick in.
0:57:15 > 0:57:20Sometimes I go for a wee walk and I get a feeling of great sadness.
0:57:21 > 0:57:24I miss them, all the Rockses.
0:57:25 > 0:57:28I was up in the high park last night
0:57:28 > 0:57:34and I could hear kids down in the school, football ground,
0:57:34 > 0:57:37and I heard their noises and I thought, "Gosh,
0:57:37 > 0:57:39"they were the noises I heard in Jellicoe Street."
0:57:47 > 0:57:51Next time, a deadly weapon of mass destruction...
0:57:52 > 0:57:54That's an incendiary bomb.
0:57:54 > 0:57:56They really were killers.
0:57:56 > 0:57:59..strikes at the very heart of Bristol.
0:58:00 > 0:58:05That night you could say the soul of the city was wiped out.
0:58:07 > 0:58:08But from the flames...
0:58:08 > 0:58:12The stirrup hand pump is the best to deal with both bomb and fire.
0:58:12 > 0:58:14We knew what we had to do.
0:58:14 > 0:58:15..the people fought back.
0:58:18 > 0:58:21How were the lives of Germans affected by aid raids
0:58:21 > 0:58:23when the Allies retaliated?
0:58:23 > 0:58:30To explore this and more, go to...
0:58:30 > 0:58:32..and follow the links to the Open University.