Vibrating with endeavours for Britains effort against the might of Nazi Germany Clydebank was
- in hindsight
- an obvious target for the attentions of the Luftwaffe. When on the evening of 13 March 1941 the authorities first detected that Clydebank was on beam
- targeted by the primitive radio-guidance system of the German bombers
- no effort was made to raise the alarm or to direct the residents to shelter or flight. Within the hour a vast timber-yard three oil-stores & two distilleries were ablaze one pouring flaming whisky into a burn that ran blazing into the Clyde itself in vivid ribbons of fire. & still the Germans came; & Clydebank now an inferno lay illuminated & defenceless as heavy bombs of high-explosive as l&-mines & parachute blasters began to fall.. . With reference to written sources & the memories of those who survived the experience John Mac Leod tells the story of the Clydebank Blitz & the terrible scale of death & devastation speculating on why its incineration has been so widely forgotten & its ordeal denied any place in national honour.