CLYDEBANK’S loss and resilience in the face of the Blitz in 1941 is to be the subject of a major documentary this week.

BBC2 will air episode three of the four-part The Bombs that Changed Britain series on Thursday at 9pm, focusing entirely on Clydebank.

The hour-long documentary features interviews with survivors, graphic reconstruction of the tenements destroyed by the bombs and the political context of the time.

A total of 528 people lost their lives and voices such as Brendan Kelly, who was eight at the time, take on a central role. Now 85, he is is the last survivor of residents of Jellicoe Street, hit by bomb 187.

“I went to bed a boy, I woke up a man,” Brendan tells the programme, remembering his best friend Tommy Rocks, 13, who was amongst the many members of the Rocks family killed in the street on March 13, 1941.

Martin Docherty-Hughes MP, who is interviewed with his father Patrick, said: “Last year marked the 75th anniversary of the Clydebank Blitz, which saw destruction on a massive scale and resulted in the largest loss of civilian life in Scotland’s modern history.

“These horrific bombings had a deeply profound impact – not just on the communities of Clydebank, but right across these islands.”

He continued: “The Blitz touched the lives of everyone, and the personal testimonies of those who survived remain very powerful today.

“It’s an important part of our history and I’m pleased that this series of programmes on BBC2 offers the opportunity for today’s generation to hear these stories and reflect on the devastating impact of war.

“I would urge everyone to tune in to hear these moving testimonies and remember how our communities came together in the face of such tragedy and devastation.”

One element of the show highlights how local men travelled from vast distances after being evacuated as a result of the bombing so they could continue to serve the war effort. That put enormous strain on families, often re-uniting only at weekends.

But within two weeks, the work output of the shipyards was back up to capacity.

Tim Kirby, series producer, told the Post: “What they endured over those two terrible nights in March 1941 was unprecedented in terms of the intensity of the bombing, the scale of the destruction and the mass exodus that followed.

“And yet, remarkably, the town’s shipyards and factories were back to full production within the space of just a few weeks. But this isn’t just a simple story of the ‘Blitz spirit’.

“At the time of the Blitz, Clydebank was driven by profound social grievances and political differences, which our film explores through the stories of John Moore and William Roberts.

“That makes it all the more extraordinary that in the hour of crisis, the town was somehow able to pull itself back together and get back to work.

“Ultimately, though, it’s the human stories of Clydebank that really hit home. The fate of the Rocks family in Jellicoe Street and the way in which it still haunts their friends, like Brendan Kelly, and their family, is emblematic of the sufferings of the whole country during the Blitz, the legacy of which is still with us today.”

- “The Bombs that Changed Britain” airs Thursday, December 7, at 9pm on BBC2.