Clydebank’s MP says it is difficult to underestimate the impact of the Blitz on tens of thousands of people in the town.

Though it is 78 years ago tomorrow, the Blitz remains part of the collective memory of families down the generations.

Martin Docherty-Hughes MP, who lost family members in the German bombing raid while others were saved by a screening in the La Scala cinema, was the first to read out all 528 names of those who died in the House of Commons in 2016.

The Post prints those tomorrow in a special pull-out for the first time - a memorial too long coming.

But those names are just part of the devastation, where hundreds more unnamed died, 40,000 residents were evacuated around the country and entire streets flattened.

The map, printed inside, gives a hint of how much the town has changed, with Singers and John Browns gone, replaced by the business park, new developments, and the Golden Jubilee Hospital where the Beardmore yard used to be.

Mr Docherty-Hughes told the Post: “Clydebank was totally and utterly forgotten after the Blitz. I don’t think people realise how bad it was - the worst, per head, of any Blitz during the war.”

As well as the physical damage, there was an emotional and psychological toll on the town and its people for decades since.

Clydebank’s MP said he feared the Blitz was even forgotten as part of Scotland’s story.

“There is a huge connection across Scotland in how people were impacted by it,” he said. “It was the largest evacuation in the UK, the largest loss of civilian life in Scotland in the modern age.

“This is an opportunity to remind ourselves of the loss and the consequences of the Second World War.

“Hitler didn’t target shipyards - he targeted the people.

“If my father, my mother had not survived, I would not be here. I grew up playing in bomb craters, the same bomb craters my parents played in.

“Europe was able to rebuild countries and cities. Clydebank is no Dresden, but it is to me and a lot of people in Clydebank.

“Probably the greatest legacy is the reminder of what we used to be and what we can be.

“Our sense of place has never changed and that’s despite the Blitz and the demolition of Clydebank in the 1960s and 70s.

“The only reason we have a sense of place is parents and grandparents, and if we ever lose that, it’s something we don’t get back.”