The grave of Wallace Cochrane aged seventeen months, one of the hundreds of victims of the Clydebank Blitz
Over the course of two nights on 13 and 14 March 1941, the densely-populated town of Clydebank (population 55,000) suffered a devastating aerial bombardment at the hands of the Luftwaffe. Official records put the death toll at 528, but it is almost certain that many more civilians lost their lives.
Home to heavy industry, most notably the River Clyde shipyards, Clydebank was an obvious target for the German air force; which explains why 439 bombers dropped in excess of 1,650 incendiary containers and 272 tonnes of bombs on the town.