Coventry & Warwickshire in WWII

Watching the astronauts lately has made me think of the time when we had to wear gas-masks for twenty minutes in the playground, took away our identity, we all looked alike, it also stopped us racing about, Peter Maddock was a lad that had a tough time at school, his mother was not married and back in the 'thirties' that was frowned on. Peter's mother had taken a nursemaid's job, looking after two girls that lost their mother at childbirth, so Peter grew up with two girls five years older than he but with different surname. When he was about thirteen his mother was visiting friends when a bomb scored a direct hit on the house and his mother was killed. A few weeks later and Peter left the district. Sometime in the early fifties, over ten years later, I ran into him at the races, we chatted about old times, and old school mates. I saw him a few times after that at the racecourse. Peter was now married and worked in a factory, but then he went through a messy divorce. I met him in 1960 and he had on a smart suit and looked prosperous. "Hi Peter you won the pools?" "No better than that, I've found my old man, come and have a drink, I'll tell you about it." On the twentieth anniversary of his mother's death he went to place flowers on his mother's grave and there was someone else doing the same thing, after a few questions, they found out they were father and son. His father had been in love, but of a different religion to his mother, her father had forbid her to see him again, he was not aware that she was pregnant. When the father found out, he threw her out, so friends helped her find the nursemaid's job. His father never married, rose high in the Army then in business, back here on business from the USA he had made a few enquiries.

What a great story Kaga, I love reading these little snippets you post.

Something that has happened to a neighbour at the hospital has reminded me. At the beginning of the war, a lady (crying) came to see my parents, she had been to the hospital to volunteer as a blood donor, had been given a coloured card that stated her services was not needed at present, poor woman thought she had some dreadful disease that she did not know about. My parents were able to explain, Apparently they issued different coloured cards for different groups, without explanation, but something knew in those days.

Today marks the 75th anniversary of a two-day blitz of Coventry by German bombers, and the Coventry Telegraph has posted these photographs online

In the April blitz of 1941 my father, aged 19, was firewatching in Coronation Road where he lived with his grandmother and uncle. Dad was sheltering in a covered entry ("Layton's entry") when a bomb dropped by the Primrose Hill Baths. At that point Dad knew his uncle, who had been helping put out a fire in that part of the street, was killed. At least one other person was killed by the blast. Another neighbour (Edmunds I think was the name) was at the top of a ladder at the same spot when the bomb fell and he survived with a broken leg. Dad, distraught himself, couldn't bring himself to tell his gran that his uncle was dead so a kind neighbour did it for him. Pieces of his uncle's body were found on King Edward Road and my father had to identify him by a piece of his arm. Amazing that people just carried on after experiences like this, isn't it? There must have been a lot of private agony.

It was the April 1941 Blitz I believe, which destroyed Christ Church, Coventry's third spire.

Hi. In the 1939 directory there are two contenders for the name Edmunds. The first and most probable is William James Edmund, number 57 Coronation Road. The second is Samuel Leslie Edmond, number 70.

During April there were several nights of heavy bombing on Coventry but it appeared to be more widespread than the November blitz. The front bedroom of our house in Old Church Rd gave a pretty good view down toward town. There was a stick of bombs that fell around the area where the police station now stands and that stick destroyed a large area of the Stoney Stanton Rd. My sister would count the seconds between the flash of the bombs detonating and the arrival of sound and quickly calculate the distance of where the bombs fell. I must say that for us the April blitz was, except for some minor incidents, the closest that the bombing came to our area. For us boys it was exciting to see an aircraft first caught by one searchlight, then several lights would also soon be on to it. By calculating the angles of the several searchlights it was simple maths to calculate the height and soon shells would be going up to the enemy plane. It was my older sister that made me realise that there were people on that aircraft. Men who would be aware that shells were on the way up to blow them out of the sky. They probably didn't want to be over Coventry. They would be cold and frightened.

Could anyone calculate how long it would take a shell to reach normal aircraft flying height of about 30,000ft? I think that muzzle velocity of Ack Ack guns was about 3,500ft per second but that velocity would rapidly fall off. I'm sure that some Henry VIII ex-pupils would be able to calculate this.

I'm ex-KHVIII, Norman, but I was taught the 'new maths' and my teacher was Kolisch, so I'm afraid I haven't got the foggiest. My initial thought, not backed by any sort of certainty, is that such a shell might struggle to reach 30,000ft before losing its velocity, but I would be interested to hear if anyone knows for certain.

Most bomber operations took place between 18,000 and 24,000 feet. The Germans during the later stages of and after the Blitz used specially adapted high-altitude bombers that could operate around 30,000 feet - the very, very upper limit of what fighters could reach. But they were used in tiny numbers and had little accuracy so made no difference in the war. In the Pacific the strategic bombing campaign started with high-altitude raids (30,000 feet) using B-29's but when it was discovered they couldn't hit anything at that altitude the tactics were changed completely to low-level raids at just a few thousand feet altitude.

Thanks for reply Mr D-Di. A trivial question maybe but it was due to a discussion between my brother and myself after my post above about Coventry raids. Some German aircraft had a preferred operational height of about 25,000ft but to avoid barrage balloon cables were at times forced to fly higher.. I once witnessed an enemy aircraft damaged while trapped in a cone of searchlights and am sure it was hit by anti aircraft fire from the ground. It came to earth somewhere near where the University Hospital is now.

Thank you also Yanster. I agree with you totally about bomb accuracy at those sort of heights. Bomb aiming then was not the exact science that it is now.

Caution: I'm sorry to say that - within the context of more recent world events - what appears to be a perfectly innocent question might get misconstrued, particularly on-line.

I disagree about their accuracy, I believe they really did hit Coventry as they damn well meant to, there was not many farms or fields they hit during the war, but it doesn't take much for you to find out. Sutton Stop was an out of the way spot, say 100 yards square and they smashed the lock and drained the canal with one stick of bombs. Shilton Station was out in the sticks and they missed by a 100 or so yards. they didn't touch Bell Green but they hit the Morris. It was not the velocity that bothered us, it was the noise. With a large ack-ack gun two hundred yards in front of us and pom-pom guns the same distance behind us, the noise and stress was enormous. They tired the life out of everyone, but at the same time they restored our faith. We were penned in in a damp cold shelter. We were four of us kids plus mother and baby. There was a constant unknown of what was going to happen. The stronger the barrage from the guns the more the tension grew, and painful throbbing headaches began. Some nights unable to sleep, I would squat in a tight ball, aching everyway, but too miserable to move, till dawn. By afternoon I would be singing and shouting, happier than ever.