The Blitz - 14th November 1940

I had read that myself funnily enough yet the Traction pole is there halfway down Warwick Ave? The only thing I can think of is maybe they were quite serious about one of these extensions, even fitting the street furniture, before deciding against it or abandoning it? The lines under the road surface is possibly just speculation on my part but the pole is the exact same design as the other existing poles (such as Albany Road) and is of a similar age?

Hi all It's been established in the Coventry Transport forum that the poles are sewer ventilation pipes and nothing to do with the tramway system.

I think you'll find that was Warwick Road not Warwick Avenue? Possible Extension of the System Warwick Avenue has never had tramlines and there have never been any proposals to install any there.

Hi Dutchman, Thanks for that. That is an interesting little bit of information. They obviously had a matching pattern in the metalwork across a lot of different street furniture.

Quite right, Dutchman, (on checking) and the sewer ventilation system explains the confusion. They were possibly a job-lot bought from the same manufacturer and convertible for either use. I wouldn't fancy living near them on a warm day, though!

Interesting papers using this link to The National Archives, mainly referring to Coventry, 14/15 November 1940

Fascinating stuff, many thanks for finding that Cliff. I was amused at the transcription of "V.H.P. beans" though - instead of "V.H.F. beams"

Sorry for going back on topic, but as a young person that was born after the war, I love this local history. I have seen somewhere that Churchill knew that Coventry was the target a few days before the Blitz started but not to give it away that we could read/intercept their messages, it was decided not to act upon the information. The large factories that were producing guns, ammo, and even planes for the war effort were a big target, but as it said in the National Archives link at the start of this topic, the working class were also targeted. The King visited our Cathedral in the aftermath of the Blitz, to see for himself and boost morale in the city...

Great find Baz, I wonder what the F in the left hand corner is for .

That theory has been debunked many times not least by a section on this site: Defending Coventry To put things in perspective, it was hardly a secret that Coventry was likely to be bombed and many people had fled the city already. What no-one could have foreseen - even if they had correctly identified the target - was the scale and ferocity of the attack.

I'm with Dutchman on this. This 'Coventry Sacrifice' story is a myth that appeared some years after the end of WWII. The story just doesn't make sense - but it appears to have entered common consciousness and people who use the myth do not do their research properly. The Science Fiction series, Babylon 5, from about 10+ years ago even mentioned it! Coventry was so likely to be bombed that the city was used for a training exercise in the event of a blitz. The whole myth doesn't add up - the real story appears to one of bad intelligence. I have heard people get Coventry's blitz confused with the so called 'Baedeker' blitz - these were raids on historic towns (York, Canterbury, Exeter) that had no real strategic value. This was an attempt to demoralise the population, and as Britain found out later, intense bombing of places like Dresden didn't even have that effect. The Nazis took the targets from a popular German guide book...

I have mixed feelings on this one, as wasn't there plans to knock Coventry down with new plans to rebuild before the war, then watching yesterday programs it states that the Germans done them a favour by the bombing as it saved them money to knock the slums down in London, also Coventry was the only town's Cathedral in the whole of the UK to be destroyed.

I think after the Blitz there was almost certainly a little bit in the back of our Town Planners' minds that felt the Germans had saved them from looking like the "bad guys" in knocking down the old city centre. However, I doubt very much if before the big raid anyone in our country would've wished to risk sacrificing hundreds of lives just for the sake of saving some bulldozing. The loss of our cathedral was just a sad consequence of blanket bombing our central area. In such a terror raid, armament factories were the excuse for the raid, everything else within the area just side-effects.