What happened on THIS day in Coventry's history?

On 17th Sep 2017 10:40am, Kaga simpson said: I think it should be mentioned that Coventry WVS regularly sent parcels to the ship, books, puzzles, soap, shaving gear etc, and of course the CET, all donated by the people of Coventry. During the war there was a scheme that rolled up newspapers could be sent to personnel of the armed forces. I believe many churches in Coventry held a service of remembrance, I know the one I went to did. There were close links between the city and the ship.

On 17th Sep 2017 1:49pm, Roger Turner said: Kaga, I hope you don`t mind my bursting in on your comment with an item of my own, but it was the principle of adoption of HMS Coventry by the city. What I was going to ask is whether you or anybody else knows if it was done for other services, particularly the RAF. My father-in-law was a member of 82 Bomber Squadron that flew Vultee Vengeance dive bombers in the Burma campaign. I looked it up on Wikipedia and it mentioned that their nickname was "Coventry`s `own` Squadron", but it doesn`t say how that came about. My father-in-law was originally RFC, then newly established RAF until well after the end of WW2. He was promoted to be an engineer officer during that Burma campaign and when he finally left the RAF he was pointed in the direction of Coventry and eventually joined Bristol Siddeley as a technical author. I know he had ties with Coventry and Leamington industries all through his RAF service and in fact I think he felt he had come "home" to Coventry. Incidentally I wouldn`t have met my wife without his having come. I didn`t know about "Coventry`s `own` Squadron" until recently.

On 17th Sep 2017 3:55pm, Kaga simpson said: Roger Turner, Don't mind at all. I have no idea of that one but most towns adopted some unit of the armed forces, sent parcels etc. I would think the unit you mention, they may have taken the name from the blitz, some sort of gesture of revenge. Or maybe someone was from Coventry in the unit, there would be a link somewhere. Local newspapers were passed from billet to billet.

On 17th Sep 2017 5:03pm, Roger Turner said: Thanks for the quick response Kaga. You are probably right, somebody originally from Coventry may have been present in the unit, because I found the information on Wikipedia and somebody must have written the information for it to have got on there. A nickname is not the sort of information that just "happens" so somebody must have told the writer on Wikipedia or maybe the writer was actually a member of the squadron. Either way, speaking as an ex-Coventrian and meeting up with somebody I find served in a unit with some sort of connection to the name and the war is interesting, to me, in itself, so I am curious how it all came about - I guess I`ll never know. It may be to do with the blitz, people used to write things on bombs.