Books on Coventry

Thank you everyone for your helpful advice, working on it.

Mcsporran thank you. I agree with you, but still a good read, in fact I loved it.

I don't know if this is in the right place but while I was looking through one of my many boxes of books I found a fantastic book called COVENTRY: A CENTURY OF NEWS. It looks as though it was published by the Evening Telegraph in 1991 and it has wonderful articles, photos and ads. I'd love to post some of these as they would reach almost every corner of interest in the forum

Helen, your post 248 creates what I think are some errors but how can I answer, without people saying I'm rude, or similar remarks. To be frank your book or whatever you read has let you down on a number of occasions. Opposing you creates a lot of hate against me, but history has proved you wrong several times. Helen, we have big differences about history but mine is backed by English Heritage in most cases. Yours?

Of course I'm wrong some of the time Kaga. Sometimes I misremember, sometimes the source was outdated and sometimes the sources are all wrong. I use lots of sources, including but not limited to books. But if there is a disagreement I try to find new sources to decide one way or the other. The facts about Coventry are somewhat scarce. Many old documents were destroyed by the Protestants. Others were burnt in a fire at Birmingham Library before the wars. New information is coming along as archaeology answers questions but also pose new ones. Our national history is also subject to new knowledge or interpretation. How can any one person keep track of it all? So if anyone disagrees with anyone else, it's best to quote the source rather than relying on memory. And be respectful in the reply. My contribution to solving questions is to try and see clues in images and maps. I like to think I've found some new things out. Certainly stuff that even English Heritage and David McGrory don't know.

You could answer a bit more politely? No one hates you for your opposition, but we do not like the way in which you go about it.

Mick Strong I do not have the education. My schooling stopped when I was eleven, teachers went in the forces etc. You know there was a lot where your parents had a different life to you and I'm like them. I need your criiticism, not your silence, but thanks Mick, I do appreciate what you say.

belushi S.A.S. by Damien Lewis I have long and often argued about the accurate bombing of Coventry, and how they approached Coventry in close formation as if they were on a main road. Coventry is not mentioned, but quashes a lot of myths about the war. To me it fills in a lot of gaps, among the things I knew. It's a library book so doesn't need money.

Thanks Kaga - just read the review on the Waterstones' site - looks an interesting read.

This is not a fiction book, there's a lot I can vouch for, the training at Ringway, the difference between them and my spell (3 years), the weapons that went obsolete, sten gun, 9mm pistol etc, the initiative tests. The recruiting was tougher, a 45% failure rate, and more, but much more was the not knowing in early 45 of what was kept secret in those days.

Hi again Kaga, I just searched, and Damien Lewis seems to have written a few books under the title "S.A.S." Is the one you're referring to, by any chance, "Shadow Raiders"? That one looks closest to what you mention about bombing accuracy, as it's about "Operation Biting", which was the code for the Bruneval Raid where we sent a squad ably led by Major John Frost across the sea to literally kidnap a German Wurzburg radar! I've read another highly detailed book about that raid, and it's captivating. However, the Wurzburg was used to detect British planes, not for directing their own towards targets such as Coventry. X-Gerat (the successor to Knikebein) was used for that. A super book called "Instruments of Darkness" gives a full account of both sides' (and later, others) development of electronic warfare, including all the types of radar and beam finders through to guided surface to air missiles.

Yes, the book is 'Shadow Raiders', and it does say that on 'Moonlight Sonata' they flew on beams that took them directly to the target. I do have one question about the book, but it's not about raids but training of the raids You do realise that all this was classified info for about fifty years, he could not have written before 1980 at least. I'm inclined to believe that bombing casualty lists were also withheld until after the war.

I would think you're right Kaga about the classification. In the mid 1970s there was suddenly a deluge of books about the more secret sides to the war after a 30 year classification was lifted. I was at school at the time, and in the mid-70s the word "Enigma" suddenly started to be bandied about like it had just been invented! I've heard that some secrets have still not been allowed to be revealed..... the mind boggles as to what could be so sensitive after 76 years!

Rob, all My mother would have been appalled at some of the things I did, or the way I had to dress on initiative tests to escape the eyes of the police etc. The training was relentless, no shaving, no haircuts, we were excused normal army drill for weeks on end. Until a few days after VE day, neither did we know what happened to the men on Operation Colossus - classified. In 1954 I set out to try and find what happened to them, but all I had to go on was tales from men that knew about the raid - I failed, but got very close. The path of the Gods on Amalfi mountain range near Salerno was as far as I got. The hole in the Whitley fuselage was dangerous - if you dropped out you had the danger of your chute pack hitting the floor which pitched you forward so that hit your head on the opposite side of the metal floor. If you leaped too much, you still cracked your forehead. A nightmare. The veterans that trained me knew all about Major Larsen whose statue is now at Hereford.

Other than for specific books, I don't know if this has been directly linked to before but it's useful to bring it up again. An archive of many old books you can read for free Ignore the link to the Wayback Machine at the top and type what you're looking for in the search box at the bottom. You can search within the books once you've selected one but, due to incomplete letter recognition, it will miss things. Some copies have original picture some don't.