The Blitz - 14th November 1940

I think Mr Dutchman that the bomb load depended on the aircraft and the type of bombs carried. Only one of what we called 'bread baskets' was carried. I recall one of those dropping in Taylors seven acre meadow and there was little of the field left. Bombs varied in weight so much and several different aircraft used that I don't think there is a positive answer to Miss Muffet's question. And welcome aboard Miss Muffet.

Thank you both, & yes you're correct Norman Conquest, I should have clarified that I meant the 1940 night raid where we lost the cathedral & not used the term 'The Blitz' I must be recalling a later memory as grandma said that when they were in the shelter they could distinguish between the different aircraft by the engine noise & they used to cheer when our lads arrived. That can't have been the same raid then.

As opposed to stray bombing raids, is it possible to say how many nights (or days) concentrated raids were experienced? I seem to remember listening to a radio memoir of the Coventry November raids (sorry I always knew them as the Blitz) in which the eyewitness said the enemy raiders all approached from one direction dropped their loads, then reassembled and went over the same field again in a transverse direction and I believe it was called "Coventration" Any truth in this or was it embroidery? PS I missed the November do, but was brought back to Coventry to get over whooping cough and I seem to remember somebody coming to the door and saying the Maudslay Hotel had been bombed, we lived nearby in Prince of Wales Road, but didn`t lose our house that night

Now little has been said about the defence of the city. There must have been well over fifty barrage balloons, all attended by gallant men, no way could they shelter, same with the searchlight crews, yet they hardly get a mention. On moonlight nights you could see the bombers pass by the moon, wave after wave, that's if you were brave enough, always in the same direction, on the way in, the damned quickest way, if one was caught in the beam of a searchlight, the other beams quickly latched on, and you had a battle of wits, the pilot doing his utmost to lose them, and the searchlight doing there utmost to hold him in the beam, and the bombers ditched their load to have more mobility. The amount of bombs in a stick I believe was different, but that can be traced through records. Now I think I asked an important question, and had no reply, was it half day closing, would it have made a bigger death toll, had it not have been, believe it or not but Coventry people were asking that question the very next day. The very fact is, he was hitting strategic targets, and couldn't miss the people, or the Cathedral. Like when we broke the dam, and drowned over a thousand of our allies. Bell Green wasn't flattened, but the Morris was. Sometimes In the daylight hours, the barrage balloons would be moored above the city, like a giant shoal of silver fish, occasionally one would break free, stand on its tail, then shoot off into the heavens.

Wasn't there a Polish squadron based at Baginton?

Roger Turner, the general belief at the time was they came the quickest route dropped the bombs and the quickest way back, there was no hanging around for them, it was no picnic up there, plus they had to get out fast as the next wave was right behind them. If the authorities thought our defence was useless, they would have withdrawn them.

Norman Conquest, yes knew of him, he and father were friends, was it David, I believe it was at the time I was in the forces, I think years ago he may have lived next door to us, but I was away at that time so not sure. Around that time my father was sent as a lengthman on the Coventry Canal, complained that much about the state of the canal, he was retired early. Dirty deal to me.

I think the November raid was just punishment in retaliation to British raids over Germany. What did Hermann Goering say? "If one British plane bombs Germany you can call me Meyer". I think that translates to "ass". Both Adolf and Hermann were furious when a couple of RAF planes did a little damage in Germany. The whole purpose of Moonlight Sonata was to take out the heart of an ancient city not to hit legitimate targets. For me in Old Church Road two raids in April were more intense than the November raid but there were many more raids than that. I believe that there were 27 raids where substantial damage was done to Coventry. As Kaga says this topic has spread over several threads.

I don't know if it was half day closing or not but it's a matter of record that many people were away from the city on the night of November 14th and that probably reduced the death toll. It also hampered firefighting in the city centre as many business premises were locked-up and the owners couldn't be located to unlock them.

Yes, please see this thread: Coventry / Baginton Airport

Miss Muffet. Some German aircraft had contra rotating props, in particular Do 17 and some Heinkels. This caused a strange sound like "fer you, fer you". We kids thought that sound was "for you, for you". This, apparently, made the aircraft easier to fly as multi engine planes with props rotating in one direction had a tendency to pull slightly to one side.. Another way that this problem was overcome was to have the rudder ever so slightly out of line with the main body of the aircraft. My uncle who was flight engineer on Lancasters told me about this. Norman

November 14th was Thursday. Early closing.

Yes that's right. His name was David. My sister has owned a narrow boat for about fifty years and it was through her that I got to know him. Norman

Norman Conquest, thank you for confirming the half-day closing. But Norman, do you really think the German Air Chiefs would really risk the cream of the Lutwaffe just to kill a few more people, 'on a whim'? No, military does not run that way, and the Germans were on a roll in the early part of the war. The factories were the hardest hit, our forefathers built the factories, and put the people close to them. Now although people had taken a battering, they did realise had it have been any other shopping day, there would have been a much much larger death and injury toll, so was the raid planned with as little loss of life as possible. Norman, this was my neighbours I was listening to. Dutchman, hi. Locked, officially, but with buildings being torn apart, hey what's another broken window or door? Miss Muffet, your grandma was right, people got to know by instinct when there was going to be a lull, don't ask me how, just one of those things. Now the word 'blitz' itself was a nickname for any heavy bombing not one particular raid as far as I was aware, it suited the reporters, being a German word it added 'meat' to there reporting. The heavy droning sound the planes made, you could here from a long way off, providing you did not have my brother trying to play his mouth organ in your ear. The difference in the noise they made was not until they were almost over the city, so I thought that was the pilot levelling off, or whatever.

Goering risked his Luftwaffe throughout much of the war. Just think of Adler Tag (Eagle Day). Norman