The Blitz - 14th November 1940

Kaga and Heathite There is NO charge to enter the ruins of Coventry Cathedral There IS a charge to ascend the tower

Dutchman, somewhere I posted that a house was hit and destroyed, except for the staircase and the cubbyhole eggs in the cubbyhole were not damaged, not even cracked. weird things happened in the war. So as I'm back on this subject, the guy in the Blitz film said the bombers criss-crossed the city, and that could be true, for no one could track individual sticks of the bombs that night, but you only have to look a little farther out to find they were very good, a stick of four bombs dropped over Aldermans Green Road, fields behind the houses on either side, the first hit a house totally destroying it, two in the fields, the fourth destroyed the canal lock and bank, putting the canal without water and no traffic could operate, two out of four, on target. At Shilton he tried the same thing, the railway and the canal, the first, six yards from the canal, two in the fields but the fourth six yards from the railway. When I was in 8f we tried to work out how many yards was the flight of the plane of path, for the first and last bombs to have hit both targets, as the railway and canal came closer, and to place four bombs between canal and railway speaks for itself. Two years later 8f sent me to Ansty Airfield a number of times for flight experience, one time we flew over the same path, the bomb craters had not been filled in.

Midland Red, all part of one religious building, the spire in the old days showed the way, before people could read road signs I was taught. Still like to think along those lines.

Thanks Kaga My concern was that hiding under the stairs might have given people a false sense of security? My housekeeper lived very close to Warwick Road goods yard which was repeatedly bombed. She said the whole family used to count the blasts: "One.. two.. three..." and if they made it to "four" they knew they were safe.

Yes, and I bet that was at the top of their list Dutchman, mention Coventry and you think of Owen Owen!

If you were a 22-year-old girl living in Coventry in 1940 Dreamtime, then Owen Owen would probably have meant more to you personally than the Cathedral. It was more than just a department store, it was a status symbol, a landmark and the centre of many people's social life. Had the Queen's Hotel bar not survived I suspect she would have referred to it as "The night they bombed the Queen's".

Dutchman, you are right on two counts, first hiding under the stairs only sheltered you if the window went in and you had flying glass, it was false and most cases crumbled like the rest of the building, but human nature you flee to the darkest and safest place you can find. Owen Owen, was a big bright store, it was a status symbol etc. just as you described. What puzzled me, people said there were many killed and some left there, never recovered from the debris, yet I thought it was half-day closing so why so many people at such a time of night? Kaga.

Yes Kaga It was early closing day and yes I have heard about people left buried in the ruins..Must admit that it never occurred to me that the shop would be closed about 1pm and therefore no one should be in the building. Do you remember the precautions people made to prevent flying glass by putting sticky tape on the windows? It didn't work, as I said in a previous post, a bomb fell where the Bell Green Community Centre now stands, about a hundred yards from the front of our house, the sticky tape didn't save our windows. Funny thing was that only the upstairs windows broke.

I'm sure you are right, Dutchman. My parents moved to Coventry in the 30s and lived in the city until 2003. They were of course there during the blitz and I remember my mother saying how upset people were at the loss of Owen Owen.

Norman Conquest, yes I do remember the sticky tape. My brother and I put it all down the blackout curtains and stuck it to the wall to keep chinks of light out, when we pulled it off next morning, ripped all the wallpaper off, we hid most of the time for three days. But come on guys, the women gave Owen Owen the status and the men followed suit to keep the peace. I believe they were one of the first shops to be rebuilt. Now what puzzles me is Dutchman talking of 22 year old girls in 1940, I was only looking at 14-15 year old girls then? and Coventry was full of pretty girls then, even tho the clothes were drab, and the sirens spoilt a lot of my dates, damn Jerry. and they had the cheek to sing Lily Marlene. Have you ever known a reporter explain a football match the way you saw it, the atmosphere, the noise then sudden silence, and all the things around you. Neither have I about the raids.

The story I was told was that Owen's had converted part of their huge basement into an air raid shelter which had escape access to the street (also used for deliveries) and that members of the public could use it. Conversely I was told that bodies were left interred nearby, somewhere near the bottom of the covered 'slope'. Another story pertained to underneath No.1 entrance to Armstrong Siddeley in Parkside where the shelter had received a direct hit. All of these have proved to be unfounded due to rebuilding and excavation and although there were bodies never identified, the authorities were confident that all bodies (or parts of) were recovered and interred in the communal grave