The Blitz - 14th November 1940

Can anyone place where this view is - "The Bombing of Coventry"? Or maybe it's not even Coventry?

Much Park Street - Whitefriars Gate can be seen on the right

TonyS. Hi, I fail to see what answers you are looking for, there's so many books with details you're not going to get any more, unless you want to know what the experience was like. I was twelve years of age when the war started, two years left at school, I should have been cramming as much schooling as I could get, but no, it was the first two years of the war and bombing. A third of the teachers disappeared into the forces, leaving only four teachers near to retirement, after the big raid, less than a third of the pupils turned up, and only two teachers so we were sent home. One night bombs hit the streets near the school, my friend Helen failed to turn up, but someone told me she was ok, next day she came to school, but her and her two friends kept crying, the little old lady that lived in their street, that they had known all their life, had not survived. One time I glanced over at Frankie, I didn't like Frankie, I had a couple of fights with him in the past, but yesterday his family had received a telegram, his brother was missing, presumed killed, two days before I had seen my elder brother sail to --- I pushed my book away, today Frankie is my friend,and there is no way I can do lessons. Women lived in fear of those telegrams, and for me I lost the schooling I should have had. But that was a small price compared to what some people lost.

What Tony is saying is that people will NEVER stop discussing the Blitz because there are NO definitive answers..

Blitz - The Coventry Bombing Most of you will probably have seen this but I couldn't find the link, so I thought I'd post it. I believe it's the complete programme that mcsporran linked to.

Thanks for the link, Helen. I look forward to watching it. I love hearing personal memories like Kaga's and I don't think there can ever be too many so please keep them coming. It finally occurred to me a few months ago to ask my mum, aged 11 at the start of the war, if she was frightened during the bombings. She looked at me like I was insane and said of course she was BUT, in my defence, she has never once when telling her stories mentioned being afraid. I will post some of her recollections soon - she was a Bell Green girl by the time war broke out.

Primrose, thank you, you could ask your mum, did she like going to the chip shop during the black-out, how did her family sort out the week's sugar ration for each, was she happy carrying a cardboard box around with her all day every day. If there was a baby about the immense struggle to try to put it in one of those infernal gas protector contraptions. Regards Kaga.

Not sure if this is the right place to put this. How the Coventry people raised money to buy 3 Spitfires which carried Coventry's name or Coventry emblems. Scroll down on link. Memories of Battle of Britain hero, Tony Pickering Mods note: Clickable link now added

Morgana, there were many ways to raise money. I know Ansty Hall, Adams big estate, had a large 'fete' in the grounds to raise funds for the war-effort, they had a bunch of American soldiers visit, played baseball, raised quite a fair sum. Primrose, there was a house that took an almost direct hit, there was a small part of the outside wall with the staircase attached left standing, there was nothing left to salvage, except when they opened the cubbyhole cupboard there was a box of half-a-dozen eggs on a shelf, not one was as much as cracked.

Kaga, my mum remembers the story of the undamaged eggs too! In response to some of your earlier questions, she said they would go anywhere for a penn'orth of chips! The chip shops weren't open regularly. They used to go to a shop in Sewall Highway but the chippie that seemed to be open the most was called Brown's in Spon Street. They never bought fish as it was too expensive, just chips. The sugar ration didn't affect her family too severely as neither she nor her mother,a diabetic, took it so her dad and her brother had four people's sugar allowance. They augmented the sugar ration from time to time by buying condensed milk on points. My gran used to queue up at Hurrell's by the General Wolfe to buy sausages. When the sausages were cooked, they either shrank to tiny pieces because they were all fat or they burst in the pan because the filling was all breadcrumbs. Mum said she didn't carry her gas mask much after a while. She thinks the wardens were supposed to use rattles to warn of a gas attack.

Brown's fish & chip shop is mentioned often in reports of the Blitz. In particular it supplied those huddled in the Spon Street shelter which was located next to the Rising Sun where the electricity sub station is today. It was a criminal offence to not carry a gas mask but women soon learned the trick of using the gas mask holder to carry their makeup instead!

Dutchman. How right you are, completely slipped my mind about the makeup in the box, my sister did, dad used to tell her off, but she was a teenager at that time. I'm sorry but I mislead you about the chip shop, I meant when it was pitch dark it was hard to find your way around, the chip shop was the first thing I thought of. I may have missed some things but was there a list of people that got injured just from the blackout itself, cuts, bruises, broken bones, some nights it was so dark you could touch a lamp post without being able to see it, total darkness throughout the country. People stepped off the bus or tram had no idea of how big the step was, or where the kerb was or even if it was the right stop, even on moonlight nights you could not see well enough to change a tyre, do minor repairs, so picking your way through the debris of an air raid was a nightmare. There was five of us kids, so we had five jam-jars on the table with names on and the weeks sugar ration inside. the squabbles and accusations were daily, if mum took some out of each to make a pie, and forgot to mention it we accused each other of stealing, but it did make life interesting.

Just a quickie for those who like to read in detail about Coventry's Blitz - the best book I've ever found for a very comprehensive study of it has turned up cheap on eBay - Air Raid: The Bombing Of Coventry 1940, By Norman Longmate It looks a little tatty, but that's reflected in the low price.