The Blitz - 14th November 1940

But dad went back into the night, to help were help was needed Now a mighty silence does reign, we did not die, but still remain Friends and homes are lost, and though I had fear, so close so near Some how I can still hear it now, nearly eighty years have flew and I still shudder at that dreadful night When the heavens opened, and the sky broke in two.

Yes, that shelter stood on the flat ground where Kays farm met the Sowe and yes there was a large pipe laid along Hall Green Rd on the side by the brook.It was connected to a submersible pump that lay on the bed of the Sowe.I have no idea what its purpose was. As for the shelter I don't think anyone used it.. I don't recall ever being afraid during a raid, like most kids I thought I was untouchable. To be fair I don't suppose Old Church Rd would have been a prime target for Hermann Goering but I do recall a bomb dropping behind our house and the next bomb in the stick fell where the Bell Green community centre now stands. Except for broken windows and a few loose tiles they did little damage. Whenever possible we would listen to Lord Haw Haw on the radio and one chilling remark of his that I recall was after one air raid he said " To the people of Coventry, the council house clock is two minutes slow" He said this to prove that Her Hitler had agents on the ground in Coventry...Norman

Excellent little gallery here from the Telegraph with several I hadn't seen before (2nd gallery down in the news article).

CWN - News ? ??? ? Fact file 20 Things You Should Know About... The Blitz In Coventry BY COVENTRY AND WARWICKSHIRE PROMOTIONS The Nazi bombing raid of 14 November 1940 changed the face of Coventry forever, with the cathedral being destroyed. Some things you might not know about that day. The air raid on Coventry on the night of November 14, 1940 was the single most concentrated attack on a British city in World War II. Afterwards, Nazi propagandists coined a new word in German - Coventrieren, to raze a city to the ground. Codenamed Moonlight Sonata, the raid lasted for11 hours and involved nearly 500 Luftwaffe bombers, gathered from airfields all over occupied Europe. The aim was to knock out Coventry as a major centre for war production. It was said, too, that Hitler ordered the raid as revenge for an RAF attack on Munich. 14 November was a brilliant moonlit night, so bright that traffic could move around on the roads without lights. The Luftwaffe dropped 500 tons of high explosive, 30,000 incendiaries and 50 land mines. It was also trying out a new weapon, the exploding incendiary. Coventry lost not only its great mediaeval church of St Michael's, the only English cathedral to be destroyed in the Second World War, but its central library and market hall, hundreds of shops and public buildings and 16th century Palace Yard, where James II had once held court. The smell and heat of the burning city reached into the cockpits of the German bombers, 6000 feet above. More than 43,000 homes, just over half the city's housing stock, were damaged or destroyed in the raid. The fire at the city's huge Daimler works was one of the biggest of the war in Britain. Up to 150 high explosive bombs and 3000 incendiaries turned 15 acres of factory buildings into a raging inferno. At midday next day in Coventry, it was as warm as spring and almost dark because of the effects of the firestorms. King George VI is said to have wept as he stood in the ruins of the burned-out cathedral, surveying the destruction. The people of the city too were traumatised. Hundreds wandered the streets in a daze and little children were seen trying to burrow their way through solid brick walls to escape the terrifying noise. But amidst the horror there were lighter moments. One of the city's three statues of Peeping Tom was blown out of its niche in a high building and lay in the street, where shocked passers-by mistook it for a human corpse in the blackout. One man recalled being pursued down a street by a knee-high river of boiling butter from a nearby blazing dairy. At one point during the night an abandoned tram was blown clean over a house into a garden. It landed with its windows still intact. The official death toll from the night was 554, but the real figure could have been much higher, with many unaccounted for. As help poured in next day, demolition crews had to be prevented from pulling down the cathedral tower. They didn't realise it had been leaning for at least a hundred years. On the day of the mass funerals, fighter patrols were sent up into the skies above the city. It was thought the Germans might try to bomb the cemetery. Yet by 1947 Coventry had adopted its first German twin city, Kiel. Dresden followed, in 1956. The ruined cathedral now stands for international peace and reconciliation.

Moonlight Sonata/Coventry Blitz - Nuneaton Moviemakers

Hi all, I was under the impression that our people had done all the things that could be done before the raids, but no one in those days had had the experience of such devastation and power of explosions from the air, I am pretty certain that all buildings had been covered by volunteers and organized to the best of their ability. Take a look at the Cathedral, imagine climbing high on those burning rafters trying to get near an incendiary with all hell around you, and these would be the staff, not robust builders, for there was no one to spare, the bulk of the young men of the city where elsewhere. Men and women did a full days work, then the men would return to their place of work if need be, and do what was necessary to keep the place from harm, kids of fourteen were responsible to light fires in the huts where the men would keep warm in the lull periods. Was Thursdays half-closing day, otherwise there would have been a lot higher casualty list, I seem to recall it being said at the time. I visited the city and the Cathedral as near as you could get on the Saturday as a thirteen year old and watched grown men cry. My father and I collected pieces of burnt wood and part of an incendiary, and father turned it in to a 'rod' or 'staff' which is still in the family today.

OK, let's start at the beginning. 1939 was a very long summer, not from days but from debates, everyone everywhere was discussing the future, the people we are discussing, our parents and grandparents, they had little knowledge of the world outside like you do today, majority had never been further than Blackpool, or Skegness, so most thought the bombers would not even reach Coventry, even if they did not with that kind of payload. But even so the authorities did, and did what they considered adequate, even if we were losing our pets. I saw cattle torn, rolling eyes, foaming at the mouth, uncontrollable from fear, stuck in ponds, drowned, on top of barbed wire, not from bombs, but from the terrifying noise, and animals can smell fire and want to flee. Now someone said, about the staff of the Cathedral not doing enough, rubbish, look at the pictures, within a few minutes water mains were broken, water was needed everywhere, dozens of places dropped to a trickle, gas pipes broken feeding the fires, the heat alone was unbearable, all hell was let loose around them, water pipes everywhere impeding everyone, there is no way that anyone could have done more, I heard the stories first hand, I saw the tired faces. I had ten uncles, and ten aunts, all lived within a mile of me, so I heard a lot of discussions, and stories.

Now this forum has taken me back to memories I hadn't really thought about since that time. So let me try to tell you things you may not have thought of. First the Anderson shelter, sunk halfway in the garden covered in soil, it was like going in to a rats' hole, no heating, no light, no way for hot food, cold damp and very cramped and no toilet. The average family, if the man was able bodied, then he was in one of ARP or LDV so would be away doing his bit. So mother would be trying to soothe the kids, worrying about her man, and then most had parents living close by, and the old folk could not make the shelter, hide under the table or the stairwell, so there was another worry. Dad had only just finished his tea when the sirens sounded, damned early we thought, so that put us on edge, but we gathered our things and headed for the shelter and the gun boomed before the sirens had ceased and a big piece of glass fell from the bedroom window narrowly missing my sister, and on it went, the noise deafening, dad came back a couple of times to check on us, but it wasn't in our area, but from his manner, we knew something dreadful was happening, and a lot different from other times, and on it went until I believe it was breakfast time, when dad returned, tired and shaken, we knew it was not a time for questions.

We kids called the LDV (local defence volunteer) the Look Duck and Vanish. Norman

Norman Conquest, one thought leads to another and then you get a flood. The railway that fed the power station stopped at the pavement, the fence was like a ladder, and there were a set of buffers, two foot square and six foot long, that gave us kids a centre stage to sit on and chat to the soldiers when they came. I believe before the war was declared the Army came and billeted us with two soldiers, also our neighbours, so within two days we knew most of them by first name, so we told them where the cinema, snooker hall, chip shop, was, and they told us about the big gun we were to get. The soldiers built the gun setting, the roads, and erected the huts. We scrumped apples, found magazines for them, when they left, we did the same for the Artillery boys, and we heard new words, Geordie, Scouse etc. the two boys that had been with us, wrote to us from all over the world for three years. I can't be sure, but I think they let us know when they fired in practice. Now, Main Farm was behind us this side the Slough, with a gun behind the farm and the big gun in front. Taylors Farm was Bell Green side, the farmers were great friends. Within two years Main Farm had lost fifty percent of their livestock and the milk yield dropped also. But I don't recall Taylor saying he lost any horse or livestock. So I believe that mile between us made a big difference to the way we saw things. Regards Kaga.

Kaga... Did you ever know a man named Dunkley. We called him Mr Canal Man. He died some time ago, I went to his funeral. He was the man that campaigned to keep Coventry Canal open as a waterway when all in authority wanted to fill it in and use it as a link between Longford and the city centre to relieve Foleshill Rd congestion.

Hi there, What a great site! I was in the Herbert Museum this morning & left very sombre after watching the Blitz videos. I walked through Broadgate & was half seeing the ruins of Owen Owen in my mind. I lost my grandmother a few years ago & wondered if anybody could help me remember more clearly something she said about living through the Coventry Blitz please. My grandma used to say that the bombs were dropped in a certain number & when you were in the shelter you could count the bombs falling & once that number had been counted you knew you were safe. Can anybody recall the number please? Was it 7? Also where were the RAF during the Blitz? Were they not present & why not? They don't seem to be mentioned in news articles of the time. Many thanks

The number was four. The RAF had no dedicated night-fighters or airborne radar at that time so could do very little against nighttime attacks..

I don't recall any number for the bombs. In a raid there was continuous noise from both guns and bombs. We had a stick drop straight across our house but missed us completely but in those circumstances who counts? Some bombs were equipped with a screaming device that covered all other noise when close. When 4 or 5 hundred aircraft are dropping bombs no one whether in a shelter or not was safe. I don't really like the term "The Blitz" as there were many raids on Coventry. As for the RAF. With barrage balloons, anti aircraft guns and searchlights going up no one would be safe above Coventry during a raid. Besides I don't think we had night fighter aircraft at that period of the war. Norman