Yes, I’m sorry, a mistype from me, it was the 14th. I also feel a link, as my granny and grandad, and my Mum, had their house destroyed that night. They were in shelters, so not injured. What Coventry went through in the WW2 and how we supported the war effort, is part of what makes me proud to be from Cov. It’s an interesting read.
Stoke was hammered, and the munitions/factory workers lived in close proximity to the factories, hence why there was so much damage to housing as they bombed the factories. And you’re right, baby boomers like me, obviously with exceptions, have lived at a good time.
And I sometimes get a little angry when my football team only gets a draw from a game they were expected to win.
Feels wrong ‘liking’ it, so you can have a sad face emoji instead! That picture really brings it home. Can’t imagine.
My exact thoughts, slippy. Was very hesitant about leaving a 'like'.
I was born in 1942 and can remember the carnage left by the blitz as a young boy and the temporary shops and water reservoirs in Corporation Street
My Dad grew up in Hillfields (Born in Leamington in 1943 for obvious reasons) then back to King Richard Street 1943 - 1960. He used to mention 'bomb sites' which meant very little to me and my brother. Apparently these areas of partial clearance (before being redeveloped) existed well throughout the 1950's and were great places of adventure for kids.
My mum went to her grave in 1993, absolutely hating the Germans and anything German, because as she said, 'they murdered her dad'. She never got over it. Try as I might to explain that it was in the past and war was war, she wouldn't listen. Also, she told me that because she was Southern Irish, along with my nan etc, they were in reality, neutrals.
Well, there's a coincidence because I am reading the exact same book! I am about half way through. I was particularly interested in the couple of pages on the Alvis factory as I did my apprenticeship there in the 70s. It still had a network of underground shelters which were used in those days mainly as store rooms. I didn't realise that the above ground buildings were so extensively damaged. I also didn't know that in those days the Alvis factory was on both sides of the railway line. The part on the city centre side was gone by the time I worked there but according to the book it was hardly damaged at all. Reading this has made me look again at older parts of the city. Walking football has been at Blue Coats school for the past few weeks and driving through that area you can see among the terraced houses the odd single or pair of newer sixties type houses that presumably replaced ones hit in the bombing.
It mentions in the book that the Green Lane area was bombed quite badly. Was the Standard factory near by?
Sorry to go on about thee book but it does mention a few times that young lads of 15 or 16 were out on these nights cycling around the city and acting as messengers as communications were badly hit. It does say that quite a few lost their lives during the raids.
My grandparents lived in Woodside Avenue, a couple of streets from Green Lane and told me of a house at the Kenpas Highway end sadly took a direct hit.
That's like in Norfolk where small coastal villages took bombs from the Germans on their way back to their bases on the continent.
Just re read the bit about the writer, JB Priestley, who visited the city in 1934. He wrote that Coventry was ‘genuinely old and picturesque’. I don’t think many of us growing up in the late 50’s onwards, would recognise that description. My Mum, who is now 97, used to say that the City was beautiful, full of historic buildings, and then of course, there was the Cathedral. Another interesting aspect of the raid is whether Churchill and the security services, who knew that a huge raid was planned for that evening, also knew that it was Coventry, and withheld the information to prevent the Nazis from realizing that we had cracked the Enigma code. I don’t think we’ll ever really know the answer to that question.
I think as well as unloading, bombing was not always accurate, the Nazis had decided that bombing civilians was legitimate, as a means of breaking the morale of the population in key towns like Coventry.
The writer plays down the possibility of Coventry being sacrificed although he does site evidence to the contrary as well.
I used to play on a bombsite at the top of Gulson Road opposite the hospital. This would be mid 50s.
Feel like I shouldn't like it but that's funny.