Remembering the Coventry Blitz | 80 Years Later
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 13 พ.ย. 2020
- On 14 November 1940, Coventry was devastated in a single night of bombing.
The Herbert Art Gallery & Museum in collaboration with Coventry Transport Museum, look at the memories, art, objects and photographs of that fateful night to remember the Coventry Blitz.
Oral History contributors (Coventry Lives, 1999)
Terence Kane,
Hilda Tracy
, Ernie Rafferty
, Doreen Jacobs &
Douglas Ward
Filmed & edited by Imogen Lloyd
I was born in Coventry in 1939. I survived the blitz despite being blown up in our house. The house I was born in is still standing. At 84 years old I still live in Coventry.
I never realised this recording existed. It features the voice of my father.
Hi Graham, it is a small clip out of a longer recording made as part of the Coventry Lives project in 1999. If you would like to listen to the whole recording, please get in contact with us and we will be happy to arrange something. You can reach us at info@culturecoventry.com
Hi Graham, myself and thousands of people around the world would be very interested to watch the full video.
Great
I was born in Walsgrave hospital 1969. My mum was a Canadian and my dad a Scot. I love Coventry it will always be in my heart. No matter where I am.
I lost a great uncle and his wife in that raid. They had taken shelter in the cellar of a pub in Spon Street which took a direct hit. Everybody was killed. They were both buried in the mass grave. and there names are on that memorial plaque in the Herbert Art Gallery.
On the 15th November dad said to me "come on we're going out" I was only 5 at the time . It was 6 o'clock and dark, Dad had a bike and with a rear support for me to sit on. We went to Shoal Hill. There was a small group of men all looking to the south west and talking. Dad said "look over there" and there was a red glow in the sky, dad explained that that was Coventry burning. Coventry was 50 odd miles away.
I grew up in Coventry - and if you know where to look, there are still signs of the Blitz around the City.
While my Grandmothers were evacuated, both of my Grandfathers were in Coventry on this night.
They survived (luckily for me!) but hearing their stories and looking at the pictures....It must have felt like the end of the world....
Lets never forget that generations sacrifices - we owe them alot.
My father was an air-raid warden during the blitz. He told me he was chatting to another air-raid warden for a few minutes and then said "see you later" and walked away. As my father walked away a bomb fell and killed the warden he had just been speaking to. My father had some pieces of the shrapnel in his personal belongings. Shrapnel was nasty stuff, heavy like lead and with jagged edges, it would do far more damage than a bullet.
my grandfather died in the raid. direct hit on an Anderson shelter in Foleshill. somehow my dad survived. my grandfather was laid out dead on the Foleshill Road, where his brother later found and identified him. He is buried at Bedworth.
Growing Up in Cov in the 50’s, I was told that in the mid 30’s, Armstrong Siddeley intended to supply Mercedes Benz with gearbox parts , due to the poor German economy. By 1938 people knew that a war would take place, so Armstrong’s cancelled their plans. The MD of Mercedes wrote a letter saying that should hostilities break out, the location of Armstrong’s body shops were known. Prior to the big raid, all Armstrong’s body shops were bombed over a matter of days...
Great video. Terrible loss of life that could have been lessened but for Coventry being betrayed by decoders.
Terrible destruction of the city but rebuilt well for a then modern vision. Only to be unnecessarily destroyed by Coventry City planning dept. They managed to finish of what the Luftwaffe failed to achieve by ripping the heart and soul out of the City centre.
I was born and bred in Coventry. Stupidly moved away for reasons. Visited the city centre recently and utterly saddened to what they've done over the past 15 years. Broadgate is a disgrace.
Coventry was not "betrayed by decoders", this is a myth and a rather insulting one for the people who worked on the Ultra project. The Ultra archives (including the de-coded material) are in the National Archives and no evidence for the rather shocking claims has ever been up-earthed historians ... in fact there is evidence to the opposite. No-one (apart from the Nazis) before the night of 14th November 1940 knew that the target was to be Coventry.
The whole city has been ruined in recent years by appallingly inappropriate development and architecture, not to mention the demolition of many beautiful historic buildings.
In the very early 80s I was researching a school history project in the Coventry archive office in Broadgate. It was fascinating to rummage through the many original documents they held there. I distinctly remember a pair of old scrapbooks, in which were pasted a large number of telegrams. They had come from all over the world, from heads of state and other notable figures, all expressing sympathy for the people of the city after the bombing. I found it very moving to handle them, knowing that they were carried through the still smoking ruins to the Council House.
I’m on here to see what faced my grandad during the bombing. He was on the anti aircraft guns with the army. He was posted there from the Isle of Man. Seen a few photos of him with his regiment.
I don't know why you didn't mention that this raid was expected.
Decoded Ultra messages did not state the target city to be attacked, but in this case Coventry was accidentally mentioned.
Rather than evacuate the city, all British officials could do was tell all air raid wardens and fire stations to be on full alert.
Enigma was considered to be too important to the overall war to hint to the Germans that the codes had possibly been broken.
Sorry, but this is just a myth. Ultra had no idea that the target that night was to be Coventry, no-one knew until the bombers were well on their way to Coventry on 14th November 1940. The claim was made many years later and has no evidence to back it up.
@@andrewwigglesworth3030 ok. This is the story I heard. You could well be correct. But it it was undeniable that the Ultra breaking had to be kept secret at all costs.
@@andrewwigglesworth3030 Upon further research, the actual truth may never be known. It appears that many areas besides Coventry were targeted that night. Even downed and captured German bomber crews say that. So yes, I could be wrong. It could be a quasi myth. But all I wish to do is be historically accurate.
@@Mike12522 That's from a theatre play. Not reality Moonlight Sonata was the codename for the german attack. And the British Airforce intelligence gave 5 destinations none of them Coventry. By the time Conventry was known to target. High command was in the bunker and scrambled fighters. But Churchill did on the 7th of November strength anti-aircraft was increased in Coventry defenses anyway, so we got really lucky. 500 tons of explosives, 33,000 incendiary bombs and dozens of parachute mines on the industrial city of Coventry. We got really lucky to get only 507 dead. That's a lot of explosives. In comparison Rotterdam blitz He 111s dropped low to release 97 tonnes (213,848 lb) of bombs, mostly in the heart of the city. And Rotterdam blitz killed 1000 and 80, 000 made them homeless. It burned for 5 days from what I remember. And I think our attack on German towns made the concrete roads turn into molten liquid. Irony Joseph Goebels called our attack a terror attack on Dresden 25k and somewhere around 200k homeless. Meanwhile, they set v2 rockets at the same time.
@@Mike12522 Sadly acting and media have never done justice to history and real events. Even Shakespeare's famous funeral for Ceasar is not as good as what really happened. But people will know the made-up history more than real history. Which I find a shame. But youtube has allowed a platform from real history to be told as it is. Not to fit in advertisement slots on tv or fit a documentary narrative.
British scientist RV Jones suspected and discovered Luftwaffe bombers were using radio beams to locate the target at night . The Luftwaffe initially used a radio beam system called Knickebein , but the British countered this by sending up their own radio beams - So the Luftwaffe brought in a new system called X Gerat and the radio beams were switched on at the last moment before being used by Luftwaffe pathfinder bombers . This gave the British a much smaller opportunity to find out what frequencies were being used .
" Ultra" picked up the code name and there would be a bombing operation of the night of Nov. 14th , but they did not know the target. The X Gerat receivers in the bombers used a very narrow bandwidth filter and the British frequency used to attempt the jam X Gerat was 5Khz off. As such , the X Gerat system worked that evening .
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I was born in Coventry in 1947 but I moved to London at a young age and then back to Coventry again in my mid twenties. I was dismayed to see the Lady Godiva under a canopy. It looks awful and wrong. It should be in the centre of the green where it always has been. Whose idea was this? I went to Coventry College of Art (used to be Technical College then). I think it has been pulled down, I’m not sure. I still live in London however.
Such a night for coventry
someone once told me about the bombing of Dresden near the end of the war. he reckoned it was a similar medieval town like Coventry had been and suggested it was a last chance before the Russians came in from the east for a score to be settled. an eye for an eye. don't know any truth in this maybe it has some logic as to why Dresden was decimated as a reprisal?
We don't have any evidence it was done as a reprisal attack, especially since it took place years after the Coventry Blitz. But it's possible the Blitz influenced some decisions to heavily bomb Dresden - although its destruction was to the benefit of USSR forces.
@@HerbertArtGalleryMuseum The sad thing is that the bombing of Dresden had little effect upon the war, including any supposed benefits to the Red Army. Dresden was a city packed with refugees and the bombing had very little influence upon German war production.
From what I understand , the original intention of the RAF attack on Dresden was to knock out the railway junction lines . This would have greatly reduced the German army's mobility as the Soviet Army were approaching Berlin .
However, if this is true , then why did the Lancasters have so many incendiary bombs ? They would have been needed to mark the target , but then explosive bombs would be needed to destroy the railway junction .
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Dresden? There is not such a place any longer." "I want to point out, that besides Essen, we never actually considered any particular industrial sites as targets. The destruction of industrial sites always was some sort of bonus for us. Our real targets always were the inner cities.
- Arthur Harris
Coventry was a legitimate military target.
The RAF had already bombed cities and towns in Germany for six months.
Just a silly little question how many aircraft did the Germans lose on that night let me guess None we don't talk about that the Germans would have shot down quite a few over Germany all the fighters would have been London
One German aircraft was shot down during the Coventry Blitz of 14 November 1940.
@@HerbertArtGalleryMuseum on the ball embarrassed one probably engine failure nice video just a sore point not defended and sold out for the greater good
@@Allegedly2right Coventry was not "sold out."
@@andrewwigglesworth3030 been a busy boy tonight why was only One aircraft lost over Coventry.because there was no RAF there because they were down south simply as it was a disgrace History
By the time the Luftwaffe bombed the munitions factories in Coventry the RAF had already bombed cities and towns in Germany for six months.
🔔🔔🔔🔔🔔 King George had to laugh as it was the first time since the 15th century Coventry had lawfully Earned something.
willyThornSnook4thOscarHamowStyNabeerz!!
excellent video, the “music”, not so much
I'm pleased to see a reminder, of the horror that Coventry suffered via the Luftwaffe. BUT ONLY, because I'm tired and sickened by the obsession that lefty liberals of this generation have, for the Allied raid on Dresden. YES--it included the USAAF, NOT just the RAF, but you'd never think-so by the ludicrous obsession with the RAF's part, which was at Night, whereas, the USAAF raided in the daytime, and bombed ashes and rubble. Did THEY suffer years of criticism? NO. they were and are treated as Hero's, many were killed in that raid, the war, was still killing our troops.
Churchill confirmed the Dresden war crime was only done to terrorise the civilian population.
Churchill began civilian bombing.
What was De Valera’s reaction, from neutral Ireland, the sole pseudo member of the Commonwealth to remain uncommitted to oppose evil, and pray don’t reply with at that bs about Irish volonteers in the Britain’s forces and gallant brave Merchant Navy, they did so for a variety of reasons, all honourable, brave men, and better than boredom in a dead land of moral cowards like the Anglophobic IRA/SF mentalities…
Terrible😢
The music is not nice to listen to; it is jarring, interminable and grating - so much like the nights of bombing in Coventry.
Well composed.