The Blitz - 14th November 1940

There were up to 1,500 high explosive bombs dropped on the one night alone, so mapping of all the craters would hardly be a priority at that time. I know of a map showing some of the craters that affected the tramway system that was drawn by J.C. Gillham for an article in Tramway Review, volume 4, issue 30 in 1961. It was reproduced in the 1974 commemorative brochure when the Corporation Transport Department was absorbed into WMPTE.

A little off topic, but I wonder if any of you know that the British Para boy during WW2 lugged over 100lbs of weapons and bombs on his person into a plane and out of a plane, this little lot had been under his bed while he slept most probably. Its not the ones that have gone off, its the little b*****s that haven't that scared me. No wonder we carried a spare set of underwear inside a pocket over your rear. Just a thought.

There was no shortage of bomb sites left in the city after I arrived but I famously discovered a rescue worker's helmet in the one at the eastern end of Bond Street where an unexploded 50kg bomb was found a few years ago. I felt extremely cheated.

Having lived through the Coventry bombing and many years before the bombing, the history to me was the emotions of the people and the change in their outlook, shock, frustration, anger, relief, disbelief, you name it, it was all there. By the end of the war, gone was the old ways, the peace, the tranquility of the people, the friendliness of the city as a whole community. For me the bomb craters pale in the light of the faces of the tiredness, the frustration and the anguish of the rescue workers, the fire fighters and everyone involved. Life did change, there is a very good book called 'When Daddy came home' and the bombing, rationing and blackout and war, all combined had a great effect on the way we are today.

What we would like to see is a Coventry version of this Southampton map

This coming Friday, 'Movies4Men' Channel at 3:05pm is the film/documentary, 'The Blitz on Coventry' for anyone interested. Sky 325 & Freesat 304

Just watching this film and if anyone prefers to skip to the first video of ground images they can be found on the 20 minute mark.

The title was a bit misleading as the Channel named it "The Blitz on Coventry" but the programme itself was named "The Blitz on the Midlands" which included Birmingham and Nottingham. That said, it was still interesting .

Interesting map MR but it only tells half the story. Germany like us had a wide assortment of bombs from incendiary to large high explosives. I remember watching search lights following the decent of what we called Bread Baskets that came down somewhere beyond the clod banks. These were dropped by parachute and detonated about 50ft above the ground causing a huge amount of damage and loss of life. The one I observed probably just killed a couple of cows. If that.

Coventry Blitz 50th Anniversary commemorative events leaflet - 14th November 1990:

Coventry 1939 77 years ago your parents, grandparents and relatives were waking up to the fact that they really were at war and had enormous burdens to face. My family for example; My father had a young family to try to protect. He had a teenage daughter and the first hurdle was, we had two strange men (soldiers) billeted in the house, my sister had to sleep in with us boys, then he had to think of who and how to evacuate some of the family, plus trying to cope with fixing a safe air raid shelter at the bottom of the garden. Mother was trying to cope with a new baby and cot in a small room, ration books had to be understood, trying to make us kids realise how important it was to carry gas masks. On top of this dad had to do a full day's work, join some unit, ARP or HG, plus fire watch duties at place of employment. People with older kids were already seeing them go off to war, this was going on all over Coventry, even before we got to the horror of the bombs. Everyone was involved in some form or another. Just a thoughtful reminder.

Thank you again Kaga. You remind us that though the history of war remembers the great battles, those who fought those battles were individuals - someone's son, someone's father, someone's husband. While overall we as a nation won the war, many individuals lost everything.

Can I go along with that Pix. My teen years were spent during the 50's and looking back I can't ever remember my parents discussing the war years. They were too busy making the best of the situation and creating a happy existence for me and our nearest and dearest, and thankfully did not suffer losing everything they possessed. So we had/have such a lot to be thankful for.

Apparently bomb census maps were made for the whole country and are available at the National Archives (Ref HO193) though they're unfortunately not online. Coventry to Exmouth are HO193/59.