The Blitz - 14th November 1940

Whilst I am aware that Sweden supplied Germany with essential iron ore during the war, I was not aware that at any stage it had fallen to Germany. I do know it was an escape route for many fleeing the Nazis. Interesting posts on this subject.

On Monday 27th November at 7:10 a.m. there is a programme about the Coventry Blitz on Freeview channel 48

Hector1, Sweden was far from the war in Europe - although you could say it was a neutral country it did supply iron ore to Germany's war machine. They did not have to march in, they were already there. Apart from the iron ore it was an Arctic wasteland. I don't think it was any threat or use to the war, certainly it did not interest me back in the fifties. Norway was more important for Germany, could use her three big ports, but the war was about France, Holland and Belgium, and England, for Russia at that time had a pact with Germany and supplied her with oil.

In 1940 the German army outnumbered all the other countries put together - men, machines, tanks and planes etc. He simply overan most. Hitting us in a weak spot he was able to encircle us like a vice and hit us from every side, apart from that little corridor the French and the BEF were being annihilated. Had BEF been wiped out we would have come to terms the same as the French did. We had nothing to fight with, and no real army left, there would have been no choice. This is not defeatist talk, 'plain historical fact' - we would have formed a Vichy Government same as France. At that time every village, every town, in the USA had bold placards displayed 'Keep us out of Europe's War'. Roosevelt asked for our Navy. But Dunkirk was a miracle, and Hitler saw us as a little island, still no danger, as long as he kept our factories from producing war materials (BLITZ time). He turned his army, scrapped the Russian pact, to drive out Communism. Around the 1990's a lot of material was released that squashed a lot of our myths, we now have a better picture of what went on. But no matter how you see it, that May month changed not only Europe but the whole world. (feedback?)

Smiler, So did you see that Blitz programme? There was one scene showing a poster on a wall, the headlines "Never Again" - well there were scores of those posters around Coventry, I believe the days after Dunkirk, and thousands throughout the country. Reminders of 1914, morale had dropped from optimism to pessimism.

Will be watching the one on Monday 27th as I have set it to be recorded

Dreamtime, then a few more facts you were to young to know. The government and the military top brass were ex-public schoolboys with their rivalry, jealousy and favouritism. The government went to war against Germany because it invaded Poland. But when Russia invaded east Poland Britain did nothing against Russia. Britain needed Russia to beat the Nazis, and needed Germany to beat the Communist spread. 'A Comic Opera'. Britain had a secret service, MI5, made up of ex-public schoolboys, but a number were Russian spies - Philby etc. - so Moscow knew everything that Britain knew. A new branch was formed for decoding - Bletchley Park - also old public school, with jealousy, so they didn't tell MI5 everything they knew. But most of the decoding was too late to be put into operation, like Pearl Harbour. Russia also had spies in every top American important place including the space programme, so Russia knew every detail as it happened, so their own people improved on it and won the space race with the first man to orbit the earth.

Thanks Kaga Put it together and what have you got - a good TV series. I do remember the Philby and Co affair though and talking of TV I found the Bletchley Park series most interesting. I like a bit of intrigue, beats all the Soaps. The trouble is they may be good productions but how do we tell the truth from fiction. The reality of the Blitz is a far cry from what we are shown on the screen.

Hello. A possible starting point is the 1939 Register through 'FindMyPast' website. A survey of all civilians taken at the end of September 1939. The left hand edge of the right hand side page is usually visible and gives away any membership of civil defence sort. ie: A.R.P. or nursing or police, fire etc. Warwickshire libraries give free access. I don't know about Coventry area. A search of the index is free anyway and quite informative if done by address having found the area a person of interest lives in. A months premium subscription is well worth it to research a locality. Any records accessed will always be accessible after the subscription has ended.

Good morning Past Present & Future, Welcome.

I have recently learned that my father, a lorry driver, was ordered to work nights after the Coventry Blitz. He had to drive through the night, no street lighting and only a slit over the headlights, from Swansea to Coventry - no motorways, so it was through every little town, village and Cardiff, Gloucester. Say 20 mile an hour for 7 hours! Why at night? His 'load' was coffins stacked as high as bridges would allow, it would not be good for morale for the public to see the coffins. My sister was 10 at the time, tells of my mother's anguish at the perilous nature of the journeys he made. Is there any source that you could point me to that would perhaps have written detail of these facts. I know it's highly unlikely, but who knows.

Morning all Our local radio Breakfast Show guest read out this morning the first of a series of writings from a diary, written by a Coventry telephone exchange operator, recording the events of the evening seventy eight years ago today, when Coventry was bombarded with the event known as the November blitz. It chilled me to my marrow. Those living at the time in Coventry paid such a price. So many other UK cities took devastating bombardments, but we live in Coventry. I was born post the blitz, but one of the most common phrases used as I was grow up was "before or after the war". Being told what used to be in a location that was just a hole in the ground, like the top of the Burges, where we walk from West Orchards to Trinity Street. Nationalism, when we are cheering our side on, is exciting, but nationalism incited by evil prescriptions I hate. It doesn't take much to whip up frenzy in communities. Look at the 2011 summer unrest riots where folk with no previous criminal record, including a school head girl, wanting to be a medical nurse, was convicted of looting and larceny. Totally out of character. I'm being a bit careful not to go down too deep into politics - being a democracy, we all have our views. I am very cagy about some of the allied activities towards the end of the war, but will leave that there. Revenge can be awful and stir more hate than the original perpetrator actions. For me, the chances are that my "birth" mother, who died at my birth, was a victim of the awful events of the blitz, but in the last twenty years, my German born GP has saved my life on two specific occasions. Sometimes I have to look at who wrote the prescription, whether it be for warfare or saving lives.

LEST WE FORGET

For the first time in my life I was about to see the horrors of war and the practise of making history. After long months of anticipation, destruction came on an epic scale, and I realised I would be drawn into this horror. But for Coventry it destroyed a way of life that had been in the city for generations - the way of markets, buying and selling from person to person. Even the streets would change, most of the inns where business had been held were demolished, ancient houses, churches, buildings with their ancient forms that had been part of the landscape would now disappear. The Broadgate I knew for so many years, with its colourful awnings and its traders shouting their wares, where you could slip from one side to the other in a few steps without breaking the spell of the atmosphere, the barrels and tubs holding the goods with so many scents, the nick-nacks, all only a doorway from each other. The market place where a trader with his roaring voice and bellowing laugh, over twenty-stone or more, fair-haired and red faced and was known as the 'Squire' used to have us kids spellbound. The market tower stood like a sentry guarding the people. Fruit and vegetables of all shapes and sizes, there was no limit to what you could buy or bargain for. We really did lose a way of life that had stood for centuries. There was so much history that Coventry lost that night that would never been seen again.

Yes, thoughts tonight for our beloved city and all those lost. RIP