The night 16 Coventrians died in Kenilworth trying to escape the Blitz

Pictures, maps, memories and stories

The night 16 Coventrians died in Kenilworth trying to escape the Blitz

Postby dutchman » Sun Jul 03, 2022 3:35 pm

The Abbey End air raid saw 25 people killed after a stray bomb was dropped on the Warwickshire town in November 1940

Image

Coventry burned in November 1940 as Nazi war planes dropped bomb after bomb on an industrial powerhouse. The city became known for the damage it suffered during the Blitz, with buildings demolished and civilians killed in the onslaught.

The city was a terrifying place to be at night, and many residents made journeys outside of the city to try and make themselves and their families safe. Kenilworth was one such place Coventry residents flocked to, with a nightly exodus of people fleeing the city and German bombs.

But just days after the devastation which saw Coventry Cathedral bombed, a stray raid dropped a landmine in Kenilworth. It is not known why. Tragically, 16 Coventry people who had fled to the safety of Kenilworth died while taking shelter with friends and relatives over the border, as did eight residents.

The Abbey End bombing became well known in the Warwickshire town. But in Coventry it has stayed firmly in the shadow of bigger air raids which destroyed the majority of medieval Coventry.

Robin Leach is a Kenilworth historian who has been writing about the town's history for over thirty years. We spoke with him to find out about the tragic incident.

"We had several bombing raids through Kenilworth," Robin told CoventryLive. "One of them was on the night of the Coventry Blitz, November 14, where one Coventry person died in Kenilworth.

"Then on November 21 the main attack that night was actually on Birmingham. Why this one aircraft left the Birmingham attack and came this way we don't know. It's something that's never really been discovered. It might have been a deliberate attempt at a separate attack.

"It's unlikely Kenilworth was the target because bombs dropped on Leamington at a similar time was quite a big target for its industry and of course, Coventry as well.

"They come from the southwest over Dorset and it seems to have left the main attack on Birmingham, seems to have branched off from the main attack around Stratford and dropped two bombs in Kenilworth. One was in open fields near the cemetery, and second one landed at Abbey End.

"We had some small industries but not the big ones like Coventry and Leamington had so they were probably just to terrorise or accidents. Maybe air crews just dropping their bombs at the earliest opportunity and fleeing. Or they got nervous or jittery. We just don't know.

On November 21, 25 people died from the bomb - 16 of them were from Coventry, people who earlier in the day had made a move from their homes in the city in a bid to stay safe. As a sad piece of twisted irony, had they stayed in the hometown that night they wouldn't have died.

The people who died ranged in ages between teenagers and people in their 60s. Many of them were family or knew each other. One was a soldier on leave due to the birth of a child. You can see a list of the people above or online here.

The Globe Hotel is generally associated with the incident, but Robin says of 70 people staying there only three of them died - the rest were elsewhere on the street. But how did so many people from the city end up in a neighbouring town?

"When the air raids started people just started leaving Coventry at night to escape it," Robin explains. "This was a week after the Blitz, of course. Some that came were people that lost their houses anyway, so they came over to Kenilworth and a lot of them stayed with friends and relatives.

"The Globe Hotel publican was a Coventry person that only taken over the pub a few weeks before so a lot of people knew him and headed for the pub because he had a large room at the back.

"So people just left Coventry in their thousands. Every night - literally in their thousands.

"Every night they would queue to get into Kenilworth. I've heard stories of queues of cars coming into Kenilworth. One family of eight used to walk about seven or eight miles every night, from the other side of Coventry to Kenilworth.

"People used to push prams with belongings in, they used to bring their cats and dogs and budgies in cages and things like that. It was a proper Exodus every night."

Robin has fought hard to have those who have died remembered, both through his own work as well as campaigns for memorials in the town.

He said: "It's the same with all wars we commemorate, sometimes the civilians are overlooked. Everybody has war memorials to their fallen soldiers and quite right too, but often civilians are overlooked.

"The Abbey End Civilian Memorial was put in place in about 1995 but with no names and they were added in 2020, the 80th anniversary. The grave of the ‘unknown souls’ was not marked until 2016; it contains an unknown man (most probably from Coventry and thus likely to be recorded as one of those missing) and all that was found of two Kenilworth victims who were closest to the explosion.

"The anniversary is now marked every year by a small ceremony on the correct day, all are welcome and we do get relatives come from Coventry; all three of these, the ceremony, gravestone and nameplate were the result of a campaign I carried out over a number of years."

Robin's book, World War 2 Comes to Kenilworth, is out now. Find out more about it here. He will make a personal appearance at Kenilworth Books on Talisman Square on July 9, find out more here. Robin is also keen to hear from relatives of those who lost their lives, contact can be made via his website.

Image
User avatar
dutchman
Site Admin
 
Posts: 50286
Joined: Fri Oct 23, 2009 1:24 am
Location: Spon End

Re: The night 16 Coventrians died in Kenilworth trying to escape the Blitz

Postby Blitzkid » Tue Jul 05, 2022 10:29 am

DUTCHMAN ROBIN LEACH SAID WE JUST DON'T KNOW.--- Why? Every one else knew if they were around at that time, Lone raiders dropped bombs at Pailton hitting the village school, Shilton was only a couple yards from disaster when a lone raider bombed both the canal and the main railway line , the Coventry canal at Sutton Stop was breeched by a lone low aircraft and loads more places, in Sussex a whole generation was wiped out when the village school was hit in broad daylight.
Letters to the telegraph complained about low level planes in Coventry. more nerve wracking than the bombing.

It was well known that both Hitler and Goebbels maintained the belief the British people would opt for- to avoid all-out war would choose a Quisling government under Loyd George, these low level attacks were to destroy the morale of the people, and except their terms, and so was Coventry's Blitz, but thankfully the brits stood firm. The first Bombs of the blitz was to set fire to the peoples Cathedral, the very Heart of the people in those days.
Whenever tragedy struck in Britain then people flocked to the Cathedral. now it may not seem much today, but way back then people did, There were a lot of miners in Coventry, and they felt very deeply towards their 'Brothers' as they called them.
User avatar
Blitzkid
 
Posts: 379
Joined: Wed Jan 26, 2022 6:33 pm

Re: The night 16 Coventrians died in Kenilworth trying to escape the Blitz

Postby Blitzkid » Wed Jul 06, 2022 10:04 am

Well I for one would like to know more.
The night of the blitz in Coventry had no petrol for anyone to go anywhere. the last garage, with a little supply sold out to its tradesman. AND THE Milk board or whoever told you which street you could deliver and so on.
Car lights where heavily masked, so no one attempted to drive down Country lanes in the blackout.
HG and military did night exercises, so you were stopped, and turned back.
----------------------------------
At the age of sixteen you had to sign a register, saying where you preferred to work, or what arm of the forces you would like to join.
At the age of eighteen they then selected for you, some times the one you preferred.
If not the forces you had to sign a register every day saying were you would a attend to do fire fighting, wether the sirens sounded or not. The police or ARP where allowed to stop anyone and ask if there business was necessary so who were these people that could travel, dodge and bend the rules and travel around the Country side in the blackout? with out Petrol?

In the first four hours of the blitz I never saw a moving car in my district. not one other than authority.
But rumors were rife, and highly exaggerated.
User avatar
Blitzkid
 
Posts: 379
Joined: Wed Jan 26, 2022 6:33 pm

Re: The night 16 Coventrians died in Kenilworth trying to escape the Blitz

Postby dutchman » Thu Jul 07, 2022 5:11 am

As I understand it business owners locked up their premises for the weekend and fled the city in anticipation of the expected raid.

That created a problem for firefighters as they were often unable to locate the keys to burning buildings.

I know of at least one business co-owner who was killed when returning to the city after the car she was travelling in plunged into a bomb crater due to the blackout.

Image
User avatar
dutchman
Site Admin
 
Posts: 50286
Joined: Fri Oct 23, 2009 1:24 am
Location: Spon End

Re: The night 16 Coventrians died in Kenilworth trying to escape the Blitz

Postby Blitzkid » Sun Jul 10, 2022 9:31 am

Dutchman rebbonk,

'750 thousand, pets where put down in nov 1939, there was not a cat or dog in the whole of Britain other than autherised, so the above they brought their cats and dogs is utter rubbish. the real Coventry in those distant days was different to what you all think, because you have no record.
User avatar
Blitzkid
 
Posts: 379
Joined: Wed Jan 26, 2022 6:33 pm

Re: The night 16 Coventrians died in Kenilworth trying to escape the Blitz

Postby rebbonk » Sun Jul 10, 2022 1:48 pm

Blitzkid, I'd read about the destruction of pets, but never really understood why. Did this go on in other countries, France for instance?

the real Coventry in those distant days was different to what you all think, because you have no record.
That's why you are such a goldmine, you were there and first-hand memories and experiences are hard to beat. ;) Please keep those memories and experiences alive through us, please keep telling us what you saw and experienced. :thumbsup:
Of course it'll fit; you just need a bigger hammer.
User avatar
rebbonk
 
Posts: 65579
Joined: Thu Nov 12, 2009 7:01 am

Re: The night 16 Coventrians died in Kenilworth trying to escape the Blitz

Postby Blitzkid » Mon Jul 11, 2022 8:26 am

Yes, I cannot say about other countries I simply dont know. What we do know the Hitler was a biblical throw back to ridding the world of the Jewish race, opposed by most of his generals---- Lets go back a few years,
User avatar
Blitzkid
 
Posts: 379
Joined: Wed Jan 26, 2022 6:33 pm

Re: The night 16 Coventrians died in Kenilworth trying to escape the Blitz

Postby Blitzkid » Mon Jul 11, 2022 8:46 am

We were running out of food the U-boats were sinking our supplies at an alarming rate, we could not afford to keep pets. Google "put down of pets" for story.
Last edited by Blitzkid on Sat Dec 10, 2022 6:32 pm, edited 1 time in total.
User avatar
Blitzkid
 
Posts: 379
Joined: Wed Jan 26, 2022 6:33 pm

Re: The night 16 Coventrians died in Kenilworth trying to escape the Blitz

Postby Blitzkid » Mon Jul 11, 2022 9:45 am

Sometime in early 1937 there was a knocking at our door, my sister looked out the window wait she screemed, Dad your guns its military, dad unlocked the chain and we boys smuggled the guns into his wood shed, then we opened the door.--dad sent us in to the back garden, he would explain later,---We all sat down with cups of tea, no we were not getting split up -You three boys will have to sleep in one bed, your sister will move in to your room with you, with curtain, her Box room will have two soldiers with us , and we will have to manage as best we can. In the next few days men appeared built bunk beds in the boxroom built a screen for my sis the two soldiers came they were to build a top antiaircraft site in the field on the opposite side of the road to us, and for several months thats what Happened.
User avatar
Blitzkid
 
Posts: 379
Joined: Wed Jan 26, 2022 6:33 pm

Re: The night 16 Coventrians died in Kenilworth trying to escape the Blitz

Postby rebbonk » Tue Jul 12, 2022 3:15 pm

Blitzkid wrote:...we could not afford to keep pets. Google "put down of pets" for story.


I've done this, Blitzkid and have read lots of differing views. Apparently, the PDSA and RSPCA were against it, as were Battersea Dogs Home and, after the event, many pet owners blamed the government for causing unnecessary mass panic and hysteria.

I know from my own life that the history books, the newspapers, and even the courts, very often aren't interested in the truth, but have their own agendas.

That's why it's so important to me to hear from someone who was there at the time; someone who actually lived through it and saw what was really going on. ;)
Of course it'll fit; you just need a bigger hammer.
User avatar
rebbonk
 
Posts: 65579
Joined: Thu Nov 12, 2009 7:01 am

Next

Return to Local History

Who is online

Users browsing this forum: No registered users and 3 guests

  • Ads
cron