Witness to the Gerry Raid of "Moonlight Sonata"

[Blitzkid]

1919 and Germany were found guilty of starting WW1. They were made to pay large sums of money, lost 10 percent of their lands, forces and navy reduced. Adolf Hitler, a veteran, stormed out the meeting. Germany now on the breadline, no money no food, no pride. He vowed for revenge. He joined a bunch of thugs called Nazis, by 1933 he was the headman, he claimed Germany was now a fascist Country. He closed all monasteries and the like, put Germany on a war footing. This brought employment, food, etc., and a great Army and Germany was in the palm of his hand.

1919 and Éamon de Valera, Irish politician and two others was in Lincoln Gaol for inciting IRA activity, they escaped, smuggled back to Ireland. They then held a 'march past'. By 1939 he was prime minister, and too many Irish in Coventry, so they made a time bomb and hid it in Leicester railway station, timed to go off when a train load of kids arrived back from holidays. The bomb went off on time, but the train was late-----so they made another, and this time placed it in Broadgate.

1927 A USA flier flew from USA to France alone, took 33 hours, given a military award and made a hero. Hermann Göring of the Luftwaffe offered him a look at his mighty air force, he did several times, praised them so many times the yanks went off him. The Brits interviewed him, found out how much they could about Luftwaffe. The Junkers 88 was their favourite plane. A low-flying marauder, it was in and out so fast, before anyone was aware.

1930 France spent 39 BILLION and ten years to build the Maginot Line-trenches - when every kid knew the modern war would be aerial and tank warfare.

1936 and Hitler offered to help the Spanish fascist General Franco By bombing Madrid-Barcelona. The Russians sent tanks in opposition. We kids watched cinema newsreels of the bombing so we knew full well what to expect if war came.

1939 Hitler asked Goebbels if he could get a pact with the Russians, so they could both attack Poland from different directions and share the spoils.

1st of Sept 1939 they both attacked Poland...
At this point 5.4m young Ukrainian men joined the RED ARMY of Russia.
Chamberlain sent notes each ignored so on the Saturday 2nd Sept Chamberlain sent Hitler a telegram, Britain was at war with Germany, not till the following morning did we Britons know.

[rebbonk]

[Blitzkid]

The war started in 1937 for my family. Two councillors and two Army officers visited the street seeking to find room for billeting army soldiers. My dad said "what for? Half doz sappers can erect a Nissan hut in a day for what you want!" Then he asked where this gun site was to be built? I goggled at his knowledge and cheek! When the officers told him, he burst out laughing! "You do that and the gun will be six-feet under water if the canal gets hit!" And so it was when the canal was breached, except some-one had taken notice and built a ten foot wall of sandbags between the brook and the gun, but the site was damaged. And we did have two soldiers take my sister's box room and she moved in with us boys with a curtain in-between and I got first-hand knowledge of army life and a REAL 9lb rifle.

Like most kids I had a paper round in 1939 the Midland Daily Telegraph. We also had the black-out, it made you feel like being in prison. We were invaded with pamphlets, one told us that our pets would have to go. In the second week of Sept seventy-five thousand of our pets were put down, orders of the war office. The daily papers were cut down to half size we were told to deliver from the outer back to the shop. Bread and milk were reduced to the closest delivery points, customers were made to swap rounds-men. Life was getting hectic!

[rebbonk]

[Blitzkid]

Once Poland been taken then Germany attacked France and the Low Countries. In one month MAY 1940, he swept through 7 Countries.

France became nervous, asked Churchill to give them planes, so he flew over to see what there were reserves and found they had none and our BEF (British Expeditionary Force) were in danger, so Churchill organised an escape route, 5 miles wide and shortly the miracle of Dunkirk happened and within days France fell. He came home and was furious at the squabbles of Govt while our BEF troops were fighting for their lives, but Germany had more men, more tanks, more planes than all the other countries put together.

We had read about Churchill, now home secretary, who had been sent to the Boer War as a young reporter and saw a troop train caught in a valley, fired on from each side of the valley. Churchill rode hell for leather down the valley amid the cross-fire, got the train started and saved the lives of British troops. Churchill was voted to P.M. and with his speeches gave the Country hope.

Dunkirk was a miracle, the cream of our forces were saved.

[rebbonk]

[Blitzkid]

Britain stood alone, the USA refused us a loan of war-ships or anything else and every street in the USA had placards saying keep us out of Europe's war. We had lost 11 ships in Norway that month, France fell and now at the beginning of June, Germany amassed 160,000 troops and 20,000 barges along the French and Belgium coast, a short stretch of the coast, ready to invade us.

Now dad sent me (12) and brother (8) on evacuation to a friend in the Country thinking we would be safe but not so. We had only been there two nights when a lone bomber flew low over the back garden and dropped four bombs. These hit a herd of cattle, in a field between the Canal and railway line, pieces of animals hanging on barbed wire in trees making both of us sick and faint-like, but a farmer and others were coming to see the damage. A policeman took us to Shilton school and phoned Coventry police who found my dad at work. He was released from work and came and brought us home The bomber went on and hit the village of Pailton. These were the first bombs to be dropped near Coventry. Then in July and August Coventry was bombed as normal raids.

Early Sept 1940 Hitler personally changed tactics from bombing factories, airfields and ports to the terror-bombing of civillian targets.

On the Thursday 14th Nov 1940 was half-day closing for Coventry so the city had few shoppers. It was a very clear cold day with a touch of frost and we really did think we might have another raid so most people had got back to warmth and what shelter they had to avoid the blackout. Anderson shelters were £14 EACH around two weeks wages so I doubted there were 30 in the city that night.

The very first bomb was a direct hit on my aunt/uncle's cottage at Aldermans Green Road. The fourth bomb
breached the canal at Sutton Stop closing Longford Power Station and all hell broke loose as narrow boats were dragged to the breach. Pots and pans went flying, everyone screaming, guns blasting away, shrapnel flying, towing ropes breaking or pulled from the ground, boats at all angles, men screaming trying to save the wives and kids, the noise immense. Dad and I torn between digging for aunt/uncle or saving boat people.We had heard this lone bomber peel away from the pack and attack the canal. Meanwhile in the city the sky turned from orange to red and we knew that bombs were falling like hailstones, the noise a mixture of gunfire and exploding bombs, buildings. Ex-boatmen were now swarming to help, so dad and I cycled to the source of the breach where dad instructed​ helpers how to stop the flood but by then most of the water was flooded to the Slough so he told me to go home and try to get some sleep. The noise was still deafening now much more than that. When they did leave we dreaded them coming back but they never did until April 8th, 1941 when they hit the Cov-Warwick Hospital and Henry VIII school.

A few months later we found the raiders of the 14th were the first to be fitted with crude computers. We did not know at that stage what the word computer meant, never heard of the word. Anyway these computers gave out a radio beam X-Gerat. The aircraft listened in to this beam. If they strayed off the beam it changed note. When they reached the bombing target a third beam cut in. (I'm not sure how it worked but every different squadron seemed to have the same beam and so places were hit by several waves of planes as local people recalled, Smithford Street especially, but not one incendiary bomb throughout the raid.

After the raid Coventry tried a second evacuation from Longford railway station that also ended up in chaos.

[rebbonk]

[Blitzkid]

BLACKOUT and evacuation started days before the war, but the council tried a second evacuation after the night of the blitz from Longford railway station, and on the 18th of Nov, 1940 the Midland Daily Telegraph reported that all gas and water pipes would be repaired by the end of that Monday night No one went short of a cuppa at any time.

One of the striking things about Coventry bombardment was bewilderment, what was it's intention, for such a large force , over such a long time of constant bombardment. This was never going to make people give in, only the time later of V1 and V2 weapons may have done that. They seemed to be dissipating it in a fruitless, aimless attacks on British cities.

But Coventry had far too little of Anderson Shelters, at 7 pounds each in 1939 this was about two weeks wages so was not surprising, I doubt there were more than 30 in the city the night of the night of the raid. Two weeks after the war started the the govt put down 75 thousand pets in Britain. That was a bitter blow to the people and the U-boats were sinking our supplies, and we only produced 40 per cent of what we required.

1936 Coventry was thinking of scrapping our old tram system with a new bus system, so they drained the wasteland of Pool Meadow back to the Radford Brook and although we had seen the modern Luftwaffe bombing of Spain that caused fires, Coventry did not build a deep well or sump behind the fire station to solve the problem of fires. Neither did they seem to have army telephones in case of damage to telephone wires, so a 14 year old boy ran the messages for the brigade. No, the council were to follow only gov't orders.

All cinemas closed for two weeks when war started, no large groups were not allowed, every cinema had double curtain doors so that no light could shine out. When we boys came out it was inky black. It was so damn dark that we took of our scarves, looped them in a rope like a chain, walked one foot in the gutter. Deathly silence only cries of help and the war had not really started. Number of people like groups not allowed, the trams stopped. We learnt a lot about the city that night, there was a report in the Midland Daily Telegraph next day...

[rebbonk]