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‘This story was submitted to the People’s War site by Rick Allden of the CSV ´óÏó´«Ã½ Coventry and Warwickshire Action Desk on behalf of Eva Foster and has been added to the site with her permission. The author fully understands the site’s terms and conditions’.

On November 14th 1940, just eight days after we left Coventry, the city was very badly bombed in the Blitz. The roof was blown off our house and all the doors and windows were blown in. Fortunately our family wasn’t hurt but badly shaken (they were sheltering in the cellar). There was no gas or electricity but they were able to boil a kettle to make tea and cook on the fire. Neighbours rallied round to help one another. The next day mother didn’t have any milk to deliver but the following day she did and pushed her bicycle over rubble to get to as many customers as possible.

We didn’t know Coventry had been so badly bombed because we weren’t told. It happened on Thursday evening but we didn’t hear about it until Saturday morning when a local shopkeeper asked if our parents were alright. We had to wait until Sunday afternoon, when our parents came to see us, to find out. What a relief to see them! My mum and dad had a phone but the lines were down and the people we were living with didn’t have one — not many people did.

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