大象传媒

This story was entered onto the Peoples War Website by Rod Sutton on behalf of Frederick Hodges, the author, with his full permission. He understands the sites terms and conditions.

14-11-40 was the date when Germany bombed Coventry from dark until dawn. Their description of the raid was 鈥楥OVENTRATED鈥�. Towns all over Britain such as Plymouth were coventrated. Coventry city centre was flattened, the Cathedral was burnt out but the walls still remain with the 鈥楥ross of Nails鈥�. Firemen were blown off ladders into fires. Water ran out because pipes were blown up. 800 people were killed, hundreds more injured and I was one.

My mother, brother and I spent the night in a Morrison table shelter, a metal table which would not collapse if the house fell on it. My mother would not go down to a public shelter so we always stayed in the house during raids. It was a bright moonlight night and sometimes we saw the German planes flying low over the city which was ablaze. The next morning I went to look for my girlfriend, who later became my wife. I was walking along Berry St when a delayed action bomb (DA) went off in a house on the other side of the road. Those on that side were killed; I was hit on the back of my head, probably by a brick, and had a fractured skull. I was taken to Coventry and Warwickshire hospital, which was on fire. So I was transferred to another ambulance and taken to Warwick hospital 8 miles away. It had special wards built for war victims and became full of air raid casualties. The nurses and staff worked 12 hours a day, 6 days a week. One other patient I remember was a fireman from Courtauld鈥檚 factory Coventry. He was blown off a ladder, trapped and underneath him was a burst steam pipe. I was told he was still alive in 1998.

After the raid there was no water, gas or electricity and telephone lines were down. It took my mother 3 days to find me. When I came out of hospital a month later, the electricity was still off in our street. Mother had to cook on an open fire because we had an electric stove. A week later was Xmas and instead of the usual chicken we had a rabbit. A 鈥楩lemish giant鈥�. Mother knew a woman with a fire oven who cooked it for us and it tasted just as good as a chicken. That evening the lights came on and we had a good Xmas, the war and bombs did not spoil it.

There were many more air raids after 14-11 and mother often had to clear up soot which came down the chimney when bombs dropped near. She took very little interest in the progress of the war; her main concern was looking after the family, including an uncle whose wife was evacuated. Queuing up for un-rationed food, cooking under difficulties as well as working as an office cleaner. There were millions of women like my mum.

Another short story. One day I called for my girl to take her to the pictures. Her mum said, quote, 鈥淒on鈥檛 forget I want you back down the shelter before the air raid.鈥� How did we know there would be a raid? As it happened, there was. The cinema closed and busses had stopped, so we walked home during the raid taking shelter when we heard bombs falling. We were both 17 at that time.

Today Coventry is the centre of conciliation. There are frequent gatherings of people from all over the world, especially Germany, in the old Cathedral by the Cross of Nails. Recently, on TV, I saw someone from Coventry who took a Cross of Nails to Dresden on the 60th anniversary of the bombing there.

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