大象传媒

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This story was submitted to the People鈥檚 War site by Phil Sealey of the Somerset County Museum Team on behalf of Harry Oakley and has been added to the site with his permission. The author fully understands the site鈥檚 terms and conditions

鈥淣ovember 14th 1940 was the start of the 鈥楤LITZ鈥�, when all hell was let loose. It was a terrifying experience for every one. It was a brilliant full moon; you could read a paper by it.
We looked at searchlights crisscrossing the night sky. Guns were firing with a noise you would not believe; how it got our nerves jangling!
I remember the hundreds of enemy aircraft that began to bomb Coventry; it started about 7 o鈥檆lock in the evening and went on and on through the night, causing great misery. There were huge flashes of brilliant colours illuminating the sky. The drone of the aircraft and the high-pitched whine produced from the wings of the aircraft frighten us all the more. Of the bombs that were dropped, I remember the incendiary bombs being deployed initially, to ignite and give illumination of the target, then high explosives bombs would follow, as well as bombs that were filled with oil that ignited on impact - very nasty things.
Further hazards were the landmines, which floated down on a parachute, commonly known as 鈥楳OLOTOV BREAD BASKETS鈥� they exploded with a vivid white flash followed by a very loud bang similar to machine gun fire.
Shrapnel was dancing all around and the suction and compression from the high explosives blasts just pulled and pushed you; you could actually feel one鈥檚 eyeballs being sucked out with the vacuum. People soon learnt what dreadful effects it could have on them. It could rip victims apart, limb from limb, or leave them unharmed, just stripped naked. I have seen some, with not a mark on them of any kind, dead with burst lungs.
Then there was the big raid November 14th 1940. My brother and I shared a back bedroom whilst still living at home in Coventry. Both of us were often exhausted with not getting much sleep night after night. When you did get some rest you were dead to the world. My brother Eric and I liked our sleep and we seemed to need 8 hours to make us function properly. We were woken on this night with frantic shouting up the stairs from my dad. 鈥淐ome on boys the house is on fire鈥� we heard him shout, we thought dad was playing tricks with us trying to get us up early as 鈥榳e did like our beds鈥�; the house indeed was on fire with an incendiary attack. The incendiaries had come through the roof and the roof beams were on fire. The house was full of choking thick black smoke, and the smell of burning wood and the crackling sound of it burning with flames leaping everywhere, soon got us up out of bed to deal with it. One of the air raid wardens was already in the roof before Eric or me could get there. The warden had to come down from the roof overpowered by the smoke. He happened to be my girlfriend鈥檚 dad at that time. My dad said to put a wet towel around my mouth before going into the roof, which I did, and it worked for me. After a lot of smouldering the fire was out thank goodness. We had a ceiling clothesline full of clothes drying at the time, which was in the kitchen, and if the incendiary had not lodged where it did the whole line of clothes could have been alight and probably caused a lot more damage.
A land mine had landed on the Foleshill Road which was the main road into the city. We lived in Beresford Avenue which was off the Foleshill Road. Our local pub was on the corner of Foleshill Road and Beresford Avenue and behind the pub, on a waste piece of ground, there were garages where my future father-in-law had a pig, to help out with food shortages. One land mine left a hole you could have put four double-decker buses into and still have had room for more. There was no newsagents shop there anymore either. The blast from the land mine came all the way down Beresford Avenue, took ceilings down and all the slate roofs were damaged the whole length of the avenue. Our house had a stone bay window that was badly cracked and nearly all the window glass was gone. Right opposite, looking from our stone bay window, which was at the front of the house, there was a road called Fisher Road; both sides of that road had the same thing happen to its houses as to us.
Our local pub was also very badly damaged; no electricity, no running water and all the sewage pipes were split open. The pub was called Little Heath Hotel. On the grapevine we heard that the hotel was to have accommodated an influx of people coming to help us 鈥楥oventrians鈥� with clearing up, such as, policemen, firemen, nurses, ambulance men, bomb disposal experts and people to repair damaged property. In an emergency these people were given accommodation in our houses; some of us got temporary ceilings fixed for taking them in. It was terrible without ceilings, looking up and seeing the rafters and damaged slate roof, and so cold it made icy shivers down one鈥檚 back.
The family moved to my sister鈥檚; it was a bit of a squeeze with all of us living together but we managed and got on very well as a family. My sister Vera lived in Condon, in Evenload Crescent, with her husband Lesley and a small son called David. My brother-in-law Lesley is a cabinet-maker and an excellent wood carver. With Lesley not being on war work he was directed, fortunately, to our factory, Alfred Herbert鈥檚 Machine Tool Company, and we were able to go together when I was not on night shift. I was on the engineering side and worked in bay 21 in the experimental department, which was very eerie when on nights with the reduced lighting, but we had to manage. My brother Eric was a pattern maker in the pattern shop and this was where Lesley was directed to for war work. The management put Lesley on rough maintenance work and making rough packing cases, which demoralized him being a skilled cabinet-maker.
The city wanted firemen so Leslie volunteered and was accepted, he now felt he was doing a useful job of work. Leslie was a very quiet sort of person and despite all the horrible things he saw he would not say a thing. The firemen were very thin on the ground around the Foleshill district; they were all in the city. With houses burning everywhere we had to do what we could but I鈥檓 afraid we lost quite a lot of homes, every one did their best; there were delayed action bombs around also, going off around us. I went into the city to see the damage next day.
You wouldn鈥檛 know Coventry. The whole town was a mass of rubble, all the shops, Boots, Flinns the jewellers, Marks, Woolworths, all along and down Smithford Street, gone, not a shop standing. Coventry and Warwickshire Hospital had been damaged; the casualties were being directed to Gulson Road Hospital. Our 14th century cathedral was destroyed and more than 1000 citizens were either killed or seriously injured. It was recorded that on the raid that night 500 tons of bombs and 30,000 incendiaries were dropped. The Guildhall next to the cathedral was badly hit also. Owen and Owen鈥檚 new store bombed, flat to the ground. Our dead people were buried in a mass grave and during the interment we had an air raid warning
A cinema in the city was showing a film Gone with the Wind, it was the first night of showing.
Soldiers and gangs of men were clearing the roads and did emergency repairs to houses. What a sight! Tarpaulins lashed to the roofs, some of the buildings had to be destroyed by the Royal Engineers, as they were very dangerous to be left as they were. Hordes of terrified people scrabbled among the ruins of their homes trying to find what was left of their possessions. We were the lucky ones; we came out unscathed. Six years of misery, and at what cost!鈥�

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