大象传媒

I was born in Coventry and lived there until 1953, about 3 miles from the city
centre. On Thursday 14th November 1940,the air-raid sirens told us a raid was about to start.Our windows were blacked out, the tiniest bit of light was not to be seen, and there were no street lights. About 6'clock, which was much earlier than previous raids the sirens warned us to take cover, this was to go to the Anderson shelter which was at the bottom of the garden. The corrugated iron sheets were issued at the beginning of the war. We had to dig the ground and assemble them in a fairly large hole, half being in the ground and half above. We spent the whole night in there till the next morning. The German planes droned overhead and we could see the bombs dropping on Coventry (looking out of the shelter) making huge fires which filled the night sky. It was such a bright clear night, the moonlight seemed so extraordinary brilliant. It was very frightening not knowing where the bombs would fall. The next day we went to have a look at the Foleshill Road to see how close the bombs had fallen to us. We found the tram lines ripped up out of the ground, some houses had been hit and people's clothing hung from the telegraph wires. We later learned that the whole of the City centre was completely flat and the Cathedral was burnt out leaving only the outer wall standing. Many people were killed that night, it was a most dreadful experience.

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