大象传媒

In 1940 I lived in Hinckley about nine miles from the city of Coventry so can only recount happenings from this distance.

At the outbreak of war, not long after leaving school, I joined the Civil Defence Volunteers, working in the Operations Room which was situated within the foundations of the newly built Police Station at the top of Hollycroft Hill in Hinckley. There was no operations room as such, merely rough shelves, chairs and telephones scattered around amidst the vertical wooden foundation blocks. After all this time I can still recall the smell of newly-sawn wood and sawdust! Sandbags were piled up outside the building and an air-raid siren installed. We rehearsed receiving and dispersing messages in the evenings and worked as usual during the day.

It was about 8 o鈥檆lock in the evening of the l4th November 1940 when, after finishing our usual rehearsal stint at the Police Station, my friend Betty and I had just stepped outside the door and, for the first time, heard the deafening sound of the siren warning us that an air raid was imminent. We immediately retraced our steps and remained at our posts in the Control Room until the all clear sounded in the early hours of the morning, whereupon we walked the few yards to the top of Hollycroft Hill to see, in the distance, the city of Coventry ablaze. What a sight! We could hear explosions, smell the smoke and feel bomb blast. I think my friend and I were too stunned and tired at this point to realise the magnitude of devastation and, more importantly, loss of life that night. There had, fortunately, been no major incident in our vicinity. We were, however, at our respective offices promptly at 9 o'clock next morning as if nothing had happened!

Whilst on holiday in Bermuda many years later, I happened to get into conversation with a lady of my own age, a long-time resident of the island who worked as a tourist guide in one of the main hotels. We talked about England and, on learning that I lived in the vicinity of Coventry during the early part of WW2, she told me of how she had worked in the code-breaking establishment situated on Bermuda and that the authorities there knew about the proposed raid on the city. Apparently, they had managed to break the German secret code but, not wishing our enemies to know this, had decided to let the raid go ahead as planned.

After discussing the event in depth I was left in no doubt at to this lady鈥檚 credibility. Was that the right decision? I shall never know. In view of my own experience, however, I find it hard to reconcile the strategy of the military planners with the destruction of a beloved city and the homes and lives of innocent fellow Midlanders.

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