大象传媒

On blitz night I was attending a staff works night at Kennilworth, I worked for Armstrong Whitworth Aircraft. It started on November the 14th 1940 at 7pm - it was a very full moon, and the visability from the moon was almost like daylight. I picked my friend, Bill Elliot at 7pm and came into the city centre, Broadgate, By five past seven the city was in flames through incendiary bombs, even the Catherdral roof was in flames. I was driving to a dance at the Abbey Hotel in Kennilworth, and even the clock tower in Kennilworth was hit by a stray bomb, possibly a landmine!

The continuation of the aircraft carried on from 7pm onwards, at regular intervals, and I had a feeling something big was going to happen.

The raid continued and at midnight the dancing ceased, so I decided, because my parents were in Coventry in the family home, and I was rather worried about them, to return to Coventry via the Kennilworth Road. I was still driving my car, which was a Raleigh 9! On my way I passed various craters in the roads, and the bombs were still falling! I drove back in to the centre of the city, there was devastation everywhere, broken glass and debry everywhere. On Broadgate I came across five waitresses from the Kings Head who where sheltering in doorways on Hertford Street, they were very frightened. I told them to pile into the car, and I drove them to Gibbett Hill air raid shelter. I left them there because I was still worried about my parents, so once again I drove back along the Kennilworth Road, into the centre and into Earlsdon Avenue South.

Coming down the Avenue I came across a crater, which I tryed to go round but ended up stuck in it! It must have been about 2am by this time. This meant that I had to proceed on foot, as I walked along it was very eeary and strange, all the houses windows were broken, and I remember curtains flapping in the wind. All the time the enemy aircraft were still proceeding in to drop bombs on Coventry, there was a continuous drone of bombers. As I approached Earlson Common, a German Bomber came over from the West over the Common, firing his guns, how he missed I'll never know! I reached my parents home, in Soverign Road. I knocked on the door, and of course at that time, most people had beds downstairs or in the shelter. The door opened by my mother, and not a word was spoken! I don't think she was happy with me waking her up!

I slept in their house until 9am, when someone knocked on my parents door to say that they thought I had been killed!

My father and I set about retreaving my car from the crater, which we towed out with my father's taxi!

Immediatly after the bombing, Coventry was declared a military zone, to prevent people looting. A very sad sight that day was the people leaving the city in droves, carrying their possessions, wheeling them on prams, just desperate to get away. My own parents left, but I stayed. I should really have returned to work, but I didn't go back until about three or four days later. I still don't know what kept me Coventry, but all I know is that I just couldn't leave.

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