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This story was told to a people's war volunteer and Mr Gadd fully understands it will be used on the web site.

I was aged nine when Coventry was blitzed in the war. I sat at home under the stairs with my mum and sister which is where we always went during a raid. I should have been evacuated really but my mother wouldn’t allow it saying if we die we all die together.

On the night in November of the big raid on Coventry my sister was due to be married on the Saturday. We were under the stairs and the house got a direct hit from a bomb which landed right on the roof of our house. There was a ‘whoosh’ then a huge explosion . It blew the roof away and the beds came through the ceiling — we lost everything but all walked out of the house without a scratch. I was deafened by the noise for three days. I remember the wine glasses were lined up ready for the wedding and after the bomb we found the stems , still in a line with the actual bowl bit of the glass blown off. We rallied round and got new glasses.

It was a different world during the war and a real feeling of togetherness — people were nicer and helped others out and kids could go out and play. The only fear in society was from the war. We used to , as children, go out looking for incendiary bombs — a friend of mine Arthur took a shell home to show his Dad who nearly had a heart attack when he saw it and realised what it was. I used to have piano lessons and my music teacher used to tell me off if I stopped when I heard the sirens or once even when I heard a bomb. She wouldn’t stop even for the war.

It was hard for Coventry after the blitz — there were temporary shops everywhere and food was short . I’d have liked them to rebuild the cathedral as it was rather than the modern building we have now.

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