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This story was submitted to the People's War site by Stella Graham from Coventry on behalf of Reginald Tweed and has been added to the site with his permission. Reginald Tweed fully understands the site's terms and conditions

THE COVENTRY BLITZ — 14TH NOVEMBER 1940

Mr Reginald Tweed is the fourth child in a family of sixteen, all born in Coventry.
Twelve are still alive today.

On September 3rd 1939 at 11am, Mr Neville Chamberlain, Prime Minister of England; announced on radio that we are at war with Germany.
Within weeks we had an Anderson Air Raid Shelter delivered to our house in Hen Lane, Holbrooks. It was made of steel, and we assembled the shelter at the end of the garden. After a while the shelter filled up with water which had to be bailed out before we could go in it. The shelter would withstand a blast but not a direct bomb hit. Some of the family were evacuated to Polesworth and Dorden.

We had many smaller air raids in Coventry before 14th November 1940. I was with a friend in the Roxy Cinema which was on Foleshill Road (nearly opposite Cashes Lane). At 6.45 pm the air raid sirens sounded and we were told to leave and head for the public air raid shelters. The nearest one to me was 500 yards away near to Eagle Street, so I went with my friend to her mother’s house on Foleshill Road, approximately 200 yards from the Cinema. At 7pm the German bombers came, first there were hundreds of flares, which lit up the full moon, then hundreds of incendiary fire bombs. Everywhere was on fire, then came the cascade of bombs and land mines. My first thought was, if I survived the bombs I would be burnt alive.
There were horrific sounds of raging fires all around, I recall in particular the fires at Cashes Ribbon Manufacturer and Courtaulds (Nylon Manufacturer). Having the Coventry Canal running alongside them helped them to fight the fires, as water was closely available. The city and suburbs were not so lucky. Before long, water, gas and electricity were unavailable. We were even running out of fire engines.

At around 6am all planes had left and I started to walk home, which was a mile away at Hen Lane, Holbrooks. My route was through Foleshill Road, Lockhurst Lane, Holbrook Lane then Hen Lane. I eventually got home, where there were no direct bombings so we were ok. My walk home took me past bomb craters in the road. Factories and buildings were either still burning or smouldering away. The factories I passed were Courtaulds, Brico, Paul Lorrimer’s, White and Poppy’s and Dunlop. Brookville Cinema was blown up; Lythalls Lane Dog Stadium was still on fire.

Later that morning I walked to the butcher’s shop where I worked. (On the corner of Cashes Lane and Foleshill Road). All of the windows were blown out. My first job was to sweep up all the glass from the pavements, then inside as well. Soot was everywhere as the blast had blown down the chimney. What a mess! I wondered how many residents were still with us? We had many customers from Cashes Ribbon and from Pattisons, opposite the shop. My boss was at Kenilworth that night and when he finally got to the shop — What a mess!
All Coventrians were in the same terrible plight.

My boss was a salmon fisher and he owned a stretch of water on the River Wye, which leads me to the story of meat disposal. No fridges were working, so the meat could not be preserved, so my boss had an idea. He had some primer stoves which he used for his weekend fishing trips while I looked after the shop. The paraffin-filled primer stoves were set up in the yard with full soft water butts, and he got cracking and cooked the various joints of meat. Everyone and anyone took the joints of meat home that day.

On the November 15th, a German reconnaissance plane came over Coventry to photograph the city. Not one gun fired at him as they were all out of action, so he made it back to Germany. That morning an American who moved to Germany before the war, known as Lord Haw Haw (William Joyce, a German radio propaganda broadcaster during World War II.) stated on the radio “Be prepared for further bombing raids to finish us off!” And a lot of people left the city by walking to Warwick, Leamington or Kenilworth.

The Germans did not come back!

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