Coventry Blitz

[chips]

1940 - During World War II, German war planes destroyed most of the English town of Coventry when about 500 Luftwaffe bombers attacked.

[sadie1263]

Thanks for sharing that Chips!

[Hunny]

My mother grew up in England during World War II. They'd sleep in the subway and check if their house was still there in the morning. To "dodge bombs" (as she called it), they'd stick a pin in a map, blindfolded, to pick where to move to next. And they kept moving. Coventry was one place they left..in time.

She told me some would stay put and build a bomb shelter in their yard (an "Andersen"). But it wasn't safe. Her father used to do clean up after the raids and he said some of the worst casualties he saw were in those home shelters. They were just covered holes in the ground. No protection at all.

Imagine that's how people had to live then. Awful.

She told all kinds of stories of living under constant attack. Half their house was blown up as they slept one night. Her friend was blown up. Her dog.

She joined Ivy Benson's Orchestra and played trombone after the war was over (if anyone remembers hearing about that band)... Then my father met her (he was U.S. Air Force) and they married and moved over here (U.S.) For many years she feared things would explode suddenly. I remember her being like that 30 years later. There's more to her story, but we were just talking about getting bombed...

[chips]

I remember the Anderson shelters well.

We didn't dig ours up until the 1950s and then it was used as a garden shed. It was still in place when I left home in 1962