In September 1940, Germany launched Operation Blitz against Britain, a long campaign of aerial bombardment of cities and towns. The Germans pursued two goals — to destroy the military industry and at the same time intimidate the civilian population. Initially, London was the main target. After September 7, 1940, it was bombed for 57 consecutive days and nights. But this plan did not work for the capital. Even in spite of significant destruction, the British managed to establish anti-aircraft defenses and inflict increasing losses on German aviation. The main factor in terms of morale was the fact that the royal family and the top of the government, despite the threat, remained in London — the bombs even reached the Parliament building.
In November, the German command decided to test similar tactics in provincial cities where military enterprises were concentrated, but the air defense was not as dense as in the capital. The primary target was the city of Coventry in central England. It experienced an industrial boom from the end of the 19th century and was constantly expanding, and during the First World War it turned into one of the main centers for the production of shells and aircraft. With the beginning of the World War II, the numerous car factories of the city with a population of almost 250 000 again switched to military rails for the needs of the aviation industry. So in that respect, Coventry businesses were a legitimate target for bombing.
Coventry in 1939. A worker at a munitions factory in Coventry cleans out rifling in the barrel of a naval gun during the World War I, 1918.
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The attack on Coventry on November 14, 1940 was called the "Moonlight Sonata".
"I was glad that Coventry was chosen as a target, as it was an important military object... The night was clear, it was surprisingly easy to fly, and it was almost impossible to miss the target," recalled German Air Force General Albert Kesselring.
At 7:07 p.m., Coventry received a "code yellow" air threat. This meant that the planes were probably heading for the city. In three minutes, the code changed to "red", almost simultaneously with the sirens, the first bombs began to fall on the city.
This time the Germans used a new air raid tactic. More than 500 planes took off in the direction of Coventry. This was the largest number used for an attack on a single city in the entire time of the "Blitz". The first were 13 specially modified Heinkel-111 bombers. They were equipped with the latest X-Gerät radar equipment, which set the flight path for the rest. The British learned how to jam such devices only a few years later. The first planes dropped incendiary bombs on the city to mark the attack targets for the next waves. And these were, of course, not only military-industrial facilities.
German bomber Heinkel-111 during one of the raids on Britain, September 1940.
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The first blow knocked out the cityʼs communications — water supply, electricity, telephones, and gas pipelines. The Germans even tried to damage the roads and railways around the objects of the attack, so that it would be more difficult for the rescuers and the police to get there. This tactic worked. By 8:30 p.m., more than 200 fires had broken out in the city. The Cathedral of the Archangel Michael in the center of Coventry was one of the first to catch fire. The team of firefighters could only watch it helplessly.
The anti-aircraft systems could not give a decent rebuff. The British fighters of the time were not adapted for night air battles. In the dark, they flew only at low altitudes and low speeds. Of the 135 British planes that took to the air that night, only two were able to open fire, but did not hit any targets. In addition, the city was defended by more than 30 anti-aircraft guns. They were a little more "lucky" — they shot down one German bomber.
The wreckage of a German bomber shot down over Coventry, 1940.
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The raid on Coventry became not only the largest, but also the longest — almost 11 hours with short breaks. German bombers flew back to airfields in the north of occupied France, refueled, loaded new ammunition and returned again. The alarm signal was sounded only on November 15 at 06:16.
It would seem that in one night the Germans achieved what they could not in almost three months of bombing London. More than 100 businesses in the city were damaged or destroyed. Due to this, the production of aircraft in Britain was reduced by 20%. But even more went to civilian buildings, especially in the central part of the city.
Footage of the destruction of Coventry and the mass burial of the victims of the Nazi air raid, November 1940.
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The city was left without water, gas and electricity. Railway connections and tram transport were completely destroyed. More than 550 townspeople died, more than a thousand were injured. It was not possible to calculate the exact number of victims. But the worst thing is that the German air strike on Coventry almost broke the "British spirit of indomitability."
The BBC journalists, who arrived in the city shortly after the attack, described a terrible picture. Coventry was warm like spring from the fires. Some townspeople wandered among the ruins with a completely blank look, others fought hysterically, others periodically lost consciousness, and others frantically stormed at least some cars to escape from the city. On the morning of November 15, 14-year-old Jean Taylor got out of the dilapidated shelter and mechanically went to school.
"I saw a dog running with a human hand in its mouth. And next to the burning building, a fireman was sobbing helplessly," she recalled.
Residents of Coventry on one of the cityʼs central streets on November 15, 1940. Residents of Coventry near their destroyed homes, November 20, 1940. A lifeguard near a fire pump in the ruins of Coventry, November 15, 1940.
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Margaret Batten temporarily lost her sight when she collapsed in a shelter after a raid. She was certain that all her relatives who were with her had died. Later, her son-in-law was found in the suburbs. He got out from under the rubble and, completely unaware of what he was doing, walked more than ten kilometers in burnt clothes.
"Unprecedented shock, despair and depression," this is how journalists described the state of the townspeople in their radio broadcasts.
Members of the government and the royal family, who came to Coventry, could not resist either. The Secretary of State for War Anthony Eden spoke of "a devastating blow to the morale of all Britons". King George VI, according to eyewitnesses, wept in the ruins of the cathedral in Coventry. And only Prime Minister Winston Churchill gave encouraging speeches in the ruins of the city. And later, with his characteristic pragmatism, he for some time forbade the press to publish news about the attack on Coventry.
King George VI (left in uniform) visits Coventry after the air raid, 17 November 1940. British Prime Minister Winston Churchill at the ruins of the cathedral in Coventry, which suffered from German bombing on November 14-15, 1940.
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A few decades after the World War II, there was a version that by that time British intelligence had already broken the German encryption codes and intercepted messages about the preparation of an attack on Coventry in advance. And it seems that Churchill himself ordered to sacrifice a provincial town so that the Germans would not find out about the attack. But according to another version, the British managed to decipher only three targets of the alleged attacks. According to the high command and Churchill himself, the main blow was to fall on London, as it had been before. Therefore, on November 14, the prime minister fundamentally decided to stay in the capital, as he did during previous raids.
Hitler described the bombing of Coventry as Britainʼs response to the "cowardly attack on Munich" on November 8, 1940. However, at that time the British were only trying to disable the local railway hub. They did not achieve particular success, but they spoiled the Führerʼs celebration of the anniversary of the Beer Putsch. Nazi propaganda chief Joseph Goebbels called the attack on Coventry the beginning of Britainʼs downfall. And even introduced a special term koventrieren — "to destroy, turn into ruins." But both Hitler and Goebbels lost.
After a downturn, military production in Coventry was back on track within months. All thanks to the strategy of "shadow factories", which Britain introduced at the end of the 1930s in anticipation of a great war. According to this plan, all, even private, industry worked for military needs, and production was decentralized as much as possible. For example, each of the main aircraft parts was manufactured at different facilities, and the planes were assembled elsewhere. Entrepreneurs handled the logistics, and the government covered the costs of such dispersal.
A shadowy aircraft assembly factory in suburban Coventry that was not bombed by the Germans in 1940.
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The British, particularly the residents of Coventry, recovered quite quickly from the initial shock. In the first weeks after the attack, more than 500 damaged homes were being repaired a day in Coventry. By January 30, 1941, it was possible to restore 28 000 houses — approximately two-thirds of the destroyed ones. A Christmas service in the ruins of Coventry Cathedral was broadcast around the world, and photographs of the destroyed church became a symbol of unity against Nazi aggression. Old Coventry Cathedral was left in ruins to commemorate the terrible night of November 14-15, 1940, and a new church was built nearby in the 1950s.
Layout of the new cathedral in Coventry next to the ruins of the old one, 1952.
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The British command called the attack on Coventry "carpet bombing". And in two years, this tactic was turned against German cities. But the British strikes were more extensive, destructive and deadly. At the beginning of 1945, Dresden was the last of the large German cities to be bombed. After that, Churchill decided to abandon such tactics. In the late 1950s, Coventry and Dresden became twin cities as a sign of post-war reconciliation.
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