Coventry at War
Coventry at War
“At a few minutes past seven on the evening of Thursday, 14 November 1940, the historic city of Coventry was subjected to the longest, most devastating air raid Britain had yet experienced. After eleven hours of continual bombardment by the entire Luftwaffe bomber fleet the people of Coventry emerged from their half-sunk Anderson shelters and their cellars, from under their stairs or kitchen tables”
Frederick Taylor, ‘Coventry Thursday, 14 November 1940’
14th November 1940
Coventry has experienced war. On the 14th November 1940 the Luftwaffe launched Operation ‘Moonlight Sonata’ with its entire bomber force of over 500 aircraft to destroy Coventry. Although it was a clear bright night, the secret of German success that night was, for the first time in history, the use of a top secret targeting mechanism, ‘X-Gerat’, which allowed them to locate the city with pin point accuracy dropping more than 500 tonnes of bombs and incendiaries. By the time the second wave passed over Southampton they no longer needed their specialist navigation instruments because they could see Coventry burning 140 miles away.
Peace Through Strength (‘Pax Per Fortitudinum’)
The People of Coventry rebuilt their City and its cathedral and established a Centre for Peace and Reconciliation twinning with towns such as Dresden and Kiel in Germany, Stalingrad/Volgograd in Russia, Lidice in The Czech Republic, Belgrade in Serbia and Jinan in China. Coventry knows the price of war and that the best way to maintain peace is through strength.
