Hello,
I went to see the above titled play this evening and it was very good. Its basically about the raid that devastated Coventry on the night of 14 Nov 1940 but wrapped up in a plot line involving a budding love affair and the possibility that Churchill may have knew that the raid was coming but did nothing to keep the enigma code break secret. Whether there is any truth in the latter i have no idea, but it was very good theatre.

My grandad was an air raid warden that night and i am a serving Police Officer in Coventry so i felt some strong connections, and amongst the audience i could hear people talking about their experiences of that night, it made the 68 years that have passed seem not too long ago at all. Coventry still has reminders of that night and the subsequent raids, as demonstrated last year, when the theatre was first performing the play on the 67th anniversary of the raid. On the construction site next to the Belgrade theatre a live WW2 german bomb was unearthed and subsequently detonated on site, but only after the city centre and surrounding areas where evacuated and i did a 16 hour shift. Made me chuckle that 67 years ago my Grandad was having an utterly crap time because of German bombs and there was i 67 years later and still our family was geting messed around by German bombs!
I know this isn't really connected with modeling, but as we all seem to like our military history i thought it would be nice share this small piece with you.

Chris.

Hi Chris,my mum was living in Burton Hastings nr Nuneaton that night,she was 12 yrs old, and she recalled vividly the noise and the lights of that raid and how frightened the family and the neighbours were.
About 6 yrs ago I visited Lubeck in Germany as a quest of a friend whose wife is a local historian.Lubeck was allegedly bombed in retaliation for Coventry and it was interesting to see the comparisions in the destruction caused.My friend was a serving police officer,and they showed me the police station that had been rebuilt from a partially destroyed bakery during their air raid.
Yes,I find it fascinating and rewarding that all history is still being remembered and recorded,and thanks for the input.
.....Dave.

My mum was eleven at the time and remembers listening to the bombers passing over her house on the run in to Coventry.
I believe that many firefighters were sent from Nottingham that night to assist.
Thanks for sharing.
Nige

Chris,
The fact that Churchill knew the raid was coming is true, the British had cracked the Enigma code and found out from radio messages that the raid was planned. But if they evacuated Coventry then the Germans would know the code was cracked and thus stop using Enigma and change it. So Churchill had to decide what to do and as you know the raid went ahead and hundreds if not thousands died in Coventry, but many more were saved and the war was ended sooner because we could read Enigma coded messages. It really was a dammed if you do, dammed if you don't decisions!
David