Coventry during the blitz

1. Coventry during the blitz

2. introduction • I have chosen to do this research on Coventry because my great grandparents lived in Coventry during the war, and my great grandfather was in the fire service during the blitz, and my great grandmother worked in the control room.

3. Before the bombing • At the start of the second world war, Coventry was an industrial city of about 320,000 people which, like much of the industrial west midlands, contained metal working industries • In the blitz Germany bombed Coventry for all their factories and in those factories they were making guns to beat Germany in the war. So Germany decided to bomb all the English factories so they could win the war.

4. During the bombing • In all, there had been an estimated 1,200 high explosives, 50 parachute mines and 30,000 incendiaries. • fire did the most damage • In the blitz because there were so many false alarms, when there was a real alarm people decided that they would ignore them and carried on there normal lives.

5. City destroyed

6. November 14th 1940 • The main night of the bombing occurred on the night of November 14th 1940 when there was 11 hours of bombing. • A third of Coventry city centre was destroyed including the cathedral which my great grandfather helped put the fire out. • The fire in the city was so large the German air force could see the glow from across the Channel.

7. After the war • The German surrendered on May 7th 1945, there were many street parties and lots of parades.

8. parades 0