The Coventry Blitz: Our takeaway from history
By Remya Padmadas
November 14, 2016 marked the 76th anniversary of the mass bombing of the city of Coventry by the Germans, during World War II.
Remembrance day events were held all over England in memory of those who had lost their lives in the bombing that happened during the Second World War, 76 years ago.
Buried in this event in history, is perhaps a lesson not known to many. A lesson in mutual forgiveness, empathy and understanding, espousing the values of humanity that we, as a people, stand for.
One that would be most relevant in today’s difficult times.
Flashback: When all hell broke loose
By November 1940, World War II was in full swing.
Italy, Germany and Japan had just signed the Tripartite Pact. The Hungarian Army was killing Romanians in Northern Transylvania as a part of their so-called ‘ethnic cleansing’. London had been heavily bombed by Nazi Germany.
Coventry, was at the time, a major manufacturing hub for war machinery.
The First World War had prompted a build up of armament factories in the city, and this was ramped up during WW II. Several companies including Dunlop, Rolls Royce and Armstrong Whitworth had turned to manufacturing of barrage balloons, aeroplanes, engines, armoured troop transporters, materials for parachutes etc.
The trigger for the Blitz came on November 8, when the British RAF attacked a railway yard at Munich, where Hitler was scheduled to give a speech celebrating the anniversary of his 1923 coup in Bavaria. The attack was weak and there were hardly any casualties, but Hitler was deeply insulted and vowed to retaliate.
On the evening of November 14, Nazi Germany struck back with an iron hand.
449 German bombers, carrying 30,000 incendiary bombs, including 1600 high explosive bombs, descended upon Coventry and bombed the city to ruins. The attack by the German Luftwaffe, nicknamed “Operation Moonlight Sonata” began with fighter planes, equipped with special navigational devices, dropping marker flares on specific locations across Coventry. This was followed by a second wave of bombers who dropped highly explosive bombs on the marked locations, which resulted in the city literally turning into a ball of flames.
The bombing cut off power, gas and water supply all at once. The main target was the factories producing machinery for the war effort, but the Germans also targeted two hospitals, two churches, hotels, clubs, cinemas, public-shelters, public swimming baths, a police station and a post office. More than 568 people were killed and 41,500 homes damaged. The Coventry Cathedral was razed to the ground.
All in all, the Coventry Blitz was, no doubt, one of most devastating events of World War II.
In the minds of the people of Coventry, there was so much fear, disbelief and anger. Entire generations of families had been wiped out completely and there was chaos everywhere.
It was then that Richard Howard, provost of the Cathedral, made a decision to break the cycle of bitterness and hatred. He decided to rebuild the cathedral, not as an act of defiance, but rather, as a sign of faith, trust and hope for the future of the world.
When the 1940 BBC Christmas Day service was broadcast from amongst the cathedral ruins, he vowed that, once the war was over, the cathedral would work with the people who had previously been their enemies “to build a kinder, more Christ-like world”
Shortly after the destruction, the cathedral stonemason noticed that two of the charred roof timbers had fallen in the shape of a cross. He set them up in the ruins with the moving words ‘Father Forgive’ inscribed on the sanctuary wall.
After the war ended, the cathedral donated a “Cross of Nails” to the Kaiser Wilhelm Memorial Church in Berlin, which was also destroyed in the war.
Dresden: An undisputed holocaust
Four years later, the Allies were working to attack German cities like Hamburg and Dresden.
Historian Frederick Taylor noted that “there was no direct “revenge” motive as people often think. However, undoubtedly, if Coventry was the blueprint, then Dresden’s fate was the perfected ‘product’, and a very terrible thing it was too”.
In four raids between 13 and 15 February 1945, the British and Americans dropped more than 3,500 tonnes of bombs on Dresden in Germany, killing an estimated 25,000 people.
Germany and Britain were even, at least for the time being.
After the war, the communities of the two cities that became symbolic of the devastation — Coventry and Dresden — were twinned.
Today, in the grounds of Coventry’s ruined cathedral stands a sculpture presented to the city by Dresden’s Church of our Lady— its landmark church that was destroyed in the war and later rebuilt.
Frederick Taylor said that “the relationship between Coventry and Dresden is a fine thing, one that allows a little faith that human nature can sometimes change and get better.”
“I know from my contacts with survivors of both raids that the desire for reconciliation is very genuine.”
Meanwhile in Coventry, nearly 40 years later
Walter Regener was a German pilot, who flew with the Luftwaffe and was one among the bombers, who bombed Coventry on the night of November 14, 1940.
In a letter to Melvin Brownless of the Aircrew Remembrance Society, England, he wrote about his involvement in the Blitz, “…a terrible undertaking, also when I remember the bombing of Coventry. The ugliest crime, inhumane and horrible for all things, innocent civilians, elder and children had to lose their lives. What a sadness.”
In the year 1996, Regener made a trip to Coventry to honour the victims of the German bombing in 1940.
The Coventry Blitz happened back in 1940. But looking closely at the events that have been unfurling around us, not much seems to have changed.
No, we haven’t had a Third World War; at least not yet. But it doesn’t seem to be too far, going by the violence that has been perpetrated in Syria, Nigeria, Iraq, Kashmir and the likes. As we turn more and more desensitised, casualties of the war start to feel simply like collateral damage.
Maybe it’s time to take a step back, and take a leaf out of the book of history, however old it may be. Maybe backward is the new way forward.
