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The Blitz Britain on fire

One thing I will NEVER forget was in Yardley Brum November 1940 looking south towards Coventry in WW2 and seeing the whole city ablaze. The ruins of the Cathedral is still there as a monument

CovCathedralruins.jpg
 
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I also remember the very red skies looking east and north from where I lived in the Solihull area. Can't pinpoint a date or occasion but in the earlier stages of WW2 it seemed quite frequent.
 
oldbrit said:
One thing I will NEVER forget was in Yardley Brum November 1940 looking south towards Coventry in WW2 and seeing the whole city ablaze. The ruins of the Cathedral is still there as a monument

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My mum took my daughter out for the day when she was around 4 or 5 years old for a trip to Coventry to see the ruins of Coventry cathedral, my daughter is 43 now and still clearly remembers that day out with her nan.
Thank you for posting the photo
Wendy
 
I did not have this on my 'must watch' list - i fact I don't have such a list - however I did see the programme. It was all about Liverpool but the same experiences, hardships and loss of live equally applied to Birmingham and many other of our cities.
 
What a wonderful series of programmes it brought back memories of being down in a reinforced cellar 2 Sandy lane Aston.
The elderly lady explained it very factual Siren then down the shelter, the drone as enemy planes passed over head you'd hear the whistle of bombs falling then you waited for the bang. sometimes no bang was heard was it a delayed action bomb was it a bomb that failed to go off or was it or was it empty shell or bomb storage casing throw out of the planes to make planes lighter to fly back to base.
Then the all clear siren you'd emerge out of the shelter tired and shaken, to the smell of leaking town gas and the smell of water on hot bricks and timber burning and the only sound you hear is crackling fire and an odd shout.
It's something you never forget I very often think I can smell that horrible smell but it's just in the mind. I do hope we never see those days again.
 
i agree ray both wars were just awful...i cant imagine what it was like to have lived through them..no wonder a lot that did survive came out damaged souls with little or no help given in those days...respect to them all

lyn
 
Those were days before the 'nanny state' arrived. People, in general were more stoic then, but it has to be said that many who lost loved ones did have a lot to bear, sometimes with great difficulty.
 
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