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Coventry Cathedral World War II History

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Coventry Cathedral World War II History Coventry Cathedral World War II History Teachers Information Pack New Edition 2011 Coventry Cathedral - 1 - 2011 Welcome to the Coventry Cathedral World War II Information Pack This publication is designed to help you and your students use Coventry Cathedral as a resource for work on the Second World War aspects of your curriculum. A history tour can be organised with the Cathedral Schools Team, who will provide you and your students with guides to accompany them; or indeed you could organise the tour yourself. The booklet has both a teacher’s information section and some sample worksheets for use before, during and after the visit. We recommend that pupils fill in the worksheets after the tour – this can be done on site or back in the classroom. Please feel free to copy the pupil sheets as many times as you choose, remembering to acknowledge its source. To help you further, this pack is available (at a small further cost) on disk. E Griffiths Coventry Cathedral Schools Team Contact the team on 024 7652 1256 For booking a tour please call or visit our website www.coventrycathedral.org.uk Coventry Cathedral - 2 - 2011 THE BOMBING OF COVENTRY St Michaels Cathedral Coventry before 1940 THE COUNTDOWN : Thursday evening, November 14th, 1940 7.10 pm. Sirens sound. German aircraft overhead almost immediately. Heinkel 111 Pathfinders drop Flares to guide Junkers 88 Bombers. Many people find shelter in the Cathedral crypts. 8.00 pm. Bombs on the Cathedral. Chancel roof: smothered in sand and thrown off. South aisle: burned through to inner roof, extinguished with sand and water. Nave: burns through and falls to floor near the lectern; they smothered in sand. Cappers Chapel roof: smothered with sand Smiths Chapel roof: ditto Girdlers Chapel East end: 4 bombs of which 3 quickly burn through and set fire to the inner roof. Provost Howard realises he cannot cope. 9.30 pm. Fire engine arrives from Solihull. Hose taken up ladder by north door but water supply fails. Second hose runs through vestries and sanctuary but again water supply fails. 11.00pm. Cathedral abandoned to its fate: Crypts evacuated. Why did the Cathedral burn - and so quickly? * The roof was almost flat, so that the bombs burned where they fell. * The roof was of oak, covered in sheets of lead, which melted. * There was an inner oak roof 18inches below the main roof, on which bombs lodged. * The interior was furnished with wooden chairs and pews, cup-boards, screens, etc and contained hundreds of books. The organ burned spectacularly because of the air inside it. * The weather was fine and windy. * There were only 4 fireguards on duty: Provost Howard aged (56), Jock Forbes (65) and 2 young men. * Nobody had any experience of attack on this scale. The supplies of sand and water in buckets soon ran out. * Solihull (and other) fire engines had difficulty getting into the city * Water mains were destroyed. * Burning beams fell, bringing down their supports. * The main beams were tied with steel girders, which twisted in the heat. * One report speaks of the columns themselves appearing to become thinner (and presumably weaker in the heat) * With the pressure of the roof removed, the counter thrust had no resistance. Coventry Cathedral - 3 - 2011 WAS ANYTHING SAVED? From the Sanctuary: the high Altar cross, candlesticks, paten, Chalice, candlesnuffer, wafer-box and a wooden crucifix. From the Smith's Chapel: the Altar cross and candlesticks. From the vestries: all the Cathedral registers and service books, and the two Colours of the 7th Battalion, The Royal Warwickshire Regiment. Some of these were taken to the police station opposite, which remained undamaged. Many objects are now on display in the Gallery. Medieval Stained Glass: from the windows had been taken in late 1939 to Hampton Lucy Rectory in Warwickshire. Some can now be seen in the Gallery windows. The Cathedral clock: continued to strike the hours all night, and the quarters chimed until the electricity supply failed. The tower: remained standing; "an emblem of God's majesty and love." The crypts: were undamaged, as were the tower, spire, and the south porch. THE AFTERMATH. FRIDAY NOVEMBER 15TH 6.00 a.m. “As I went into the ruined Cathedral on the morning after the destruction, there flashed into my mind the deep certainty that as the Cathedral had been crucified with Christ, so it would rise again with Him: How or when, we could not tell; nor did it matter. The Cathedral would rise again." Provost R.T. Howard " Ruined and Rebuilt." Revd. A.P. Wales, of another Coventry Church, bound three nails together with wire into a cross, and later presented it to Provost Howard. A Press photographer took a photograph from the tower of the ruined Nave, on which can be seen two wooden beams fallen into the shape of a cross. (Copy in the Visitors Centre) SATURDAY NOVEMBER 16TH: King George VI visited the Ruins. (Painting in the Visitors Centre) A fallen pinnacle was later set up in commemoration. SUNDAY NOVEMBER 24TH: The first service was held in the Chapel of the Cross. This continued weekly until December 1958. DECEMBER 25TH BBC Broadcast from the Ruins (Shown in "The Spirit Of Coventry.") JANUARY 1941 The Altar of rubble built and Charred Cross erected in the ruined Sanctuary (This Cross is now in the Cathedral.) 1948 The rubble had been cleared from the Ruins and lawns laid out. A Cross of Nails was placed on the Altar. The words FATHER FORGIVE were carved on the Sanctuary wall, and an inscription placed on the tower. Coventry Cathedral - 4 - 2011 BACKGROUND TO THE COVENTRY RAID OFFICIAL STATISTICS. 7.10p.m Sirens sounded the alarm 30-40,000 incendiaries fell, mainly 0.9kg magnesium type. Possibly 20% were explosive incendiaries. 503 tons of high explosives fell: 12,000-16,000 bombs, some weighing 500kg. Also 50 parachute mines of 1,000 k.g. each containing 700kg of high explosives. Out of a population of 238,000: 568 were killed 863 seriously injured 393 slightly injured 6.16 am after 11.hrs 6 minutes The "all-clear” sounded. THE GERMAN OFFENSIVE 449 Junkers 88 bombers were guided by Heinkel 111 pathfinders. They came mainly from a base in Brittany: They flew along a radio beam transmitted form near Cherbourg; dropped their bombs according to radio signals sent from near Calais. The operation was code-named "Moonlight Sonata" Coventry was Target 53, code named "Korn"(= corn) Each squadron had a different target: 27: Alvis 55: Daimler 606: Gasholders. "But from 20,000 ft. a Cathedral looks very like a factory." ("The Spirit of Coventry") BRITISH COUNTER MEASURES, CODE NAMED "COLD WATER" Radio beams designed to confuse German pilots were easily distinguishable and useless. Searchlights helped the enemy to navigate. The 64 barrage balloons were too scattered and possibly too low. Anti-aircraft guns lacked accuracy in detection. Fighter aircraft were too slow and relied on visual contact. OTHER RAIDS The first bombs fell on Coventry in June 1940. October 14:1940: One incendiary bomb broke through to the inner roof of the Cathedral and caused £1,000 worth of damage before being extinguished by the fire-brigade. APR 10. 1941: (GOOD FRIDAY) early morning. A stick of incendiaries fell along the ruined nave and did no damage. A bomb at the base of the Charred Cross failed to explode. The last bombs fell on the city in August 1942. “In two raids this week 360 tons of bombs were dropped; 451 people were killed and 723 Seriously injured in the City.” (Compare the figures for November 14-15 above.) Coventry Cathedral - 5 - 2011 NEWSPAPER FILES searchlights, and at least one Junkers 88 was seen From Nov 14 th 1940. to dive in flames. PROVOST CALLS FOR HELP. A severe fire has broken out in the Cathedral Imagine that these reports were filed by reporters after a further fall of bombs. Provost Howard from the Coventry newspapers, but not published described the fire in the chapel roof by the north because of the raid. porch, as "very serious". " We've no sand or water left,” he said. Later he was heard shouting to the policeman on duty outside St Mary's hall TONIGHTS WEATHER. to phone for immediate assistance from the Fire Fine spell expected to continue for several Brigade. more days. Clear sky leading to a sharp frost. Wind strong easterly. Minimum temperature 28*F COVENTRY THE TARGET. FULL MOON Rises 5.18pm. Little more than an hour after nightfall a BLACK OUT 5.46pm. squadron of Heinkel 111 aircraft began dropping flares over the city. The whole area is now lit up from Willenhall in the east to Allesley in the CATHEDRAL HIT west. The famous three spires stand out clearly A stick of incendiary bombs fell on the Cathedral in the glare, as do factory chimneys and the within an hour of the air raid starting. Colliery winding-gear. There can be no doubt Firewatchers on the roof are believed to have that the city is a major target for enemy action adequate supplies of sand and water and have not tonight. asked for assistance. SOLIHULL TO THE RESCUE HEAVY RAID IN PROSPECT Over an hour after the Provost's appeal for help, Reports from the Royal Observer Corps indicate an engine of the Solihull Fire Brigade is now a very heavy concentration of Junkers 88 stationed outside the Cathedral and directing its bombers crossing the south coast west of the Isle powerful jets of water onto the roof. A senior of Wight the aircraft are reported to be flying Officer told our reporter that the call had come steadily northwards.
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