The worst raid of the Coventry Blitz occurred on the evening and night of 14-15 November during the Second World War.

ON THIS DAY: 14 NOVEMBER 1940

The worst raid of the Coventry Blitz occurred on the evening and night of 14-15 November during the Second World War. 


With a pre-war population of 238,000 people, the Midlands city was the centre of Britain's car industry and also produced bicycles, aircraft engines and munitions. Many of Coventry's peacetimes industries had been converted to the war effort and the city was therefore a major target for the Luftwaffe. 

There were 17 small air raids on Coventry between August-October 1940 that killed 176 people and injured 680. Nevertheless, the raid of 14 November was the most severe of the entire war. 515 German bombers launched an attack that was intended to destroy Coventry's factories and industrial infrastructure. 

As well as being a major manufacturing centre, Coventry was also one of the best preserved medieval cities in England and the raid was devastating. 4,300 homes were destroyed, two-thirds of the Coventry's buildings were damaged and most of the city centre was obliterated. The most famous material casualty was the 14th Century Cathedral of Saint Michael, which was almost completely destroyed by incendiary bombs. Only the tower, spire and outer wall were spared. 

Many Coventrians "trekked out" of the city during the raid but approximately 568 people were killed and over 1,000 were injured. The scale of the destruction set a terrible standard for bombing raids during the war and Joseph Goebbels coined the term "coventriert" ("coventried") to describe similar levels of damage on other enemy towns. 

The Coventry Blitz was relatively small compared to later bombing raids during the war on both sides but the memory of its destruction remained strong. Saint Michael's was deliberately left as a ruin and a new cathedral was built alongside the old one in the early 1960s. 

Coventry also became the first "twinning" city when it twinned with Stalingrad as a symbol of Allied support during the Russian city's apocalyptic battle. Perhaps most poignantly, Coventry subsequently twinned with the destroyed German city of Dresden as a gesture of peace and reconciliation.

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