Coventry & Warwickshire in WWII

Colcov. And would you remember that some days the blimps would be hovering over Coventry like a great shoal of silver fish, snub nosed facing into the wind. Occasionally they would shoot skywards, and I would shoot home before the 'moaning minnies' started and the guns barked. What a time we lived through.

August 1939, Coventry. We wait - war or peace? The governments have locked themselves in and continue exchanging letters, we no longer know what they are saying. Dad and I had a discussion about the duration if war came. Tension was running high, people seemed resigned that we would win if war came - almost cheerful in most households, soldiers were billeted on us. Sand everywhere - the weight of Coventry must be increasing! - the glare of paraffin arc-lamps as the frantic sand bag filling goes on through the night. Lorries, dust and smoke, petrol fumes. Cyclists, young couples, old men, stand and watch - discussions of the different kinds of explosions, and the protection from them. Young men, already in uniform, they are part of something, vital and important. Just call an office, sign your name and immediately you're somebody instead of nobody. Dad and I went for a walk across the fields. Out there in the quiet, if the heads of state walked in the open air in a big beautiful meadow, the countryside stretching around them, would they negotiate the difficulties peacefully? Last night we went to the pictures. When we came out, feared we had gone blind, it was pitch dark, not a street light, no lighted windows, tiny coloured crosses on the traffic lights. Cars had headlamps covered, using only side-lights. and police now wore steel helmets.

Sept 1939 Political events grew from day to day, and the day has come - 'We are at war'. Children have been evacuated, Barnbys toy shop in Corporation St already have a new huge toy across their window, a model of the Maginot Line section and toy soldiers, a lorry with a blimp attached. I would have bought one but dad said, "Tanks will simply go round them". Nurses are attending courses on gas casualties, great arguments as to where they should be treated, wounds first or gas? At what point to remove from contaminated stretchers, are dead to be decontaminated or kept from clean corpses, serious questions? But first, attend to the want of nature. Bleach paste was carried in gas mask box. All cinemas and theatres are closed in Britain. Two ships were sunk, just hours after declaration, sunk by torpedoes from U-boat - one ship, hundreds of Americans trying to escape the war. Gas masks were issued to everyone. Differing opinions on how and when they should be carried and worn. Tops of post-boxes painted with gas-detector paint, and frightening leaflets were issued about enemy planes dropping poisons. Income tax rose by almost 50%. The war was now under way.