Dante’s Inferno. November 14 th.1940. A night that was to be vividly remembered by everyone living in war-torn Britain on that fateful evening. A date that would be recalled with horror for every November for as long as we might live. Following the fall of France in mid-summer, Hitler had declared ‘Total War’ on Britain and now in mid-winter he ruthlessly set about carrying out his threat to ‘Rub out your cities’ Up till now apart from London, there had been numerous air raids on English cities and the populace had become accustomed to as many as six attacks on various provincial cities daily whenever the weather permitted. Nothing the like of what was to follow. I was living in my birthplace Northampton at that crucial time. Where I lived was right on the edge of town with nothing but open fields across which stood a vast railway marshalling yard where goods trains were assembled before being dispatched all over Britain. This work continued night and day, the yard being floodlit despite the total blackout , it was a veritable oasis of light and a source of great danger to inhabitants such as we living nearby. C’est la Guerre ! Obviously we were living next to a huge prime floodlit target, but one gets used to anything ---eventually. Strangely this target was never attacked in six years of warfare. All sorts of rumours abounded at the time as to why not? For German bombers flew over countless times on their way to the industrial Midlands. It was to be a ‘Bomber’s Moon’ that evening , a cold crisp brilliant moonlit night that was to be feared for they would be over for sure as soon as the daylight faded. Suddenly simultaneously all the floodlights were extinguished at the rail yards ----and we knew [my father and I were watching on our doorstep] that we were in for a raid. Then I heard it, a bomb descending it was a ‘screamer’ ---one fitted with noise vanes in its tail ---awful noise!! I turned and ran through our pitch dark house and in the dark straight into the open edge of the kitchen door. For a moment I saw stars and thought the house had been hit. Then the sirens sounded and I realised that wave after wave of Germen planes were passing overhead. Then on the North-West horizon started a fiery glow and we knew Coventry was getting a pounding. Those lights going out suddenly were always the pre-cursor to a raid, for us it was the unofficial early warning signal. An hour passed ---then two hours and we knew this was to be a big one. In all over 500 heavily laden bombers flew over and returned later that night to drop a massive bomb load on the city lasting 13 hours non-stop. Coventry was just turned into a heap of burning rubble, just like Guernica ---Hitler had keep his word. Although we were stood 30 miles away we could see the fiery glow of a city burning on the horizon. My girl friend who was with me, had four sisters living in Coventry was worried and we determined to catch the early morning train to the stricken city to see if we could find them. As the train approached Coventry the line was peppered with craters but somehow as luck would have it the line was intact. So it was we emerged from the station we found a scene of desolation --a city of burning buildings ----a real life Dante’s inferno. All semblance of order was gone overnight, no utilities-- all were finished ---not even water to fight fires which were being dynamited to stop spreading. The city centre buildings had fallen into the streets, and dazed citizens often clad in what clothes they could grab wandering aimlessly searching the rubble for loved ones. We slowly made our way to where her [my girl friend] Aunt and Uncle had lived only to find the whole street rolled into a huge mass of rubble Her sister’s house had gone too. It had taken 5 hours of searching to find ---nothing Much later that day all the four sisters plus aunt & uncle eventually found each other in the one remaining house that had survived. Surprisingly, now nearly 70 years later two of those sisters are still alive –one indeed still lives in Coventry. Not so other citizens who had to be buried in a mass grave. The girl friend I mentioned I later married, and in 1951 we settled permanently in the Coventry for many years until her death in 1982. Later I married my present wife ---another survivor of the blitz. Whilst I stood on that doorstep watching the bombing, little did I know my future wife to be, was cowering in the middle of it all for 13 hours of non-stop bombs dropping. Happy to say that ‘all’s well that ends well’ We celebrated our silver wedding a few months ago. | 
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