It must have been a glorious sky......

[Tim]

November 14, 1940.

One of the brightest full moons of the year was almost holding hands with 3 planets, Jupiter, Saturn, and Uranus, with The Seven Sisters also waiting in the wings. If you have Stellarium, it's well worth taking a trip back in time to see just how it looked.

But on this night, history was being made, and a new word was being coined.

Coventration. It was a word used to describe the absolute destruction of a city by repeated and extensive aerial bombing. Never before had so complete and terrible a destruction been rained down upon a civilian target. Coventry was once one of the finest preserved medieval cities in the world. After the night of November 14th, 1940, all that was left of much of it, was a pile of ashes.

Tonight's full moon, I believe, coincides with the one by which the attacking forces identified their target, hence the name of the operation to destroy Coventry, - "Moonlight Sonata".

I love a picture with a story, and when the sky was clear last night, I couldn't resist the chance to head down to the centre of Coventry, and to see if I could get a photo of what became an icon of the destroyed city, the Cathedral.

The photo below is taken through what used to be a stained glass western window, from the outside, looking in, with the moon shining brightly where the roof used to be. I will post some more pics in the widefield section, under the heading "Moonlight Sonata".

A local cemetery holds a mass grave for the hundreds of lives lost that night. They died under the same moon, the same stars, the same skies as we live under. That was a lifetime ago. Standing in the ruins of the Cathedral, it could have been yesterday.

TJ

[saturn5]

Terrific image TJ,cracking viewpoint and a very poignant story.

[Sam]

Very nice shot TJ - very sobering thoughts.

[Beyond_Vision]

Thanks for sharing that with us Tim a poignant picture to remind us of the sacrifice people made or us.

Regards

Kevin

[ashenlight]

Fantastic TJ. Really moving... haven't got words for it really. Well done

[TakMan]

Beautiful photography matched to a poignant story... superb!

Damian

[ashenlight]

I've just gone back in time with Stellarium as you suggested TJ... what a sight...

[FLO]

Top post and pic TJ

[dobserver]

That's an amazing photo, and all the more poignant for the story behind it.

Steph

[Wobbly Bob]

Well taken and told Tim

[MaCross]

Superb pic & story!

[barkis]

You've certainly stirred up deep emotions TJ.

That was such a terrible time for that great City.

Coupled with your words, they are Very moving images.

Ron.

[ZOG]

Tim, that's a fabulous image and history lesson. Got to be a contender for POW.

[themos]

Very nice photo, Tim. As for the history, I have one small comment. Coventry was not the first, alas, to suffer so. Guernica before it and Chechaouen before that had been attacked in the same manner and with the same intention.

[StarMan1701]

Apparently, so the story goes, Churchill had prior knowledge of the Luftwaffe plan to bomb Coventry, but could not evacuate the city for fear of tipping off the Germans that we had been reading their secret communications, (it is generally agreed that the breaking of the German naval and air force codes shortened the war by as much as two years).

If you look at the old newsreel footage of Churchill visiting the ruins of the city the following day, you can see the burden, (and possibly guilt), of that knowledge in his expression...

Lee.

[Tim]

The BBC documentary featured recently on BBC2 made the statement that they knew there was a significant raid on the way, they just didn't know where. By the time the target was known, it was too late to take effective action.

Themos, yes, of course Coventry wasn't the first civilian target to be so attacked, nor incidentally were the casualty numbers high considering. But as a concerted effort, involving 515 planes, and 500 tonnes of explosives upon a city of 330,000 (Guernica for instance had 5k population), it seems to have marked a turning point in the conflict, and a new attitude towards what was acceptable in the so called "rules of war", from both sides.

The city is now full of cheap 50's architecture, which is gradually being replaced.

[barkis]

Bomber Harris had little concern for the rules. The bombing of Dresden and the resulting firestorm was horrendous. A lot of retaliatory vengeance ensued that gave little credence to any rule books.

We've learned nothing. The world is still crazy.

Ron.

[Tim]

Thats the saddest part Ron.

[themos]

But as a concerted effort, involving 515 planes, and 500 tonnes of explosives upon a city of 330,000 (Guernica for instance had 5k population), it seems to have marked a turning point in the conflict, and a new attitude towards what was acceptable in the so called "rules of war", from both sides.

The turning point seems to be late August 1940 when the RAF flew bombing raids to Berlin intended to provoke the Luftwaffe to switch tactics from attacking RAF airfields (mainly) to targetting industrial and population centres in retaliation.

[JamesK]

Amazing. And relevant. Not really much else I can say.

[jgs001]

Tim, a superb image, reflecting a very sad story. I've just time jumped in stellarium too... what a sight that would have been... and Orion ready to shoot both planets with a single arrow too... but very few would have been looking that high....

[Beulah]

This story has been in my head all day at work, and the symmetry of Saturn, Jupiter, the Moon and Pleiades positioned in 1940 has also been a memorable image.

TJ, you really made an impact,here.

[Paul78]

Excellent shot mate. Thanks for sharing this with us.

[laser_jock99]

Thanks for posting the picture and the story.

I lived in a village about 8 miles south of Coventry city centre. On later air raids the War Department used the fields around here as a 'decoy' to divert the bombers. Long troughs containing petrol were set alight and from above they looked like burning streets. The German bombers would drop thier payload on the dummy 'streets' and wasted the bombs. It must have worked because there are plenty of bomb craters still to be seen in the woods and fields around here. In one case you follow the line of an entire stick of six bombs!

[albedo0.39]

Hi TJ -gotta love this post and some excellent remarks about the whole subject. I've been to Cov only twice, but the sense of history is palpable when touring the cathedral. I've long been a student of recent military history and there evidence of our past everywhere - if you know where to look

The smart thing however is to link the place with the time and then capture it for us all to see

Top man Tim