Coventry Blitz

[Harry Basset]

There was a programme on BBC last night about an air raid on Coventry. It brought home the tragic and devastating effects of such events and how fragile morale was after the raid. It implied that the attack was so violent and concentrated because it took place on a bright moonlit night. I am sure I have read earlier that it was such a succesful raid, from the German point of view, because the bombers were guided by the Knickebein radio beam apparatus. These beams could be affected by countermeasures but the equipment was in short supply and it was placed to protect London as intelligence reports suggested that would be the main target. The alignment of the beams to target Coventry was realised too late to arrange the countermeasures. There was no mention of the beams last night, is my memory misleading me?

[AllanL]

I believe you're right on that. There were some ugly rumours that we did know about the beams and how to handle them - but didn't want the Germans to know too soon. So Coventry was "sacrificed" to the greater good - that is unless you or your family came from Coventry. No idea if there was any truth in the rumour mind.

[nigelb]

Some sources claim that Coventry was not warned in order to preserve the Ultra secret. The book 'Ultra Goes To War' by Ronald Lewin, denies this and claims that Ultra had been the source of warning about several possible targets on 14 Nov, 1940. One of the targets mentioned was 'korn' the code word used by the Germans for Coventry. Unfortunatly at the time, no one grasped it's meaning.

Group Captain F. W. Winterbotham in his book 'The Ultra Secret' claims that Churchill took no measures to warn Coventry for fear that the Germans would suspect that their cipher had been broken.

There is general agreement that Ultra had warned that major attacks were imminent. What is in dispute, apparently, is if the targets were specifically identified.

Nigel²