Memories of Coventry Blitz by Mongoose29

It was a very calm night. I could see the full moon out of the window. The children were in bed and I was playing cards with my co-workers. Half the time, we were called out to cities like London because we had to make sure no-one got hurt when the Germans were bombing. All of a sudden, the deafening sound of the air raid siren echoed around the city…

My friends rushed to their houses to put on their uniforms and I dashed upstairs. As quickly as possible, I put on my navy warden uniform and went to wake the children up. When they were safely in the shelter, I directed lots of people to there too. Then I saw a small German plane lit up in the spotlight…

The planes were dropping things but not bombs; they were dropping flares. They were lighting the city up. We all were crowded together in the small shelter. I felt like a mole under the ground with humans stomping above us and all you could smell was death and smoke. We all just sat there hoping the next bomb you heard didn’t come through the roof; luckily, none did. The whole entire city was in flames so the next wave of German bombers could see exactly where to go. The worst part about it was we were standing in water — some of it from people’s tears but most of it from the burst copper pipes. It was so hard to see; the only light was coming from my small lamp. Lots of people were bumping into each other and falling into the thick layer of water.

Happy to be alive, we all left the shelter. The first sounds I heard were crying and gasping: the whole city was falling apart. Dust covered everything and there was no colour; the water was flowing down the roads and the ancient cathedral was destroyed. Even the parts that still stood were boiling hot…