Coventry city centre — the raid of 14-15 November 1940

14-15 November 1940 · Coventry, West Midlands

Date: 14-15 November 1940
Record type: Historic bombing area
Bomb type: HE
Location: Coventry, West Midlands
Position accuracy: Rough area

What happened

449 of the 522 bombers despatched reached Coventry in a concentrated ten-hour attack, dropping some 503 tons of high explosive and oil bombs and around 30,000 incendiaries. 2,306 houses were destroyed, 41,500 damaged, and 111 of the city's 180 factories hit.

Casualty note

Sources differ: Historic Coventry and the Imperial War Museum give 568 confirmed killed, while Coventry City Council states the official death toll was 554. Both are CITY-WIDE totals for the whole ten-hour raid. Historic Coventry adds 863 seriously wounded and 393 injured.

Also worth knowing

This marker exists to hold the raid-wide totals so they are not misread as belonging to the cathedral or any other single site. Around 50 parachute mines of 1,000kg each are recorded as falling that night.