Coventry
Thursday, 14 November 1940
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Coventry
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Narrated by:
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Leighton Pugh
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By:
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Frederick Taylor
About this listen
The German Luftwaffe's air raid on Coventry, England, on the night of November 14, 1940 represented a new kind of air warfare. Aimed primarily at obliterating all aspects of city life, it was systematic, thorough, unconnected to any immediate military goal, and indifferent to civilian casualties. In a single night, roughly two-thirds of the city's buildings were damaged or destroyed as the bombers laid waste to legitimate industrial targets and civilian structures alike. The old St. Michael's Cathedral, a 14th-century Gothic structure that burned to the ground that night, still stands in ruins today as a testament to the city's destruction during the raid.
Pragmatic British government propagandists would exploit Coventry's perceived status as a "historic town", playing down the city's industrial reputation. This would prove to be a powerful tool, and, as Frederick Taylor shows, was instrumental in tipping public opinion in the then-neutral United States away from isolationism and in favor of help for Britain.
But the bombing would also set a dangerous and destructive precedent as Allied air forces would study the Germans' methods in the attack and ultimately employ similar tactics in their equally ruthless and destructive attacks on German cities, eventually leading to the bombings of Hamburg in 1943 and Dresden in 1945 that killed hundreds of thousands, mostly civilians.
On the 75th anniversary of the Coventry bombing, acclaimed historian Frederick Taylor brilliantly details this momentous act and analyzes its impact on World War II and the moral quandaries it still engenders about the nature of warfare.
©2015 Frederick Taylor (P)2015 Audible, Inc.Listeners also enjoyed...
What listeners say about Coventry
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- McC
- 17-05-17
Great, ya know.
Nice. Highlights shame on us not showing off great industry, great output of equipment to fight the Nazis and strong under adversity. After shaping the modern world in war and peace the city should be given special recognition.
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance4 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Ian
- 22-02-18
Book fantastic, voiced well
Wonderfully written and researched book. Narrator very good but tries a little too hard with the accents when reading quotes; forcing a grating Birmingham accent for first hand accounts from Coventarians is tiring. That is however a minor fault - there is little to complain about, a great book.
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2 people found this helpful
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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- james dixon
- 10-09-18
Sad
If you want to know about the Coventry bombing buy this download. Great information on Coventry
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1 person found this helpful
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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- Anonymous User
- 16-09-19
Learn Something New Everyday
Coventry being my home town, I look on what happened to the place in 1940 with fascination. Over the years, many stories have been written and television programs produced, but none tell of the story before or after the 14th November.. This brilliantly written and narrated book has shed more light on pretty much everything to do with Coventry from just before the war to several decades after it. Criticism and prise heaped in equal measure and where required. Each listen reveals something I missed the first time over.
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1 person found this helpful
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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- Mark
- 14-06-23
Informative listen
Being Coventry born this book has clarified so many miss truths told growing up. I feel I know more about my home city and inspired to learn more.
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Overall4 out of 5 stars
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Performance3 out of 5 stars
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Story3 out of 5 stars
- Matthew Cooper
- 16-02-19
Informative but a bit too long
So I got this book as I am from coventry and wanted to know more about the blitz. The book was very informative and I learned a lot about Coventry’s and it’s efforts in the war, it mentioned a lot of locations which I knew and lived around and was nice to know what was going on .
However the performance, the book just felt sooo long every sentence seemed to drag until eventually I played this at 1.75 speed and I could still keep up with this and understand which helped the book not drag at the end. The author has gone into great detail listing things sometime which no one would even care about however the narrator hasn’t gone to the same lengths as Coventrian accents where voiced in brummy/ Black Country accents, which is a massive misconception and should have been looked into before the performance.
The narrator felt a little bit to upper class and felt like I was being taught in school and not being told a story I found myself getting a bit bored with him.
It’s a great story if you want to know about your roots but you probably don’t need to listen to the last 3/4 hours of the book
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1 person found this helpful
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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- maurice corry
- 25-11-19
very accurate
extremely good book as a Coventrian I learned a great deal about my own City
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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- Lee Sanderson
- 10-07-22
Brilliant read
This is an in depth account of the bombing of Coventry. As a proud Coventrian myself it was fascinating yet at the same time harrowing to hear what so many of my family members had to endure that night and during prior and subsequent raids
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