Coventry blitz: was destruction of medieval centre Hitler's revenge?

Coventry cathedral
The ruins of Coventry cathedral after the building was destroyed by Luftwaffe bombs during the 'Baedecker raids' of the second world war. Photograph: PA/PA

Even its most ardent defenders would struggle to claim that Coventry is a beautiful city. Despite efforts in recent years to spruce the place up, it is still seen by many as an expanse of gloomy postwar concrete and tarmac.

Which is why, according to poet and writer Jackie Litherland, many people have forgotten the real reason why the Nazis launched their savage attack on the city at the start of the second world war. Litherland caused a flutter among historians todayafter claiming the city, and the country as a whole, had actually forgotten why Coventry was targeted.

The commonly-held view is that 500 Nazi planes wreaked havoc on Coventry because its factories churned out parts for warplanes and munitions. But Litherland, who saw the city burning as a girl, believes the real reason was to deliberately tear the heart out of a lovely medieval city and thus exact revenge after attacks by the RAF on Munich. Most experts disagree with the thesis ‑ but some in the city are wondering if she may just be right.

The trigger for this re-examination of Coventry's wartime history was a BBC documentary Blitz: The Bombing of Coventry. The film told the story of the devastating attack in November 1940 through moving interviews with survivors, interspersed with analysis from experts.

Much of the history is uncontested. In an horrific 12-hour period, many thousands of tonnes of bombs and incendiary devices were dropped on the city by more than 500 German planes. Homes, factories and Coventry's medieval centre, including its beloved cathedral, were destroyed. Hundreds lost their lives and for a while the morale of the city, and the whole country, looked as if it might have taken a mortal blow.

The hour-long film went with the mainstream line on why Hitler targeted Coventry: before the war it had become an important centre for engineering and manufacturing. During the war years "shadow" factories were set up next to automotive plants to build parts for aircraft. Taking out Coventry would have dealt a severe blow to Britain's war effort. But Litherland, who lived close to Coventry and was lifted up by her father on that awful night to watch the flames, remembers it differently.

In a letter published by the Guardian today she claimed the BBC was repeating a "misleading myth". She argued Hitler launched the attack as revenge for the bombing of Munich by the RAF six days before the Coventry blitz and chose the Midlands city because its medieval heart was regarded as one of the finest in Europe. Litherland, 73, wrote: "His revenge was to entirely remove from existence the medieval city centre of Coventry as a demonstration of his ruthlessness and insane power."

She went on to argue the factories were not the main targets, as they were on the outskirts of the city, and claimed "the obliteration of the medieval city centre was so complete that nothing of it seems to remain in the national memory of the British people. In this way Hitler seems to have achieved his aim."

Speaking about why she felt moved to write the letter, Litherland said she thought that there had been a collective amnesia over the reasons for the raid.

"I think it is because Coventry has since become synonymous with the car industry and other industries. When people think about Coventry now they associate with it being a modern, industrial centre, not a lovely old, historic, medieval place." She pointed out that later Hitler did order the so-called "Baedeker raids" ‑ attacks on cultural centres meant to undermine morale. "It seems to be part of an attempt to degrade history in the memory of people," she said.

Litherland also stressed that at the time the British government claimed that Coventry was not a military target, a comment carried in the BBC film. She believes the government may have underplayed the destruction of the historic city centre to try to help morale, and it is certainly true that Winston Churchill was concerned the attacks could undermine spirits.

But experts on the second world war lined up to question her version of events. James Taylor, a historian at the Imperial War Museum, said the Nazis looked north after failing to smash London and pointed out that other industrial centres such as Liverpool, Manchester and Birmingham were also hit. Neil Forbes, of the school of international studies and social sciences at Coventry University, asked why the Germans had not targeted other even more historic cities such as Canterbury at the same time. Frederick Taylor, a historian who has written about the attacks on Coventry and on Dresden, dismissed Litherland's view as "fanciful nonsense".

Local historian David McGrory partially supports her view: he has written that the attack was revenge for Munich, but he also goes along with the thesis that the main target were the factories.

Steve Bagley, of the Coventry Transport Museum, was a little more sympathetic to Litherland. The story the museum tells is the mainstream one. "But it is an interesting idea that another reason may have gone out of our community consciousness," he said. And whether or not Litherland's theory has any basis in fact, at least her thoughts are a reminder of a city's lost historic heart.

The Baedeker raids

If Coventry was razed as an act of revenge it was by no means the only place in England – or Germany – bombed through retaliatory cultural destruction.

Between April and June 1942 five historic English cathedral cities were badly damaged in the "Baedeker blitz", so called after a Nazi official claimed the targets were being selected using the eponymous travel guides. The raids were launched in response to an RAF attack in March on Lübeck, a Hanseatic port with a fine Gothic centre, badly damaged by the resulting firestorm.

Following a raid on Exeter on 23 April, Bath was targeted during two nights and a day of bombing which destroyed around 900 buildings and damaged more than 10,000, including the Assembly Rooms. Most of the buildings were restored.

Following a retaliatory RAF raid on the historic northern German port of Rostock, Norwich was attacked on 27 and 29 April, with thousands of buildings damaged. In the intervening night, York was hit, wrecking many historic buildings including the now-restored medieval Guildhall. On 3 May it was again the turn of Exeter.

The final attack came on 1 June, two days after a huge RAF raid on the historic centre of Cologne. Canterbury was attacked and its medieval centre badly damaged. The cathedral, spiritual heart of the Anglican church, was not struck.

While the Baedeker blitz was devastating and terrifying, killing more than 1,500 people, all the cathedrals survived and many historic streets were subsequently restored.

Peter Walker