Coventry people

My father and his three brothers came to Coventry from Belfast before the Second World War. My father, William, was the eldest, Bill; he wanted to join the RAF, but he was a tinker working on the aircraft and couldn't join up because of his occupation. He joined the Home Guard and was on duty on the night of the Coventry blitz.

He only talked about it once and he said he was given black bags and they were told to just put any head, two arms and legs into the bag and that would constitute a body. It had quite an effect on him.

In the Memorial Park there used to be an anti-aircraft gun; he lived within a mile or so and when the sirens went off he had to jump on his pushbike and go to the park and man the gun. Two of his brothers joined the Royal Navy; Tommy was on two ships that were sunk and he survived both. One was HMS Viceroy and they sunk a U Boat, which he was in the party that was sent to search the U Boat. They found a case of brandy, which they kept and sent to Winston Churchill. Churchill sent a letter of thanks, which I have a copy of framed in my hallway.

The youngest, Denis is now 96; he was too young to join up at the start of the war, but he joined when he was old enough and served on HMS Indefatigable, an aircraft carrier. It was attacked by a Japanese kamikaze aircraft; he is still alive and living in Coventry at the age of 96, but there were a number of 50 casualties and 12 fatalities I believe as a result.