Editing Coventry (section)

===German bombing of Coventry===
{{main|Coventry Blitz}}
[[File:Coventry bomb damage H5600.jpg|thumb|Coventry city centre after the massive air raid of 14/15 November 1940]]

Coventry suffered severe bomb damage during the [[Second World War]]. The most severe was a massive [[Luftwaffe]] [[Strategic bombing|air raid]] that the Germans called Operation Moonlight Sonata. The raid, which involved more than 500 aircraft, started at 7pm on 14 November 1940 and carried on for 11 hours into the morning of 15 November. The raid led to severe damage to large areas of the city centre and to [[Coventry Cathedral|Coventry's historic cathedral]], leaving only a shell and the spire. More than 4,000 houses were damaged or destroyed, along with around three quarters of the city's industrial plants. Between 380 and 554 people were killed, with thousands injured and homeless.<ref>{{cite news|url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/november/15/newsid_3522000/3522785.stm|title=BBC ON THIS DAY / 15 / 1940: Germans bomb Coventry to destruction|work=[[BBC News Online]]|date=15 November 1940|access-date=2 May 2010|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20101118111802/http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/november/15/newsid_3522000/3522785.stm|archive-date=18 November 2010|url-status=live}}</ref>

Aside from London, [[Hull Blitz|Hull]] and [[Plymouth Blitz|Plymouth]], Coventry suffered more damage than any other British city during the Luftwaffe attacks, with huge firestorms devastating most of the city centre. The city was probably targeted owing to its high concentration of armaments, munitions, aircraft and aero-engine plants which contributed greatly to the British war effort, although there have been claims that [[Adolf Hitler|Hitler]] launched the attack as revenge for the bombing of [[Munich]] by the [[Royal Air Force|RAF]] six days before the Coventry Blitz and chose the Midlands city because its medieval heart was regarded as one of the finest in Britain.<ref>{{cite news |last=Morris |first=Steven |date=9 October 2009 |title=Coventry blitz: was destruction of medieval centre Hitler's revenge? |url=https://www.theguardian.com/world/2009/oct/09/coventry-blitz-hitler-revenge |access-date=28 June 2024 |work=The Guardian |issn=0261-3077}}</ref> Following the raids, the majority of Coventry's historic buildings were demolished by a council who saw no need of them in a modern city, although some of them could have been repaired and some of those demolished were unaffected by the bombing.