Newlyweds lost their home – but then gained a bathroom
For Coventry couple Ron and Beryl Hodgkins, the Blitz came just seven months after their marriage – and left them homeless.
They were living at 67 Kirby Road, Earlsdon. Ron, aged 25, was working at the BTH (British Thompson-Houston) as an electrical engineer and 24-year-old Beryl, at the Standard Motor Company as a clerk.
Their son Paul, who now lives in Nottingham, said his late parents were lucky to be able to take shelter in their neighbours’ Anderson Shelter though they had to leave their young Cocker Spaniel, Rusty, in the house as he wasn't allowed in the shelter.
Paul said: “When they emerged from the shelter after the first raid they found that one nearby bomb had blown out all the windows of their house and Rusty had been so frightened by his experience that he had leapt through a now glassless frame and was in the back garden soaking wet with fear induced sweat.
“Apparently, my mum commented that, given the damage to the house, she couldn't possibly go to work the next day but would have to stay at home and clear up as best she could.
“As the raid continued, mum and dad returned to the shelter but Rusty again had to stay outside although he stayed as close to the shelter as he could. They emerged hours later when it was apparent that the raids had finally ended to discover that both their house and the attached house next door, number 69 , had now been totally destroyed!
“There was now no point in mum staying at home to clear up as there was no house left so both my mother and father simply went into work leaving the recovery of anything that was left for later.
“After the raid as they no longer had a home of their own, or at least not one that they could live in, they initially stayed with my mum's mum who lived opposite their own destroyed house, later they were able to rent a house in a street nearby, number 9 Farman Road. The owner had moved out to the country for the duration of the war.
“Apparently the main concern of my parents and others in the hours/days immediately after the raid was not so much about themselves but about the destruction of the Cathedral. They couldn't understand how the Germans could bomb it. My mother could also remember being warned that in the city centre there were still bodies underneath the rubble of the destroyed Department Store, Owen and Owen .
“Later on that year my father volunteered for the RAF and spent 12 months mainly in Alabama, USA, training to be as a pilot. Unfortunately he failed to qualify and was destined to be a rear gunner in a bomber, the fate apparently of all failed pilots - and with a life expectancy of four missions. Most fortunately for myself and my sister, the powers that be decided he was more useful supporting the war effort as a skilled engineer (a now reserved occupation) back in Coventry, this time at the Standard Motor Company as a tool maker, helping to manufacture amongst other things the famous Mosquito Fighter Bomber.
“My mother spent the rest of the war both working at the Standard and helping her mother run her small shop.
“Once the war ended 67 and 69 Kirby Road were rebuilt and mum and dad moved back in. However, the two new houses now had bathrooms which the other houses in the street didn't have so the German bombers did do them at least one good turn! This was the house in which I was born in 1951 though my older sister Christine was born in the rented house on Farman Road. Rusty the Cocker Spaniel ... he survived the war and I still remember him from my childhood, albeit not in an affectionate way, as by that time he was quite an old dog, couldn't see very well, and therefore had a habit of knocking over all my toys!
“They were a tough lot the Second World War generation. When during my own life I have heard people of my own generation or the next saying they can't get into work because there is an inch of snow on the roads, or because the buses aren't running, or that they dare not travel to London because there had been a terrorist bomb the day before, and there might, therefore, be another one today, I can't help but wonder what my parents and their whole generation would think?”