Story Highlights
- historical event: As many as 515 German bombers attacked Coventry as a part of Operation Mondscheinsonate (Moonlight Sonata). After the bombing, there remained barely any intact buildings in the center of the city.
The English city of Coventry is known as the site of the fiercest German bombing during World War II. The worst day for Coventry was precisely this day in 1940, during the Battle of Britain.
As many as 515 German bombers attacked Coventry as a part of Operation Mondscheinsonate (Moonlight Sonata). After the bombing, there remained barely any intact buildings in the center of the city. The Germans threw incendiary bombs filled with magnesium and gasoline, which caused unstoppable fires. The city was set ablaze. Approximately 36,000 incendiary bombs were dropped. About 60,000 buildings were destroyed or damaged.
The case became so well known that the Nazi minister Joseph Goebbels later used the German term Coventriert for cities with similar levels of destruction.
