Coventry Cathedral

Coventry Cathedral - darkometer rating : 4 - The new and old Cathedral in the city of Coventry, Great Britain . Coventry was the target of massive aerial bombardment by the German Luftwaffe in WWII systematically orchestrated to eradicate the city – in a manner that served as the model for the subsequent bombing of German cities (including Hamburg and Dresden ) by the British RAF . The bombed-out shell of the old Cathedral of Coventry now serves as a memorial, while a stunningly modern new Cathedral has been built next to it. > More background info > What there is to see > Location > Access and costs > Time required > Combinations with other dark destinations > Combinations with non-dark destinations > photos More background info: Coventry had long been a major industrial centre, which made it a prime target for bombings, and it had indeed been bombed before, esp. during the so-called Battle of Britain, but the city's darkest hour came in the evening of 14 November 1940 when the Luftwaffe started a bombing raid utilizing over 500 bombers and a new systematized approach. First, special planes dropped marker flares for the following wave of bombers to find their targets more easily, which then dropped high-explosive bombs to crack open buildings and disrupt water supplies. Another wave then showered the city with smaller incendiary bombs to cause fires in the "opened up" buildings, which the fire fighters couldn't put out because with the water supplies disrupted they lacked the water to do so. The whole operation lasted several hours. This was basically the blueprint for later (perfected and scaled-up) incendiary bombings of cities in Germany by the British Royal Air Force (first Hamburg , which was devastated by a firestorm proper). Remarkably, Coventry became a city pioneering reconciliation rather than revenge, though.