A heroic vicar defiantly and literally stood up to Adolf Hitler – by remaining on his church roof during a devastating blitz raid and throwing unexploded bombs off before they could set it alight. Rev. Graham Clitheroe had feared that the Luftwaffe would target Coventry in World War II, but was determined not to let his 900-year-old church, Holy Trinity, fall.
In careful planning, he and his curate, Rev Kenneth Thornton, started amassing sand, water and stirrup pumps in advance on the rooftop. On November 14, 1940, one infamous raid saw 30,000 incendiary bombs level swathes of the East Midlands city, damaging 41,500 homes – leaving the original cathedral in ruins – and killing 560 people.
But the BBC‘s Secret Coventry show reveals how Rev Clitheroe and Rev Thornton took to the roof that night and threw off incendiary ‘fire’ bombs that failed to explode in flames.
Catherine Kendall, who works there today, said: “He was very proud of the arrangements that Holy Trinity made under his leadership to withstand the attack that night.
“I think really the church was as prepared as it could possibly have been.”
Holy Trinity Church stands in the heart of Coventry, a stone’s throw from the ruins of the city’s ruined St Michael’s Cathedral – and by the city’s new modern St Michael’s Cathedral that was opened in 1962.
Attended in the 19th Century by novelist George Eliot, Holy Trinity boasts one of the city’s famous three spires and has also survived an earthquake and Henry VIII’s Reformation.
Inside it boasts the Doom wall-painting, painted above the tower arch in the 1430s and discovered in 1831 covered i9n lime wash.
As the raids on the city began in August 1940, Rev Clitheroe was far more ready than others, but no one could have prepared for the intensity of the Luftwaffe’s 14th November overnight blitz.
The sirens prompted Rev Clitheroe and his curate to take to the roof, as the first of 30,000 incendiary bombs began to fall.
That raid was the most severe to hit Coventry during the war and was carried out by 515 German bombers of Luftlotte 3, flying over from bases in northern France.
The raid began when 13 modified Heinkel He 111 aircraft dropped marker flares at 7.20pm, with the first wave dropping high explosive bombs to take out power and water supply stations, before later waves carried incendiary bombs to set thousands of homes ablaze and instil maximum fear.
Ms Kendall said of the two priests: “They were keeping an eye constantly on these nine roofs and on the building outside to check where fires might be starting.”
Records suggest the men “actually picked [the bombs] up and threw them off the roof”.
“Kenneth Thornton admitted at one point during the night that he was really scared about what he was having to do, and that he wasn’t sure he could withstand it,” she said.
“But Clitheroe is very clear that he did everything that was required and more, and he built up his confidence by simply surviving and taking an active part in saving the church.”
From the roof, the pair could see fires burning all around them. A device fell just outside part of the church known as the Archdeacon’s Court, creating a large crack.
This was followed by the first direct hit, on the building’s Marler Chapel, where falling timbers left its red-and-black tiled floor indelibly charred.
To the east, the priests watched Coventry’s cathedral catch alight, but knew they could not help. Ms Kendall added: “There were only two of them, and there were fires starting all over the church.”
In Rev Clitheroe’s later account, Coventry Under Fire, he described the sounds the bombs made.
“The swoosh as they came down, it sounded like heavy rain. Some of them screamed, some of them whirred,” he wrote.
Later in the night, the priests offered shelter to the exhausted firemen, providing camp beds in the North Porch.
Despite all the men’s efforts, the church did not survive unscathed, worst of all, losing its grand stained-glass windows.
But the following morning, as terrified residents finally dared to leave their shelters, they were shocked by the devastation all around them.
“People dazed in the streets. Huge quantities of water. Smell of gas. Just broken buildings everywhere. It must have been so shocking and so frightening,” Ms Kendall said.
Holy Trinity went on to withstand further raids, and the brave vicar continued in his post until 1961, when he retired.
After Rev Clitheroe died in 1968, he was buried in a place of honour in the church’s chancel.
“He was quite dismissive of other clergymen who said (of their churches), ‘Well if it falls, it falls’,” Ms Kendall said.
“It was very clear he was very proud of the arrangements that Holy Trinity had been able to make under his leadership to withstand the attack that night.”