[TR] Seventy years ago today...

[wbeech at flash.net]

John,

Thanks for the bit of history lesson, there was a documentary on the
blitzkrieg just recently here on the PBS channel, very devastating indeed.
I had always thought that the immediate London area was all that was hit on
that raid, so I learned something new today.

With Veteran's Day just a couple of days off here in the US, this will be
something else to remember along with the honor for all the men and women to
whom we owe a great debt of thanks.

To all on this list who have served, thank you for your service to your
country!

Bill

Bill Beecher
'58 TR-3A TS30766L  "Tarbaby"
www.triumphowners.com/1566
"A Triumph is man's best friend, it always comes when it is called...of
course, some times it is difficult to make it go"



-----Original Message-----
From: triumphs-bounces at autox.team.net
[mailto:triumphs-bounces at autox.team.net] On Behalf Of John Macartney
Sent: Tuesday, November 09, 2010 5:28 AM
To: Triumph List
Subject: [TR] Seventy years ago today...

Knowing there are a number of "history buffs" on this list, I thought I'd
just point out that today is rather significant in terms of the Triumph
name.

It's
all a long time ago now - and national 'differences' have thankfully long
been put to one side and will hopefully remain that way. It's important to
say that, as I'm anxious to avoid accusations of emnity and continuation of
hostility. The point of this post is to remember that the *original* Triumph
factory in Coventry - not the later one at Canley which made postwar
Triumphs, was obliterated on the night of 14th November 1940, as part of the
Blitzkrieg in WW2. For those of you who have visited Coventry Cathedral as
it stands today, the Chapel of Unity is about as close as you can get to the
site of the old Triumph car plant off Priory Street. If you want to see what
the Chapel looks like today, Google on Coventry Cathedral and then search
within results for Chapel of Unity.
I'm proud to say that my maternal grandfather visited the cathedral on the
morning following the attack and extracted some nails of the former 14th
century roof out of the still smouldering wreckage.
He put them (still warm from the
fire) into his lunchbox, took them to work and welded them into a simple
Cross which he later gave to the Bishop of Coventry. A (larger) replica of
that same Cross was then made from larger and similar nails and this is now
to be found on the High Altar of the new Cathedral. Sometime after the war
and in a gesture of reconciliation, Coventry Cathedral had another similar
Cross made and this was presented to the Frauenkirche Cathedral of Dresden
in Germany, in recognition of the British and US Air Force raid on that city
during February 13-14, 1945. That attack saw 773 Avro Lancasters and 527
USAAF heavy bombers taking part and created perhaps the worst firestorm of
WW2 in which many tens of thousands of people lost their lives.

Lest we forget 'the larger picture' in pursuit of our hobby

Jonmac
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