Civilian sacrifices go unheeded

Regarding “Destruction and Renewal in Coventry, the Phoenix” [Her World, May 1]: We lived in Leicester, England -- hundreds of miles from Coventry -- yet we stood in the streets and watched the red skies over Coventry through a huge gap where land mines had flattened several two-story houses. Our air raids had stopped that week. Coventry was the reason.

The aerial bombing of British cities started in 1940 and continued for 5 1/2 years. Glasgow, Scotland; Liverpool, Plymouth and Portsmouth, England; Cardiff, Wales; and Belfast, Northern Ireland, were bombed, many over and over.

Americans have no idea as to the extent of the devastation of the British cities. The lack of movies by Hollywood on civilian casualties or the civilians’ enormous courage makes us the “forgotten people.”

All my family’s men were in the armed forces. As a child, I lived in five bombed cities and went to school at the age of 6 by myself.

We fed and clothed ourselves and did the shopping, often waiting in lines for six hours for bread. We played on bombed ruins and hid under desks during raids. That is the war you never read about.

I grieve for the ones who did not survive.

B. Rosalyn Moran

Torrance

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