In the words of the historian Frederick Taylor, "Coventry was therefore, in terms of what little law existed on the subject, a legitimate target for aerial bombing".

The city was also at the centre of Britain's car industry, with many carmakers being based at different locations in Coventry, although many of these factories had switched to help supply the war effort.

[citation needed] There were 17 small raids on Coventry by the Luftwaffe during the Battle of Britain between August and October 1940 during which around 198 tons of bombs fell.

Campbell found that the bomb was fitted with a delayed action fuse that was impossible to remove, so he transported it to a safe place.

That was done by lorry, and he lay alongside the bomb so that he could hear if it started ticking and could warn the driver to stop and run for cover.

[5] One notable casualty of the October raids was Ernest Hugh Snell FRSE,[6] a retired local Medical Officer of Health.

It was carried out by 515 German bombers, of Luftflotte 3 shuttling to the target from their bases in northern France with guidance from the pathfinders of Kampfgruppe 100.

The attack, code-named Unternehmen Mondscheinsonate ("Operation Moonlight Sonata"), was intended to destroy Coventry's factories and industrial infrastructure, although it was clear that damage to the rest of the city, including monuments and residential areas, would be considerable.

The initial wave of 13 specially modified Heinkel He 111 aircraft of Kampfgruppe 100, which were equipped with X-Gerät navigational devices, accurately dropped marker flares at 19:20.

[citation needed] Coventry's air defences consisted of twenty-four 3.7 inch AA guns and twelve 40 mm Bofors.

The AA Defence Commander of 95th (Birmingham) Heavy Anti–Aircraft Regiment, Royal Artillery, had prepared a series of concentrations to be fired using sound-locators, GL Mk.

[3]: 155 An estimated 568 people were killed in the raid (the exact figure was never precisely confirmed), with another 863 badly injured and 393 sustaining lesser injuries.

[18]: 118  These were: In the Allied raids later in the war, 500 or more heavy four-engine bombers all delivered their 3,000–6,000 lb (1,400–2,700 kg) bomb loads in a concentrated wave lasting only a few minutes.

[20] The British used the opportunity given them by the attack on Coventry to try a new tactic against Germany, which was carried out on 16 December 1940 as part of Operation Abigail Rachel against Mannheim.

He further claimed that Winston Churchill ordered that no defensive measures should be taken to protect Coventry, lest the Germans suspect that their cipher had been broken.

[7]: 101  Peter Calvocoressi was head of the Air Section at Bletchley Park, which translated and analysed all deciphered Luftwaffe messages.

[25] The scientist Reginald Victor Jones, who led the British side in the Battle of the Beams, wrote that "Enigma signals to the X-beam stations were not broken in time" and that he was unaware that Coventry was the intended target.

The British were yet unaware that the Luftwaffe had moved from their pilots manually listening to the signals to an automatic narrow-band receiver on board, which caused jamming countermeasures to be ineffective.

[28] The message set out code words to be used by aircraft on an operation named Mondschein Sonat but did not give Coventry as the target or a date.

KORN was used in two reports[29][non-primary source needed] from an aircraft taking part in a raid on Southampton on 30 November, two weeks after the Coventry Blitz.

[32][citation needed] On the night of 8/9 April 1941 Coventry was subject to another large air raid when 230 bombers attacked the city, dropping 315 tons of high explosive and 25,000 incendiaries.

[3]: 226  Damage was caused to many buildings including some factories, the central police station, the Coventry & Warwickshire Hospital, King Henry VIII School, and St. Mary's Hall.

[34] The final air raid on Coventry came on 3 August 1942, in the Stoke Heath district approximately one mile to the east of the city centre.