Hi John
An excellently put point, Dad lived and fought through that time, we have,
as a family many friends, from both sides who are veterans of this era, and
none bears malice against the other. I agree with your statement that we
should not forget, with the hope that war on such a scale will never happen
whilst we remember.
Graham.
----- Original Message -----
From: "John Macartney" <jonmac@ndirect.co.uk>
To: "Triumph List" <triumphs@autox.team.net>
Sent: Tuesday, November 14, 2000 8:37 PM
Subject: 60 years on - tonight
>
> This post may be seen as entirely irrelevant to many on this list -
> but I thought I'd submit it and I make no apology for doing so.
>
> As I write this, it is 20.30 local time and we are one and a half
> hours and sixty years down the track from the blitzkrieg that wiped
> out Coventry on the night of Nov 14, 1940. At that time, a by then
> bankrupt Triumph Motor Company sustained severe damage in Holbrooks
> Lane and the former site at Priory Street and Clay Lane soon became a
> heap of rubble. In the morning, Coventry lacked a Cathedral, its city
> centre had vanished and more than 500 citizens were dead, together
> with an untold additional number who had vanished without trace.
>
> This post is not a glorification of that tragic event, nor indeed
> should it be seen as a condemnation to listers of that former
> aggressor who may read this. Today, a German Count was presented with
> a Peace Token in the ruins of the old Cathedral at which time both
> former enemies were able to talk freely and without rancour or hatred
> of the horrors we inflicted on one another. For Coventry read Hamburg,
> for London read Dresden, for Liverpool read Nurnberg.
>
> Gentlemen of that former opposition, we have lived in peace for fifty
> five years since those tragic times - let's do our best to ensure we
> do not fail in the future but also that we should never forget what we
> did to one another.
>
> Jonmac
|