Coventry in the Crosshairs

This German wartime map of the Midlands is no ordinary Ordnance Survey sheet. Sealed in an early form of plastic covering and boldly stamped Fliegerausgabe (“for aviator use”), it was designed with one purpose in mind: to guide Luftwaffe crews to their targets.

The original British mapping has been overprinted with a red numbered grid running east to west, but what stands out most are the heavy black lines tracing the railway network. These rail links, likely highlighted to assist in navigation from the air, lead unerringly to two ominous yellow zones ringed in red: Coventry and nearby Nuneaton.

On the night of 14 November 1940, Coventry would suffer one of the most devastating raids of the Blitz. The accompanying modern map (below) shows the locations of key factories, from Daimler and Rover to Triumph and General Electric, that made the city a prime target, along with its medieval cathedral which was reduced to ruins in the bombing.

Much more than a cartographic relic, this is a chilling reminder of how geography was weaponised in the planning of war.