The 1939 Coventry bombing was an act of terrorism committed by the Irish Republican Army (IRA) on 25 August 1939 in which a 5.1 lb (2.3 kg) bomb upon a bicycle was placed in Coventry city centre in the West Midlands of England as part of the organisation's 1939–40 S-Plan campaign. The explosion resulted in the deaths of five civilians, with over seventy others injured.
Two IRA members were convicted of the bombing and subsequently hanged in 1940, while a third individual, who acknowledged planting the bomb, escaped. Three other individuals accused of conspiracy in the bombing were acquitted and later deported to the Republic of Ireland under government security measures.
The 1939 Coventry bombing was one of few instances within the S-Plan campaign in which civilians were killed, although republican sources later insisted that civilians were not the intended target(s) of the bombing, which had originally been intended to occur at a police station. The atrocity itself was soon overshadowed by Britain's entry into World War II, which occurred less than two weeks later.
Background
In April 1938, Seán Russell was elected to the IRA Army Council in absentia. Shortly thereafter, he secured sufficient support within the Army Council for himself to be named Chief of Staff of the Irish Republican Army. At Russell's request, a leading volunteer within the organisation, Seamus O'Donovan, authored a strategic plan to extend the IRA's military campaign to mainland Britain with the aim to pressure the British government to withdraw from Northern Ireland. This strategy was named the Sabotage Campaign, colloquially known as the S-Plan.
O'Donovan's strategy was to continually target economic, military, and civic infrastructure within mainland Britain, with the targets to be located across the entire mainland and the methods not simply limited to bombings, but to include other forms of sabotage and those committing the acts to be mainland-based Irish citizens residing "[within] and around centres of population" where they could operate with little chance of their acts drawing attention. The plan was approved in August 1938; the first acts of the campaign occurred in January the following year.
By August 1939, mainland Britain had been the target of numerous S-Plan atrocities, with Coventry being the chosen target in at least six instances, although none of the bombings and arson attacks within the city had resulted in fatalities. The leader of the Coventry IRA cell was James McCormick, who used the alias James Richards.
Coventry IRA cell
McCormick was born in Mullingar, County Westmeath, in 1910. A longtime member of the IRA, he had volunteered for active service upon mainland Britain upon learning of the S-Plan. Initially active in Southern England, McCormick relocated to Coventry in either late May or early June 1939, where he lodged with a young Irish-born couple: Joseph Hewitt, his wife Mary, their baby daughter Brigid Mary, and Hewitt's mother-in-law, Brigid O'Hara, at 25 Clara Street on the outskirts of Stoke Heath, paying 23s per week for bed and breakfast.
Without permission from the Hewitts or O'Hara, on or about 14 July, McCormick emptied the contents from a cupboard beneath the staircase; he them removed a section of tiles and burrowed beneath the foundations. O'Hara would later inform investigators that when she asked McCormick what he was doing, he had simply replied: "This is for a bit of a dump", although later insisted she was initially uncertain as to what McCormick implied by this sentence. Although Joseph Hewitt later exchanged "a few hot words" with McCormick, he was assured by his lodger he would repair the damage in a matter of weeks.
Preparations
The bicycle used within the bombing was purchased by McCormick and an unknown acquaintance from a Halfords bicycle shop on Smithford Street on 22 August 1939, and was of the type typically used by tradesmen at the time with a carrier basket affixed to the front handlebars. Upon purchase, McCormick and his accomplice provided the seller with a false name and address for the purchase: Mr. Norman, 56 Grayswood Avenue, Allesley Old Road, Coventry. The two paid a deposit of £5 for the bicycle, with the remaining 19s 6d to be paid upon collection on Thursday 24 August. On the day of collection, McCormick's acquaintance paid the outstanding balance and collected the bicycle.
The bomb itself was constructed by McCormick and an unknown individual inside 25 Clara Street late in the evening of 24 August. The potassium chlorate to be used in the bomb was brought by train to Coventry by IRA transport officer Peter Barnes, who arrived in Coventry with the explosives at approximately 19:00 on 24 August and returned to London the same evening. Construction of the bomb itself was completed in the early hours of the following morning, with the device attached to a timer and concealed within a cardboard box wrapped in brown paper and tied with string. The device was then placed in the delivery basket of the bicycle.
The bombing
At approximately 13:40 on 25 August 1939, an unknown IRA member left the bicycle containing the bomb standing against a kerb outside Astley's shop in the busy Broadgate area of Coventry. At 14:32, the 5.1 lb (2.3 kg) bomb exploded, killing five people and injuring seventy—many severely. Contemporary news reports describe the vicinity of the explosion as resembling a "miniature battlefield", and indicate uninjured bystanders covered the bodies of the deceased with overcoats.
The majority of those wounded in the explosion received treatment for their injuries at Coventry and Warwickshire Hospital. One of the most seriously injured, 43-year-old Harold Murdock, would die on 16 April 1940. Although his death was officially ruled as being due to natural causes, the coroner ruled at the inquest into Murdock's death that his demise was likely "accelerated" by the injuries sustained in the bombing. The final survivor to be released from hospital was 14-year-old Muriel Timms, who sustained severe leg injuries and remained hospitalized until February 1940.
Fatalities
The five who died in the Coventry bombing were Elsie Ansell, 21; John Corbett Arnott, 15; Rex Gentle, 30; James Clay, 82; and Gwilym Rowlands, 50. Ansell—the closest individual to the bicycle—was browsing a display of jewellery in a H. Samuel shop window at the time of the explosion; her facial and skull injuries were so extensive her body was only identifiable by her engagement ring. Arnott and Gentle were both employees at a nearby WH Smiths; both were returning to their workplace from a lunch break at the time of the explosion and were also killed instantly. Clay had just exited a nearby café with a business acquaintance at the time of the explosion; he died within minutes. Rowlands was a council employee working with a colleague close to the scene of the explosion; his cause of death was ruled as haemorrhaging due to multiple injuries. Both Ansell and Gentle were independently engaged to marry at the time of their deaths.
Initial reaction
Suspicion almost immediately fell upon the IRA, and the bombing stoked considerable anti-Irish sentiment in Coventry. Many Irish people living in the city at the time of the bombing found that public attitude had generally turned against them despite the fact the vast majority of Irish people in the city had neither sympathy for, or connections with, the IRA. Some Irish citizens were told to find new lodgings, whilst strike action was threatened in several local factories unless they withdrew all 2,000 Irish labourers.
An anti-IRA protest march was also staged in Baginton by employees of Armstrong Whitworth, although those participating in the march publicly emphasised that the protest was "not directed against peaceful Irishmen." The chief constable of Coventry was also forced to issue a public denial of rumors he was Irish, stating that he was a "perfectly good Somerset man" who had never even set foot in Ireland.
Investigation
Within hours of the bombing, forensic investigators had recovered fragments of a timing device at the crime scene—confirming suspicions the explosion had been caused by a time bomb. Furthermore, eyewitnesses confirmed the bicycle had been parked at the location, directly behind a car, for between three-quarters of an hour and an hour before detonation.
Although the vast majority of the bicycle frame was destroyed in the explosion, the serial number was still visible upon the remnants of the rear of the frame, enabling investigators to trace the bicycle to the Halfords on Smithford Street. The owner confirmed he had sold the bike to two Irishmen—one of whom gave his name as Norman—on 22 August, and that the bicycle had been collected from his premises the day before the bombing. Furthermore, the Irishman who had collected the bicycle and paid the outstanding balance was not the same individual who had paid the £5 deposit. The name and address given by these individuals proved to be false, although the seller provided police with detailed descriptions of both men.
Arrests
Barnes was arrested at his lodgings in Westbourne Terrace, London, at 20:50 on the evening of the bombing. His arrest resulted from an independent Special Branch police raid upon a flat in Leinster Gardens, West London, in relation to numerous local thefts of bicycles by the tenants of the property which investigators suspected of being used in the transportation of explosives around the city by the IRA. A search of the property revealed a large quantity of explosives stowed in hat boxes and a timing device. Questioning of the four Irishmen arrested revealed the explosives were brought to the property by one Peter Barnes. One of these individuals provided police with his address, and Barnes was arrested as he returned to the property from Coventry.
A search of Barnes's address uncovered ample incriminating evidence with regards to the Coventry bombing, including a suitcase bearing traces of potassium chlorate, and an unposted letter to an acquaintance in Ireland in which Barnes detailed his involvement in and expectation of a forthcoming "spectacular" bombing and concluding with "I am coming back from Coventry tonight 11:30, so by the time you get this, the [newspapers] should have some news." When asked if he had been to Coventry earlier that day, Barnes replied he had, before adding, "Coincidences can happen, can't they?" He was promptly arrested and detained at Canon Row Police Station, but refused to name the man he had provided the explosives to in Coventry.
On 28 August, the Coventry City Police, along with members of Special Branch, conducted a thorough search of 25 Clara Street. This search also uncovered a suitcase bearing traces of potassium chlorate, plus tools and equipment sufficient for the purpose of constructing bombs and incendiary devices such as pincers, soldering material, and insulating tape. Also recovered were pieces of paper torn from a four-and-a-half volt dry cell battery and a new and untarnished brass setting device used to set the hands of an alarm clock. This device did not fit any clock in the house. All occupants of the property were arrested under the Explosive Substances Act 1883. Initially released pending deportation, those arrested at Clara Street were re-arrested on 2 September.
Written statements
I went upstairs to see what they had been doing in my room. I saw a parcel wrapped in brown paper and tied with string lying on the floor in the centre of the room. I did not go near the parcel. I was upset as I knew what they had done and were going to make an explosion, but I did not know where. I was upset because they had used my bedroom. I left my bedroom and went out of my house and returned to work at about a quarter-past one o'clock. I left [McCormick] and the strange man in my bedroom ... about a quarter to four, a girl in my workplace told me that a terrible explosion had happened in Broadgate ... If I had known for sure what [McCormick] and the other man were doing that morning and where the bomb was going to be placed, I would have surely told the police.
— Section of Mary Hewitt's written statement, given to Coventry City Police. 3 September 1939.
The following day, both Brigid O'Hara and Mary Hewitt provided written statements in which they admitted several "strange men" had visited McCormick at their house in recent weeks, often bringing suitcases and substances they had suspected were explosives. Neither had known of McCormick's IRA affiliations at the time he had initially lodged with them, although his connections and activity soon became apparent to both. Furthermore, McCormick had always spoken with the men who visited him behind closed doors so that neither woman could hear details of their conversations.