Early on Wednesday, April 29, 1942, York suffered its worst air raid of the war, these were the so-called Baedeker raids. Hitler, enraged by the RAF’s attacks on Lubeck and Rostock, supposedly picked up a Baedeker guidebook and ordered that all historic places in England marked with three stars be bombed in retaliation.
Unopposed for much of the York raid, the Luftwaffe dive-bombed ordinary streets, strafing them with machine gun fire, they also bombed strategic targets; the railway line, the station, the Carriage Works, the airfield, but fortunatley not York Minster. Beginning at 2.30am and finishing 90 minutes later, the raid left 92 people dead and hundreds injured.
Across the city there were scenes of devastation. Houses were destroyed, schools wrecked, the Guildhall and St Martin-le-Grand Church on Coney Street burnt out. The Bar Convent had collapsed, killing five nuns. In this raid no-one was safe.
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