The Blitz of 1940 is readily associated with London. However, England's second city, Birmingham, was hit on numerous occasions before the Germans turned their attention to the capital on 7 September. During that month, Birmingham experienced only small-scale raids, but this was just a respite as the German bombers returned time and again in October, November and December. Some of these attacks on Birmingham were major, especially those in the wake of the infamous Coventry raid on 14-15 November. The night of 11-12 December would witness Birmingham's longest raid of the war, lasting 13 hours and carried out in two distinct phases. On that particular Wednesday evening, the air raid red alert sounded at 18.20hrs and bombing commenced 10 minutes later. The first bombs fell on the areas of Stechford, Witton, the city centre, Knowle and Solihull. The people who were huddled in their shelters, or on fire-watching duties, fighting fires, digging people out of rubble or tending to casualties in first-aid stations must have been mystified -assuming they had time to notice - by the absence of anti-aircraft gunfire and searchlight activity.
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