All that remains of St Michael's Cathedral following the air raid of the 14th November 1940. At approximately 7.40 pm half an hour after the raid began, the first of many incendiary bombs landed on the roof of the cathedral. The Provost Dick Howard led a small team who fought hard to extinguish the many fires around the roof and inside the building. The team of four men spent the evening dashing around the cathedral roofs, attempting to rip open the lead with axes so that water could be poured onto the fires. The construction of the roof hampered the teams efforts, - the inner wooden vaulted ceiling being separated from the wood and lead sheeting outer roof by an eighteen inch gap, inside which many incediaries rested and blazed away, out of reach to the fire watchers As the raid progressed the number of incendiaries landing on the old roof increased, the fires became harder to tackle by the small team. At the height of the raid the Solihull Fire Brigade made it through to the cathedral. Soon afterwards however water supplies dried up as water mains around the city were fractured. By around 11pm, all the St. Michael's fire watchers and fire fighters could do was to save as many items of value as they could from the blazing building, leaving the uncontrollable flames to consume the building. 15th November 1940
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