At the height of the Second World War between April and June 1942, Adolf Hitler ordered bombing raids on the historic cities of Exeter, Bath, Norwich, York and Canterbury. They were ordered in retaliation for a Royal Air Force raid on the medieval German city of Lübeck in March 1942. The aim was to damage historic buildings of cultural importance and spread fear among the population. These were to become known as the ‘Baedeker raids’ after a popular German guidebook to Britain, which was used to identify cultural and historic targets. Norwich Cathedral was singled out as Norwich’s “chief object of interest” according to the Baedeker guide (Baedeker, 1887, 452). The old narrow streets of Norwich made it vulnerable to fire storms. In the final raid in June around 90 incendiaries were dropped on buildings in and around the Cathedral Close resulting in 19 fires being started. During one raid 36 incendiaries broke through the chancel roof but were finally extinguished 14 hours later just using stirrup pumps and hard work by well-prepared fire guards. Norwich had 15,000 residents registered as fire guards. However, 11th century Church of St Benedict’s did not fare so well. Only the tower remains, fire and bombs claimed the rest.
During the early raids firebombs set light to printing works next to Caley’s chocolate factory. The factory had their own firefighters and water supply, but the battle was lost when another aircraft dropped bombs on the chocolate factory reigniting the building. Thanks to the wind and explosions, burning material drifted through the windows and there was no water left to use. Despite the best efforts of the 30-chocolate fire guards the factory was lost. One of the heroes of the raid was 15-year-old John Grix who despite being blown off his bicycle five times kept delivering messages all night and even put out an incendiary bomb by himself. He became the youngest person to receive a gallantry award for his bravery.