Coventry's Foreign Buses

The details of buses described in this section have been assembled mainly from information described by Paul Gray [1] and the Omnibus Society/PSV Circle [2], with other details extracted from Denton and Groves [3,4] and Peter Gould [5].

After the devastating November 14 air raid of 1940, the tram system was inoperable and more than 100 buses had been either severely damaged or destroyed. Earlier in 1940, because of the difficulty in obtaining new buses, Coventry Corporation hired buses from "foreign" operators around the country, beginning with Great Yarmouth and Southend. After the 1940 air raid, these buses were put into service and, after the further devastating air raids of Holy Week 1941, more buses were hired from other operators. This is an attempt to capture the details of the "foreign" buses, although it is difficult to find information about all of them. Daily hire of coaches from the RAF, or other sources, have not been included because they were never part of the fleet.

References

[1] Paul Gray, Coventry Corporation Transport, Birmingham and Midland Motor Omnibus Trust (1978)

[2] Appendix II, Details of buses hired to Coventry Corporation 1940 - 1946, Omnibus Society/PSV Circle

[3] A S Denton and F P Groves, Coventry Transport 1884-1940, BTHG (1985)

[4] A S Denton and F P Groves, Coventry Transport 1940-1974, BTHG (1987)

[5] Peter Gould, Local Transport History (www.petergould.co.uk/local_transport_history)