WE all know the story of the York Blitz – that awful night in April 1942 when German bombs rained down.

In what became known as the Baedeker Raid, about 40 German bombers crossed the East coast of England early on April 29 and headed for York.

For more than 90 minutes, they rained down 84 tons of incendiary and high-explosive bombs.

More than 90 civilians died, more than 200 were injured, and almost 600 homes destroyed, with many more damaged including the railway station, the Bar Convent and several schools, including Queen Anne’s, Nunthorpe, St Peter’s and Bootham.

The medieval Guildhall was largely destroyed, along with St Martin le Grand church in Coney Street.

But it could all have been so much worse.

French fighter pilot Yves Mahé, serving with the RAF’s 253 Squadron, saw the city on fire from a distance.

The 23-year-old dived in with his Hawker Hurricane and shot down a Heinkel bomber before turning his sights on a JU88 bomber – but this, and the other bombers, decided it was time to leave. They turned away under cover of smoke from burning buildings.

Just in time. The bombers had been lining up to attack Rowntrees’ main factory – which contained a secret ammunition filling area containing hundreds of tons of high explosive.

Ian Reed, director of the Yorkshire Air Museum at Elvington, said: “The outcome would have been catastrophic to the whole northern part of the city.” The French pilot later received a civic reception at the Mansion House. He joined the French airforce after the war, and died in 1962, aged 42, flying a jet in Belgium.

But now, children from St Wilfrid’s RC Primary School in Monkgate have called for a permanent memorial to be set up in York after learning about him at an exhibition last year marking the 70th anniversary of the raid.

Class teacher Daniel Jones said: “It really captured their imagination. He had so many narrow escapes.”

The children wrote to the Lord Mayor asking for the memorial. “And then he invited us to come to read the letters to him,” said Mr Jones.

The children will be in St Sampson’s Square on Monday – the 71st anniversary of the raid – when the Lord Mayor will open another exhibition.

Throughout the week the air museum’s Hawker Hurricane fighter – similar to that flown by M Mahé – will be on display in the square, along with a series of panels about the raid.

It will be a fitting commemoration of “the Frenchman who saved York” and the scores who died that night.