Thank you. That clears the matter up.
The operational orders for Luftflotten 2 and 3 truthfully described Coventry as "an important centre of the enemy armament industry", according to Cajus Bekker, who mentions nothing about retaliation for Munich. That's probably the source for our erroneous impression that the motives were strictly military.
Bekker goes on; "The usual cheers that greeted a direct hit stuck in our throats", wrote one of the bomber pilots. "The crew just gazed down on the sea of flames in silence. Was this really a military target?"
BC pilots were later assured untruthfully that Luebeck and Dresden were important military targets. Pilots accepted what they were told. Flying high above the carnage they never saw the burning bodies, although they could imagine them, and sometimes smelled them as they did over Hamburg.
I wonder if any pilots refused to carry out orders to burn civilians. William Douglas-Home did, refusing to operate his Crocodile flame-thrower during the capture of Le Havre; see
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Douglas-Home
Tony