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At 10:40 on the evening of Easter Tuesday 1941 air raid sirens sounded across Belfast, sending people across the city scrambling for safety - in one of the 200 public shelters in the city or the thousands of shelters or other "safe" spaces in private homes. After the bombing began on September 7, local authorities urged displaced people to take shelter at South Hallsville School. James Craig, Lord Craigavon, had been Prime Minister of Northern Ireland since its inception in 1921 up until his death in 1940. Video, 00:01:15The Belfast blitz, Up Next. On July 16, 1940, Hitler issued a directive ordering the preparation and, if necessary, execution of Operation Sea Lion, the amphibious invasion of Great Britain. Richard Dawson Bates was the Home Affairs Minister. In the New Lodge area people had taken refuge in a mill. This view was probably influenced by the decision of the IRA Army Council to support Germany. The Premier Online Military History Magazine, Re-printed with permission fromWartimeNI.com. Indeed, on the night of the first raid, no Royal Air Force (RAF) aircraft took to the air to intercept German planes. "These people are often seen as a statistic but they were human beings, people who lived and grew up in - or moved to - Belfast and died in Belfast," Mr Freeburn, the museum's collections officer, says. As well as photographs, the Luftwaffe gathered information on landmarks, potential targets and defences or lack thereof. It has been reported that on Easter Tuesday, Belfast suffered the highest loss of life of any city in the UK in a single raid. The Battle of Britain Churches destroyed or wrecked included Macrory Memorial Presbyterian in Duncairn Gardens; Duncairn Methodist, Castleton Presbyterian on York Road; St Silas's on the Oldpark Road; St James's on the Antrim Road; Newington Presbyterian on Limestone Road; Crumlin Road Presbyterian; Holy Trinity on Clifton Street and Clifton Street Presbyterian; York Street Presbyterian and York Street Non-Subscribing Presbyterian; Newtownards Road Methodist and Rosemary Street Presbyterian (the last of which was not rebuilt). They write new content and verify and edit content received from contributors. Death should be dignified, peaceful; Hitler had made even death grotesque. Those who sought refuge at the school were told that they would quickly be relocated to a safer area, but the evacuation was delayed. Van Morrison is from the east part of the city. London seemed ablaze from the docks to Westminster, much damage was done, and casualties were high. The Blitz began at around 4 pm on September 7, 1940, when German bomber planes first appeared over London. Read about our approach to external linking. Compared to other cities, Belfast was virtually undefended. On November 14, 1940, a German force of more than 500 bombers destroyed much of the old city centre and killed more than 550 people. Belfast Blitz - Wikipedia The M.V. THE BELFAST BLITZ was a series of four air raids over Northern Ireland during the spring of 1941. The ill-fated ship was built in the city in 1912, and to this day, there is a museum dedicated to its building and the lives of all of those on board. Since most casualties were caused by falling masonry rather than by blast, they provided effective shelter for those who had them. Sometimes they were trying establish a blockade by destroying shipping and port facilities, sometimes they were directly attacking Fighter Command ground installations, sometimes they were targeting aircraft factories, and sometimes they were attempting to engage Fighter Command in the skies. BBC News | NORTHERN IRELAND | The Belfast blitz is remembered During the first year of the war, behind-the-lines conditions prevailed in London. As more and more people began sleeping on the platforms, however, the government relented and provided bunk beds and bathrooms for the underground communities. British Spies and Irish Rebels by Paul McMahon, Report by the Garda Sochna 23 October 1941 IMA G2/1722, Learn how and when to remove this template message, Irish Minister for the Co-ordination of Defensive Measures, "Eamon de Valera and Hitler: An Analysis of International Reaction to the Visit to the German Minister, May 1945", "Extracts from an article, "The Belfast Blitz, 1941", "Historical Topics Series 2 The Belfast Blitz", "Your Place and Mine The Belfast Blitz", "Northern Ireland Parliamentary Elections Results: Biographies", "Belfast Blitz: The night death and destruction rained down on city", "Multitext - the Blitz - Belfast during the second World War", http://www.niwarmemorial.org/wp-content/uploads/2011/11/The_Belfast_Blitz.pdf, http://www.proni.gov.uk/historical_topics_series_-_02_-_the_belfast_blitz.pdf, Extracts from an article on The Belfast Blitz, 1941. Authorities had noted Queens Island in the cityas a vulnerable point as early as 1929. More than 500 German planes dropped more than 700 tons of bombs across the city, killing nearly 1,500 people and destroying 11,000 homes. The winter of 193940 was severe, but the summer was pleasant, and in their leisure hours Londoners thronged the parks or worked in their gardens. This hub of industry and trade represented a legitimate military target for the Germans, and some 25,000 bombs were dropped on the Port of London alone. [citation needed] However on 20 October 1941 the Garda Sochna captured a comprehensive IRA report on captured member Helena Kelly giving a detailed analysis of damage inflicted on Belfast and highlighting prime targets such as Shortt and Harland aircraft factory and RAF Sydenham, describing them as 'the remaining and most outstanding objects of military significance, as yet unblitzed' and suggesting they should be 'bombed by the Luftwaffe as thoroughly as other areas in recent raids'[28][29], After three days, sometime after 6pm, the fire crews from south of the border began taking up their hoses and ladders to head for home. Omissions? NI WW2 veterans honoured by France. Blitz Fibre UK Blitz Fibre UK Published Mar 1, 2023 + Follow Fact 1- Small but Mighty . Video, 00:01:09The Spitfire turns 80, The German bombing of Coventry. Weighing 46,328 tonnes, Titanic was to be the largest manmade moveable object the world had ever seen. That evening over 150 bombers left their bases in northern France and the Netherlands and headed for Belfast. TOP 10: Facts About Belfast You Didn't Know - Ireland Before You Die "They have never been published before, never seen the light of day.". Also, on Queens Island, stood the Short and Harland Ltd. Aircraft Factory. There were Heinkel He 111s, Junkers Ju 88s and Dornier Do 17s. 3. sprang into action, and Londoners, while maintaining the work, business, and efficiency of their city, displayed remarkable fortitude. Please refer to the appropriate style manual or other sources if you have any questions. The 2017 film Zoo depicts an air raid during the Belfast Blitz. Accounts differ as to when flares were dropped to light up the city. In just these few hours, 430 people were killed and 1,600 were badly injured. By the middle of December it had reached nearly 1,700,000 (adjusted for inflation, this was the equivalent of roughly 100 million in 2020). They all say the same thing, that the government is no good. Read about our approach to external linking. ", US journalist Ben Robertson reported that at night Dublin was the only city without a blackout between New York and Moscow, and between Lisbon and Sweden and that German bombers often flew overhead to check their bearings using its lights, angering the British. The Blitz was devastating for the people of London and other cities. The mass relocation, called Operation Pied Piper, was the largest internal migration in British history. Between April 7 and May 6 of that year, Luftwaffe bombers unleashed death and destruction on the cities of Belfast, Bangor, Derry/Londonderry and Newtownards. Barton insisted that Belfast was "too far north" to use radio guidance. Sixty years after the Germans bombed Belfast in World War II BBC News Online looks back and remembers the anniversary of the blitz. More than 1,000 people were killed, and the damage was more widespread than on any previous occasion. The bombing of British cities - Swansea, Belfast, Glasgow Before the war broke out, civilians had been issued with gas masks and Anderson shelters, which people were encouraged to build at the. Emma Duffin, a nurse at the Queen's University Hospital, (who previously served during the Great War), who kept a diary; A Luftwaffe terror bombing attack on the Spanish city of Guernica (April 26, 1937) during the Spanish Civil War had killed hundreds of civilians and destroyed much of the town. "There will always be people who will slip through the net but I am able to say at least 987 were killed across all raids.". The Blitz began at about 4:00 in the afternoon on September 7, 1940, when German planes appeared over London. 10 Facts About the Blitz and the Bombing of Germany The shipyard was among the largest in the world, producing merchant vessels and military shipping. The raids hurt Britains war production, but they also killed many civilians and left many others homeless. One, Tom Coleman, attended to receive recognition for his colleagues' solidarity at such a critical time. The firm had produced Handley Page Hereford bombers since 1936. When a bombing raid was imminent, air-raid sirens were set off to sound a warning. [12], There was little preparation for the conflict with Germany. At the time of the first attack in April 1941, there were no operational searchlights, too few anti-aircraft batteries and scarcely enough public air raid shelters for a quarter of the population. Belfast made a considerable contribution towards the Allied war effort, producing many naval ships, aircraft and munitions; therefore, the city was deemed a suitable bombing target by the Luftwaffe. While some of the poorer and more crowded suburban areas suffered severely, the mansions of Mayfair, the luxury flats of Kensington, and Buckingham Palace itselfwhich was bombed four separate timesfared little better. At nightfall the Northern Counties Station was packed from platform gates to entrance gates and still refugees were coming along in a steady stream from the surrounding streets Open military lorries were finally put into service and even expectant mothers and mothers with young children were put into these in the rather heavy drizzle that lasted throughout the evening. As well as these two major targets, other firms in Belfast produced valuable materials for the war effort including munitions, linen, ropes, food supplies and, of course, cigarettes. 6. The Belfast Blitzconsisted of four German air raids on strategic targets in the city of Belfastin Northern Ireland, in April and May 1941 during World War II, causing high casualties. There is no slacking in our loyalty. There are other diarists and narratives. The South Hallsville School disaster prompted Londoners, especially residents of the East End, to find safer shelters, on their own if necessary. The British thus fought with the advantage of superior equipment and undivided aim against an enemy with inconsistent objectives. You can see the difference in those letters - post-Blitz is very much a grieving tone. Has it taken bursting bombs to remind the people of this little country that they have common tradition, a common genius and a common home? And even then, Westminster stated it was not ample provision; Stormont still worried about the costs to industry. Video, 00:02:54Living through the London Blitz, At least 17 dead in Jakarta fuel storage depot fire. The Germans expanded the Blitz to other cities in November 1940. His report concluded with: "a second Belfast would be too horrible to contemplate". While Anderson shelters offered good protection from bomb fragments and debris, they were cold and damp and generally ill-suited for prolonged occupancy. The Belfast Blitz - KS3 History (Environment and society) - BBC Streetlights, car headlights, and illuminated signs were kept off. These balloons, the largest of which were some 60 feet (18 metres) long, were essentially an airspace denial tool. Because basements, a logical destination in the event of an air raid, were a relative rarity in Britain, the A.R.P. The period of the next moon from say the 7th to the 16th of April may well bring our turn.. Belfast confetti," said one archive news report. The Royal Air Force announced that Squadron Leader J.W.C. 2023 BBC. This option had been forbidden by city officials, who feared that once people began sleeping in Underground stations, they would be reluctant to return to the surface and resume daily life. A victory for the Luftwaffe in the Battle of Britain would indeed have exposed Great Britain to invasion and occupation. With tangled hair, staring eyes, clutching hands, contorted limbs, their grey-green faces covered with dust, they lay, bundled into the coffins, half-shrouded in rugs or blankets, or an occasional sheet, still wearing their dirty, torn twisted garments. Government ministers in Northern Ireland began to realise the Luftwaffe may launch an attack, but it was too little, too late. In The Blitz: Belfast in the War Years, Brian Barton wrote: "Government Ministers felt with justification, that the Germans were able to use the unblacked out lights in the south to guide them to their targets in the North." As many were caught in the open by blast and secondary missiles, the enormous number of casualties can be readily accounted for. In a survey of shelter use, it was found that, although the public shelters were fully occupied every night, just 9 percent of Londoners made use of them. Although casualties were heavy, at no time did they approach the estimates that had been made before the war, and only a fraction of the available hospital and ambulance capacity was ever utilized. But the raid of 15-16 April - the Easter Tuesday Raid - was on another scale. Dissatisfaction with public shelters also led to another notable development in the East EndMickeys Shelter. Belfast is the capital and largest city of Northern Ireland. The night raids on London continued into 1941, and January 1011 saw exceptionally heavy attacks; the Mansion House (residence of the lord mayor of London) and the Bank of England narrowly avoided destruction when a bomb fell directly between them, creating a gigantic crater. The Luftwaffe had lost more than 600 aircraft, and, although the RAF had lost fewer than half that many, the battle was claiming British fighters and experienced pilots at too great a rate. Tommy Henderson, an Independent Unionist MP in the House of Commons of Northern Ireland, summed up the feeling when he invited the Minister of Home Affairs to Hannahstown and the Falls Road, saying "The Catholics and the Protestants are going up there mixed and they are talking to one another. At the start of World War Two, Belfast had considered itself safe from an aerial attack, as the city's leaders believed that Belfast was simply too far away for Luftwaffe bombers to reach - assuming that they would have to fly from Nazi Germany. and Major Sen O'Sullivan, who produced a detailed report for the Dublin government. VideoRussian minister laughed at for Ukraine war claims, The children left behind in Cuba's mass exodus, Xi Jinping's power grab - and why it matters, Snow, Fire and Lights: Photos of the Week. In spite of blackouts, ubiquitous shelters and sandbags, the visible effects of mass evacuation, the presence of A.R.P. Prior to the "Belfast Blitz" there were only 200 public shelters in the city, although around 4,000 households had built their own private shelters. Please select which sections you would like to print: Encyclopaedia Britannica's editors oversee subject areas in which they have extensive knowledge, whether from years of experience gained by working on that content or via study for an advanced degree. German bombing of London during the Blitz, Discover how the Third Reich attacked Great Britain during World War II's Battle of Britain, atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Watch President Roosevelt outline his Four Freedoms and learn how Britain defeated Germany's Luftwaffe. A Raid From Above But the RAF had not responded. The Belfast blitz during World War Two - BBC News NI WW2 veterans honoured by France. 11 churches, two hospitals and two schools were destroyed. Neighbouring residential areas were also hit. From their photographs, they identified suitable targets: There had been a number of small bombings, probably by planes that missed their targets over the River Clyde in Glasgow or the cities of the northwest of England. Streets heavily bombed in the city centre included High Street, Ann Street, Callender Street, Chichester Street, Castle Street, Tomb Street, Bridge Street (effectively obliterated), Rosemary Street, Waring Street, North Street, Victoria Street, Donegall Street, York Street, Gloucester Street, and East Bridge Street. By mid-September 1940 the RAF had won the Battle of Britain, and the invasion was postponed indefinitely. Over the course of three days, some 1.5 million civiliansthe overwhelming majority of them childrenwere transported from urban centres to rural areas that were believed to be safe. They are sleeping in the same sheugh (ditch), below the same tree or in the same barn. An air raid shelter on Hallidays Road received a direct hit, killing all those in it. Revised estimates made decades later indicated that close to 600 men, women, and children had been killed in the bombing. The initial human cost of the Blitz was lower than the government had expected, but the level of destruction exceeded the governments dire predictions. Video, 00:00:46, Hong Kong skyscraper fire seen on city's skyline, Watch: Matt Hancock message row in 83 seconds. 10 fascinating facts about Belfast that you probably didn't know St George's Church in High Street was damaged by fire. But these people all had families and friends and they had to deal with their loss for the rest of their lives.". It was not the last time Belfast would suffer. On August 25 the British retaliated by launching a bombing raid on Berlin. wardens, and members of the Home Guard drilling in the parks, life went on much as usual. Under the leadership of amon de Valera it had declared its neutrality during the Second World War. Train after train and bus after bus were filled with those next in line. About 1,000 people were killed and bombs hit half of the houses in the city, leaving 100,000 people homeless. When incendiaries were dropped, the city burned as water pressure was too low for effective firefighting. In clear weather, targets were easily identifiable. Half of the city's housing was damaged over the course of all the raids. It became a city by royal charter in 1888. Under the leadership of Prime Minister John Miller Andrews, Northern Ireland remained unprepared. ", Mapping the lives lost in the Belfast Blitz. The period of the next moon from say the 7th to the 16th of April may well bring our turn." The creeping TikTok bans. The higher the German planes had to fly to avoid the balloons, the less accurate they were when dropping their bombs. His reply was: "We here today are in a state of war and we are prepared with the rest of the United Kingdom and Empire to face all the responsibilities that imposes on the Ulster people. It was the worst wartime raid outside of London in the UK. The "Hiram Plan" initiated by Dawson Bates, the Home Affairs Minister, had failed to materialise. The database Mr Freeburn has compiled is, he believes, the most accurate list of those killed and includes 222 children aged 16 or under. Belfast is as worthy a target as Coventry, Birmingham, Bristol or Glasgow.. William Joyce "Lord Haw-Haw" announced that "The Fhrer will give you time to bury your dead before the next attack Tuesday was only a sample." The A.R.P. When the Blitz began, the government enforced a blackout in an attempt to make targeting more difficult for German night bombers. Fighter Commands efforts were greatly aided by the lack of any consistent plan of action on the part of the Germans. Hundreds of incendiary and many high-explosive bombs were dropped, doing little material damage but causing many casualties. Anna and Billy returned to England and continued running the children's home. However, the Docklands was also a densely populated and impoverished area where thousands of working-class Londoners lived in run-down housing. Roads out of town are still one stream of cars, with mattresses and bedding tied on top. Belfast is located on the island of Ireland. Ulster Historical Foundation. The first was on the night of 7-8 April 1941, a small attack which probably took place only to test Belfast's defences. O'Sullivan felt that the whole civil defence sector was utterly overwhelmed. All were exhausted. Video, Russian minister laughed at for Ukraine war claims, US-made cheese can be called 'gruyere' - court, AOC under investigation for Met Gala dress, Saving Private Ryan actor Tom Sizemore dies at 61, The children left behind in Cuba's exodus, Walkie Talkie architect Rafael Violy dies aged 78, Alex Murdaugh's legal troubles are far from over, Mother who killed her five children euthanised. And then naturally as I was over the target, I did pick up flak but I have no sense of exactly how weak or how strong it was, because every bit of flak you get is dangerous.. Only four were known still to be alive. Reviewed by: Geoffrey Roberts. Just before Easter 1941, Anna and Billy Burdett and their 12-year-old daughter, Dorothy, returned to Belfast from England to visit Anna's family. Eduard Hempel, the German Minister to Ireland, visited the Irish Ministry for External Affairs to offer sympathy and attempt an explanation. In Newtownards, Bangor, Larne, Carrickfergus, Lisburn and Antrim many thousands of Belfast citizens took refuge either with friends or strangers. He described some distressing consequences, such as how "in one case the leg and arm of a child had to be amputated before it could be extricated. Although there were some comparatively slight raids later in 1941, the most notable one on July 27, the May 1011 attack marked the conclusion of the Blitz. Authorities quickly implemented plans to protect Londoners from bombs and to house those left homeless by the attacks. 29 interesting facts about Belfast you never knew - BeeLoved City 10 Facts about Belfast City. The attacks were authorized by Germany's chancellor, Adolf Hitler, after the British carried out a nighttime air raid on Berlin.