255 corpses were laid out in St George's Market. Many "arrived in Fermanagh having nothing with them only night shirts". Another attacked Bangor, killing five. . For eight months the Luftwaffe dropped bombs on London and other strategic cities across Britain. Rescue workers search through the rubble of Eglington Street in Belfast, Northern Ireland, after a German Luftwaffe air raid, 7 May 1941, Anna (left) and her husband Billy (back right) survived while Harriette, Dorothy and Billy were killed along with Dot and Isa, Dot and Isa, with Dorothy when she was a toddler, Royal Welch Fusiliers assist in clearing bomb damage in Belfast, Northern Ireland, 7 May 1941, Mapping the lives lost in the Belfast Blitz. Looking back on the Belfast Blitz, Oberleutnant Becker signed off with the following words: A war is the worst thing that can happen to Mankind. C.S Lewis was born in Belfast, and the nearby countryside helped inspire The Chronicles of Narnia. Under the leadership of amon de Valera it had declared its neutrality during the Second World War. He stated that "he would once more tell his government how he felt about the matter and he would ask them to confine the operations to military objectives as far as it was humanly possible. St George's Church in High Street was damaged by fire. A victory for the Luftwaffe in the Battle of Britain would indeed have exposed Great Britain to invasion and occupation. The raid so infuriated Hitler that he ordered the Luftwaffe to shift its attacks from RAF sites to London and other cities. It became a city by royal charter in 1888. Read about our approach to external linking. 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. By the end of the attacks, between 900 and 1,000 people were dead and thousands more were injured, homeless and displaced. Nearby residential areas in east Belfast were also hit when "203 metric tonnes of high explosive bombs, 80 land mines attached to parachutes, and 800 firebomb canisters containing 96,000 incendiary bombs"[16] were dropped. In 1995, on the 50th anniversary of the ending of the Second World War, an invitation was received by the Dublin Fire Brigade for any survivors of that time to attend a function at Hillsborough Castle and meet Prince Charles. 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. 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. Taoiseach amon de Valera formally protested to Berlin. It was not the last time Belfast would suffer. The Belfast blitz devastated a city that up until 1941 had remained unscathed during World War Two. Elsewhere in the skies over Britain, Nazi official Rudolph Hess chose that same evening to parachute into Scotland on a quixotic and wholly unauthorized peace mission. There were few bomb shelters. The fourth and final Belfast raid took place on the following night, 56 May. Over 500 received care from the Irish Red Cross in Dublin. 10,000 "officially" crossed the border. The first attack was against the city's waterworks, which had been attacked in the previous raid. Belfast Blitz: Facts In total there were four attacks on the County Antrim city. Because basements, a logical destination in the event of an air raid, were a relative rarity in Britain, the A.R.P. Belfast was largely unprepared for an attack of such a scale as 200 German bombers shelled the city on 15 April 1941. Video, 00:01:41, The German bombing of Coventry. As many were caught in the open by blast and secondary missiles, the enormous number of casualties can be readily accounted for. Heavy jacks were unavailable. Major Sen O'Sullivan reported on the intensity of the bombing in some areas, such as the Antrim Road, where bombs "fell within fifteen to twenty yards of one another." 13 died, including a soldier killed when an anti-aircraft gun, at the Balmoral show-grounds, misfired. Three vessels nearing completion at Harland and Wolff's were hit as was its power station. From a purely military perspective, the Blitz was entirely counterproductive to the main purpose of Germanys air offensiveto dominate the skies in advance of an invasion of England. The creeping TikTok bans. At conservative gathering, Trump is still the favourite. In clear weather, targets were easily identifiable. The British government had anticipated air attacks on its population centres, and it had predicted catastrophic casualties. In the subsequent years, this lack of preparation has often dominated the discussion about the Belfast Blitz, but a new project led by Alan Freeburn from the Northern Ireland War Memorial aims to shift the focus back to the ordinary men, women and children who lost their lives. Contributions poured in from every part of the world in such profusion that on October 28 its scope was extended to cover the whole of the United Kingdom and Northern Ireland. . Belfast is the capital and largest city of Northern Ireland . He was replaced by 54-year-old Sir Basil Brooke on 1 May. Some 900 people died as a result of the bombing and 1,500 were injured. Video, 00:01:37, Thanks, but no big speech, in Ken Bruce's sign off, Tear gas fired at Greece train crash protesters. Video, 00:01:23, Watch: Matt Hancock message row in 83 seconds, Isabel Oakeshott: Why I leaked Hancock's messages. Unlike N Ireland, the Irish Free State was no longer part of the UK. There were still 80,000 more in Belfast. That evening over 150 bombers left their bases in northern France and the Netherlands and headed for Belfast. The city has been a leader in women's rights. THE BELFAST BLITZ was a series of four air raids over Northern Ireland during the spring of 1941. The mortuary services had emergency plans to deal with only 200 bodies. Belfast was ill-prepared for the blitz. "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. Apart from those on London, this was the greatest loss of life in any night raid during the Blitz. Why Alex Murdaugh was spared the death penalty, Why Trudeau is facing calls for a public inquiry, The shocking legacy of the Dutch 'Hunger Winter'. [citation needed], On Easter Tuesday, 15 April 1941, spectators watching a football match at Windsor Park noticed a lone Luftwaffe Junkers Ju 88 aircraft circling overhead.[15]. He successfully busied himself with the task of making Northern Ireland a major supplier of food to Britain in her time of need.[5]. 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. 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." Get a Britannica Premium subscription and gain access to exclusive content. Belfast, the city with the highest population density in the UK at the time, also had the lowest proportion of public air-raid shelters. In the course of four Luftwaffe attacks on the nights of 7-8 April, 15-16 April, 4-5 May and 5-6 May 1941, lasting ten hours in total, 1,100 people died, over 56,000 houses in the city were damaged (53 per cent of its entire housing stock), roughly 100,000 made temporarily homeless and 20 million damage was caused to property at wartime values. [citation needed]. Jimmy Doherty, an air raid warden (who later served in London during the V1 and V2 blitz), who wrote a book on the Belfast blitz; 2. "Through resources such as the Public Records Office and ancestry and genealogy websites I managed to get about 100 photos - which is about one tenth of the victims," he says. Several accounts point out that Belfast, standing at the end of the long inlet of Belfast Lough, would be easily located. Van Morrison is from the east part of the city. In the mistaken belief that they might damage RAF fighters, the anti-aircraft batteries ceased firing. John Wood Dunlop invented the pneumatic tyre in Belfast in 1887. But the raid of 15-16 April - the Easter Tuesday Raid - was on another scale. Fighter Commands efforts were greatly aided by the lack of any consistent plan of action on the part of the Germans. These shelters were vital as these factories had many employees working late at night and early in the morning when Luftwaffe attacks were likely. That contrasts with the figure that is often given of more than 900 killed on Easter Tuesday alone. These balloons, the largest of which were some 60 feet (18 metres) long, were essentially an airspace denial tool. At the beginning of the Blitz, British ack ack gunners struggled to inflict meaningful damage on German bombers, but later developments in radar guidance greatly improved the effectiveness of both antiaircraft artillery and searchlights. Blitz Fibre UK Blitz Fibre UK Published Mar 1, 2023 + Follow Fact 1- Small but Mighty . After his optician business was destroyed by a bomb, Mickey Davies led an effort to organize the Spitalfield Shelter. No searchlights were set up in the city at the time, and these only arrived on 10 April. Tragically 35 were crushed to death when the mill wall collapsed. About 1,000 people were killed and bombs hit half of the houses in the city, leaving 100,000. 1. However Belfast was not mentioned again by the Nazis. Anna and Billy returned to England and continued running the children's home. "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.". This amounted to nearly half of Britains total civilian deaths for the whole war. Two of the crews received refreshments in Banbridge; others were entertained in the Ancient Order of Hibernians hall in Newry. 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. But the RAF had not responded. Clydeside got its blitz during the period of the last moon. Protection of the city fell to seven anti-aircraft batteries of 16 heavy guns and six light guns. The M.V. Around 1am, Luftwaffe bombers flew over the city, concentrating their attack on the Harbour Estate and Queen's Island. After a brief lull, the Luftwaffe returned in force on February 17. During what was known as the "Belfast Blitz," 1,000 people were killed by bombs dropped by the Nazis in 1941 during the Second World War. It was not the first time the alarm had sounded to signify the presence of Luftwaffe bombers over the city. 9. In total over 1,300 houses were demolished, some 5,000 badly damaged, nearly 30,000 slightly damaged while 20,000 required "first aid repairs".[3]. J.P. Walshe, assistant secretary, recorded that Hempel was "clearly distressed by the news of the severe raid on Belfast and especially of the number of civilian casualties." Another claim was that the Catholic population in general and the IRA in particular guided the bombers. Over 20 hospitals were hit, among them the London (many times), St. Thomass, St. Bartholomews, and the childrens hospital in Great Ormond st., as well as Chelsea hospital, the home for the aged and invalid soldiers, built by Wren. Belfast is located on the island of Ireland. Belfast is as worthy a target as Coventry, Birmingham, Bristol or Glasgow.. A modern bomb census has attempted to pinpoint the location of every bomb dropped on London during the Blitz, and the visualization of that data makes clear how thoroughly the Luftwaffe saturated the city. Video, 00:00:46, Hong Kong skyscraper fire seen on city's skyline, Watch: Matt Hancock message row in 83 seconds. Half of the city's housing was damaged over the course of all the raids. Nearby were the citys main power station, gasworks, telephone house and the Sirocco Engineering works. Belfast was Ireland's industrial home, famous for tobacco, rope-making, linen, and ship-building, which made it the powerhouse it was. Maps and documents uncovered at Gatow Airfield near Berlin in 1945 showed the level of detail involved. It was the worst wartime raid outside of London in the UK. As many as 5,000 people had packed into this network of underground tunnels, which was dangerously overcrowded, dirty, and dark. 7. The next took. Both planes quickly proved their mettle against German bombers, and Germanys best fighter, the Bf 109, was of limited use as an escort due to its relatively short operating range. 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. People hung black curtains in their windows so that no lights showed outside their houses. The most heavily bombed cities outside London were Liverpool and Birmingham. 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. The creeping TikTok bans. 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. Barton wrote: "the Catholic population was much more strongly opposed to conscription, was inclined to sympathise with Germany", "there were suspicions that the Germans were assisted in identifying targets, held by the Unionist population." Davies also set up medical stations and persuaded off-duty medical personnel to treat the sick and wounded. Neighbouring residential areas were also hit. Islington parish church, the rebuilt Our Lady of Victories (Kensington), the French church by Leicester square, St. Annes, Soho (famous for its music), All Souls, Langham place, and Christ Church in Westminster Bridge road (whose towerfortunately savedcommemorates President Lincolns abolition of slavery), were among a large number of others. Three nights later (April 1920) London was again subjected to a seven-hour raid, and the loss of life was considerable, especially among firefighters and the A.R.P. 1. Up to now, we have escaped an attack, said John MacDermott, the Minister for Security, Belfast, on March 24, 1941. [12], There was little preparation for the conflict with Germany. Other Belfast factories manufactured gun mountings. While the balloons themselves were an obvious deterrent, they were anchored to the ground by steel tethers that were strong enough to damage or destroy any aircraft that flew into them. They remained for three days, until they were sent back by the Northern Ireland government. Accounts differ as to when flares were dropped to light up the city. NI WW2 veterans honoured by France. 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. Thank you. When Germany bombed Belfast as part of the Blitz during World War Two, the massive air raids left more than a thousand people dead. Between Black Saturday and December 2, there was no 24-hour period without at least one alertas the alarms came to be calledand generally far more. Eduard Hempel, the German Minister to Ireland, visited the Irish Ministry for External Affairs to offer sympathy and attempt an explanation. The danger faced in London was greatly increased when the V2 attacks started and the casualty figures mirrored those of the Blitz.. 7. The South Hallsville School disaster prompted Londoners, especially residents of the East End, to find safer shelters, on their own if necessary. NI WW2 veterans honoured by France. The creeping TikTok bans, Hong Kong skyscraper fire seen on city's skyline. Prayers were said and hymns sung by the mainly Protestant women and children during the bombing. 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. (Some authors count this as the second raid of four). But Mr Freeburn's research casts doubt on this. Other targets included Sheffield, Manchester, Coventry, and Southampton. Very early in the German bombing campaign, it became clear that the preparationshowever extensive they seemed to have beenwere inadequate. The seeming normality of life on the Home Front was shattered in 1944 when the first of the V1's landed. The crypt under the sanctuary and the cellar under the working sacristy had been fitted out and opened to the public as an air-raid shelter. Raids between February and May pounded Plymouth, Portsmouth, Bristol, Newcastle upon Tyne, and Hull in England; Swansea in Wales; Belfast in Northern Ireland; and Clydeside in Scotland. Most of the objectives laid out by the reconnaissance crews were of either military or industrial importance. The A.R.P. Yesterday the hand of good-fellowship was reached across the Border. Burke Street which ran between Annadale and Dawson streets in the New Lodge area, was completely wiped off the map with all its 20 houses flattened and all of the occupants killed.[16]. Video, 00:00:26, Living through the London Blitz. The attacks were authorized by Germany's chancellor, Adolf Hitler, after the British carried out a nighttime air raid on Berlin. An air raid shelter on Hallidays Road received a direct hit, killing all those in it. He believed that key targets identified across the city were hit. On August 25 the British retaliated by launching a bombing raid on Berlin. They all say the same thing, that the government is no good. O'Sullivan reported: "There were many terrible mutilations among both living and dead heads crushed, ghastly abdominal and face wounds, penetration by beams, mangled and crushed limbs etc.". On 4-5 May, another raid, made up of 204 bombers, killed another 203 people and the following night 22 more died. They are sleeping in the same sheugh (ditch), below the same tree or in the same barn. Mr Freeburn set out to find out more about those who died, their personal stories and the tales of those left behind. Just eight days earlier, eight planes destroyed the aircraft fuselage factory and damaged the docks, with 15 people ultimately killed as a result of that raid. Omissions? Everything on wheels is being pressed into service. "[22], In his opinion, the greatest want was the lack of hospital facilities. He believed that this was being done already but it was inevitable that a certain number of civilian lives should be lost in the course of heavy bombing from the air". Video, 00:02:54, At least 17 dead in Jakarta fuel storage depot fire. The district of Belfast has an area of 44 square miles (115 square km). It is perhaps true that many saved their lives running but I am afraid a much greater number lost them or became casualties."[20]. There were Heinkel He 111s, Junkers Ju 88s and Dornier Do 17s. Many people who were dug out of the rubble alive had taken shelter underneath their stairs and were fortunate that their homes had not received a direct hit or caught fire. The national government also provided funds to local municipalities to construct public air-raid shelters. Government ministers in Northern Ireland began to realise the Luftwaffe may launch an attack, but it was too little, too late. 2. By British mainland blitz standards, casualties were light. Nevertheless, for all the hardship it caused, the campaign proved to be a strategic mistake by the Germans. The database Mr Freeburn has compiled is, he believes, the most accurate list of those killed and includes 222 children aged 16 or under. Please refer to the appropriate style manual or other sources if you have any questions. [citation needed]. 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 initial human cost of the Blitz was lower than the government had expected, but the level of destruction exceeded the governments dire predictions. Belfast Blitz: Marking the lost lives 80 years on A force of 180 bombers dropped 750 bombs - including 203 tonnes of high explosives - and 29,000 incendiaries over a five-hour period. On May 11, 1941, Hitler called off the Blitz as he shifted his forces eastward against the Soviet Union. Another defensive measure employed by the British was barrage balloonslarge oval-shaped unmanned balloons with stabilizing tail finsinstalled in and around major target areas. 10 Facts about Belfast City. 4. Later, guided by the raging fires caused by the first attack, a second group of planes began another assault that lasted until 4:30 the following morning. By mid-September 1940 the RAF had won the Battle of Britain, and the invasion was postponed indefinitely. Over a period of nine months, over 43,500 civilians were killed in the raids, which focused on major cities and industrial centres. O'Sullivan felt that the whole civil defence sector was utterly overwhelmed. The past doesnt change, its just over.. 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. the Blitz, (September 7, 1940May 11, 1941), intense bombing campaign undertaken by Nazi Germany against the United Kingdom during World War II. The creeping TikTok bans, Hong Kong skyscraper fire seen on city's skyline. On 24 March 1941, John MacDermott, Minister for Security, wrote to Prime Minister John Andrews, expressing his concerns that Belfast was so poorly protected: "Up to now we have escaped attack. Up Next. Humanity knows no borders, no politics, no differences of religious belief. Video, 00:00:51, Australia's 'biggest drug bust' nets $700m of cocaine, Thanks, but no big speech, in Ken Bruce's sign off. "There are plans for one but there isn't one yet. Ulster Historical Foundation. 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. At 4:15am John MacDermott, the Minister of Public Security, managed to contact Basil Brooke (then Agriculture Minister), seeking permission to seek help from the Irish government. In just these few hours, 430 people were killed and 1,600 were badly injured. For two hours, 348 German bombers and 617 fighters targeted the city, dropping high-explosive bombs as well as incendiary devices. Anna and Billy were buried up their necks in sewage but were rescued and survived. [21] Mass graves for the unclaimed bodies were dug in the Milltown and Belfast City Cemeteries. The shipyard was among the largest in the world, producing merchant vessels and military shipping. Video, 00:03:09Mapping the lives lost in the Belfast Blitz, Belfast City Hall in darkness as the Blitz is marked, Street fighting in Bakhmut but Russia not in control, Russian minister laughed at for Ukraine war claims. The Belfast Blitz consisted of four German air raids on strategic targets in the city of Belfast in Northern Ireland, in April and May 1941 during World War II, causing high casualties. After the war, when the first girl from the home got married Billy gave her away, having lost his only daughter. MacDermott would be proved right. The nights of November 3 and 28 were the only occasions during this period in which Londons peace was unbroken by siren or bomb. Nevertheless, through sheer weight of numbers, the Germans were on the brink of victory in late August 1940. Morale did suffer amid the death and devastation, but there were few calls for surrender. Northern Ireland is a part of the United Kingdom . KS3 History (Environment and society) The Belfast Blitz learning resources for adults, children, parents and teachers. devised the Morrison shelter (named for Home Secretary Herbert Stanley Morrison) as an alternative to the Anderson shelter. 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. The Germans established that Belfast was defended by only seven anti-aircraft batteries, which made it the most poorly defended city in the United Kingdom. In every instance, all stepped forward. The first (April 7 -8), a small attack, was most likely carried out to test the city's defenses. The raids hurt Britains war production, but they also killed many civilians and left many others homeless.
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