", Dawson Bates, the Home Affairs Minister, apparently refused to reply to army correspondence and when the Ministry of Home Affairs was informed by imperial defence experts in 1939 that Belfast was regarded as "a very definite German objective", little was done outside providing shelters in the Harbour area.[14]. The telegram was sent at 4:35am,[citation needed] asking the Irish Taoiseach, amon de Valera for assistance. The raid so infuriated Hitler that he ordered the Luftwaffe to shift its attacks from RAF sites to London and other cities. 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. Strand Public Elementary school, York Road railway station, the adjacent Midland Hotel on York Road, and Salisbury Avenue tram depot were all hit. Belfast is famous for being the birthplace of the Titanic. 3. The creeping TikTok bans. We were in exceptional good humour knowing that we were going for a new target, one of Englands last hiding places, said one pilot of the raid. Belfast, the city with the highest population density in the UK at the time, also had the lowest proportion of public air-raid shelters. 1. Belfast Blitz: Facts In total there were four attacks on the County Antrim city. 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. Outside of London, with some 900 dead, this was the greatest loss of life in a night raid during the Blitz. For eight months the Luftwaffe dropped bombs on London and other strategic cities across Britain. They remained for three days, until they were sent back by the Northern Ireland government. THE BELFAST BLITZ was a series of four air raids over Northern Ireland during the spring of 1941. It was not the last time Belfast would suffer. He was succeeded by J. M. Andrews, then 69 years old, who was no more capable of dealing with the situation than his predecessor. In the east of the city, Westbourne and Newcastle Streets on the Newtownards Road, Thorndyke Street off the Albertbridge Road and Ravenscroft Avenue were destroyed or damaged. 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. 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. This article was most recently revised and updated by, https://www.britannica.com/event/the-Blitz, National Museums Liverpool - Merseyside Maritime Museum - The Blitz, The History Learning Site - The Blitz and World War Two. Morale did suffer amid the death and devastation, but there were few calls for surrender. 4. [13] However at the time Lord Craigavon, Prime Minister of Northern Ireland since its inception in 1921, said: "Ulster is ready when we get the word and always will be." It was solemn, tragic, dignified, but here it was grotesque, repulsive, horrible. The city covers a total area of 132.5 square kilometers (51 square miles). Northern Ireland is a part of the United Kingdom . (Great War casualties) had died in hospital beds, their eyes had been reverently closed, their hands crossed to their breasts. 8. 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. 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 core of this book is a compelling account of the Luftwaffe's blitz on Belfast in April-May 1941. On the 17th I heard that hundreds who either could not get away or could not leave for other reasons simply went out into the fields and remained in the open all night with whatever they could take in the way of covering. Apart from those on London, this was the greatest loss of life in any night raid during the Blitz. The mortuary services had emergency plans to deal with only 200 bodies. Published: September 7, 2020 at 12:00 pm. People are leaving from all parts of town and not only from the bombed areas. His death (along with preceding ill-health) came at a bad time and arguably inadvertently caused a leadership vacuum. The RAFs Spitfire was a superlative fighter, and it was not always easy for the Germans to distinguish it from the slightly less maneuverable but much more numerous Hurricanes. Many of those who died as a result of enemy action lived in tightly packed, poorly constructed, terraced housing. The higher the German planes had to fly to avoid the balloons, the less accurate they were when dropping their bombs. The offensive came to be called the Blitz after the German word blitzkrieg ("lightning war"). Hundreds of incendiary and many high-explosive bombs were dropped, doing little material damage but causing many casualties. At conservative gathering, Trump is still the favourite. This view was probably influenced by the decision of the IRA Army Council to support Germany. 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. The attack on Coventry was particularly destructive. Also, on Queens Island, stood the Short and Harland Ltd. Aircraft Factory. 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. "There are plans for one but there isn't one yet. The Luftwaffe crews returned to their base in Northern France and reported that Belfast's defences were, "inferior in quality, scanty and insufficient". Authorities had noted Queens Island in the cityas a vulnerable point as early as 1929. On August 2, Luftwaffe commander Hermann Gring issued his Eagle Day directive, laying down a plan of attack in which a few massive blows from the air were to destroy British air power and so open the way for the invasion. Davies also set up medical stations and persuaded off-duty medical personnel to treat the sick and wounded. Major O'Sullivan reported that "In the heavily 'blitzed' areas people ran panic-stricken into the streets and made for the open country. These shelters, made of corrugated steel, were designed to be dug into a garden and then covered with dirt. For eight months the Luftwaffe dropped bombs on London and other strategic cities across Britain. A charitable relief fund for the people of London was opened September 10. 11 churches, two hospitals and two schools were destroyed. Corrections? 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. The Germans, however, saw Belfast as a legitimate target due to the shipyards in the city that were contributing to Britain's war efforts. Video, 00:02:54Living through the London Blitz, At least 17 dead in Jakarta fuel storage depot fire. But the RAF had not responded. Similar initiatives bearing the same name were ordered in the past decade by former mayors Libby . Belfast was ill-prepared for the blitz. Wherever Churchill is hiding his war material we will go. 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. Video, 00:01:41NI WW2 veterans honoured by France, The Spitfire turns 80. Six Heinkel He 111 bombers, from Kampfgruppe 26, flying at 7,000 feet (2,100m), dropped incendiaries, high explosive and parachute-mines. . Over a period of nine months, over 43,500 civilians were killed in the raids, which focused on major cities and industrial centres. Roads out of town are still one stream of cars, with mattresses and bedding tied on top. [4], The Government of Northern Ireland lacked the will, energy and capacity to cope with a major crisis when it came. He gave an interview saying: "the people of Belfast are Irish people too". The most heavily bombed cities outside London were Liverpool and Birmingham. The A.R.P. The British thus fought with the advantage of superior equipment and undivided aim against an enemy with inconsistent objectives. What happened in 1941 changed the city forever. Initially it was thought that the Germans had mistaken this reservoir for the harbour and shipyards, where many ships, including HMS Ark Royal were being repaired. workers. Belfast was not properly prepared for the attacks, with too few shelters and not enough anti-aircraft guns. The creeping TikTok bans. 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. It became a city by royal charter in 1888. The offensive came to be called the Blitz after the German word blitzkrieg (lightning war). Video, 00:01:09The Spitfire turns 80, The German bombing of Coventry. The seeming normality of life on the Home Front was shattered in 1944 when the first of the V1's landed. Government ministers in Northern Ireland began to realise the Luftwaffe may launch an attack, but it was too little, too late. 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. Maps and documents uncovered at Gatow Airfield near Berlin in 1945 showed the level of detail involved. After the first week of September, although night bombing on a large scale continued, the large mass attacks by day, which had proved so costly to the Luftwaffe during the Battle of Britain, were replaced by smaller parties coming over in successive waves. 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. In the first days of the Blitz, a tragic incident in the East End stoked public anger over the governments shelter policy. Video, 00:01:23, Watch: Matt Hancock message row in 83 seconds, Isabel Oakeshott: Why I leaked Hancock's messages. "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. 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. That contrasts with the figure that is often given of more than 900 killed on Easter Tuesday alone. After the passing of the Government of Ireland Act, 1920, it became the seat of the government of Northern Ireland. Other Belfast factories manufactured gun mountings. Read about our approach to external linking. The most heavily bombed area was that which lay between York Street and the Antrim Road, north of the city centre. 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. Belfast was Ireland's industrial home, famous for tobacco, rope-making, linen, and ship-building, which made it the powerhouse it was. But the Luftwaffe was ready. Mr Freeburn set out to find out more about those who died, their personal stories and the tales of those left behind. By the. Air-raid damage was widespread; hospitals, clubs, churches, museums, residential and shopping streets, hotels, public houses, theatres, schools, monuments, newspaper offices, embassies, and the London Zoo were bombed. Taoiseach amon de Valera formally protested to Berlin. In the west and north of the city, streets heavily bombed included Percy Street, York Park, York Crescent, Eglinton Street, Carlisle Street, Ballyclare, Ballycastle and Ballynure Streets off the Oldpark Road; Southport Street, Walton Street, Antrim Road, Annadale Street, Cliftonville Road, Hillman Street, Atlantic Avenue, Hallidays Road, Hughenden Avenue, Sunningdale Park, Shandarragh Park, and Whitewell Road. With Britains powerful Royal Navy controlling the surface approaches in the Channel and the North Sea, it fell to the Luftwaffe to establish dominance of the skies above the battle zone. The "pothole blitz" is a common short-term initiative to combat storm weather damage. 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. 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]. High explosives were dropped. [18], Over 900 people died, 1,500 people were injured, 400 of them seriously. [citation needed]. 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. Government apathy, a lack of leadership and a belief the Luftwaffe could not reach Belfast lead to the city lagging behind in terms of basic defences. 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. He believed that key targets identified across the city were hit. The attacks by both V1's and V2's only ended as the Allies advanced up through Western Europe . The next took. On occasion, forces consisting of as many as 300 to 400 aircraft would cross the coast by day and split into small groups, and a few planes would succeed in penetrating Londons outer defenses. The Blitz began at about 4:00 in the afternoon on September 7, 1940, when German planes appeared over London. But these people all had families and friends and they had to deal with their loss for the rest of their lives.". The Belfast blitz devastated a city that up until 1941 had remained unscathed during World War Two. 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. Heavy jacks were unavailable. The past doesnt change, its just over.. There [is] ground for thinking that the enemy could not easily reach Belfast in force except during a period of moonlight. [1][2], The third raid on Belfast took place over the evening and morning of 45 May 1941; 150 were killed. Van Morrison is from the east part of the city. Compared to other cities, Belfast was virtually undefended. There are other diarists and narratives. [26], Initial German radio broadcasts celebrated the raid. 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. 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. [citation needed], Other writers, such as Tony Gray in The Lost Years state that the Germans did follow their radio guidance beams. Video, 00:01:38, At least 17 dead in Jakarta fuel storage depot fire, Australia's 'biggest drug bust' nets $700m of cocaine. [9], War materials and food were sent by sea from Belfast to Great Britain, some under the protection of the neutral Irish tricolour. Dissatisfaction with public shelters also led to another notable development in the East EndMickeys Shelter. 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. Death should be dignified, peaceful; Hitler had made even death grotesque. 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. 55,000 British civilian casualties were sustained through German bombing before the end of 1940 This included 23,000 deaths. Some are a total loss; others are already under repair with little outward sign of the damage sustained: Besides Buckingham palace, the chapel of which was wrecked, and Guildhall (the six-centuries old centre of London civic ceremonies and of great architectural beauty), which was destroyed by fire, Kensington palace (the London home of the earl of Athlone, governor general of Canada, and the birthplace of Queen Mary and Queen Victoria), the banqueting hall of Eltham palace (dating from King Johns time and long a royal residence), Lambeth palace (the archbishop of Canterbury), and Holland house (famous for its 17th century domestic architecture, its political associations, and its art treasures), suffered, the latter severely. After his optician business was destroyed by a bomb, Mickey Davies led an effort to organize the Spitalfield Shelter. As more and more people began sleeping on the platforms, however, the government relented and provided bunk beds and bathrooms for the underground communities. Video, 00:01:41, The German bombing of Coventry. The Belfast Blitz was a series of devastating Luftwaffe air raids that took place in Northern Ireland during the Second World War. A force of 180 bombers dropped 750 bombs - including 203 tonnes of high explosives - and 29,000 incendiaries over a five-hour period. Despite the attacks, Belfast continued to contribute to the war effort, and within less than a year the city witnessed the arrival of thousands of American troops. The couple, who ran a children's home, stayed with Anna's parents, William and Harriette Denby, and her sisters, Dot and Isa, at Evelyn Gardens, off the Cavehill Road, in the north of the city. When the house was hit William, Harriette, Dorothy, 36-year-old Dot and 41-year-old Isa were all killed. No attendant nurse had soothed the last moments of these victims; no gentle reverent hand had closed their eyes or crossed their hands. Tragically 35 were crushed to death when the mill wall collapsed. Our editors will review what youve submitted and determine whether to revise the article. It targeted the docks. Subs offer. "But there is no such equivalent in Belfast. As of October 2020, the population of Belfast is about 350,000 people. In Newtownards, Bangor, Larne, Carrickfergus, Lisburn and Antrim many thousands of Belfast citizens took refuge either with friends or strangers. In another building, the York Street Mill, one of its massive sidewalls collapsed on to Sussex and Vere Streets, killing all those who remained in their homes. The fall of France in June, 1940, enabled the Luftwaffe to establish airfields across the north of the country, leaving Ulster within reach of bombers. Victory for the Royal Air Forces (RAFs) Fighter Command blocked this possibility and, in fact, created the conditions for Britains survival and the eventual destruction of the Third Reich. 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. So had Clydeside until recently. When the bombing began, 76-year-old William and 72-year-old Harriette took refuge under the stairs along with Dorothy, Dot and Isa. 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. 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. One of every six Londoners was made homeless at some point during the Blitz, and at least 1.1 million houses and flats were damaged or destroyed. On the ground, there were only 22 anti-aircraft guns positioned around the city, six light and 16 heavy, and on the first night only seven of these were manned and operational. By 1941, production of the Short Stirling Bomber and the Short Sunderland Flying Boat was underway. Anna and Billy were buried up their necks in sewage but were rescued and survived. The Luftwaffe never attacked the city after May 1941, but it would be many years before life returned to normal for many in the city. ", Dawson Bates informed the Cabinet of rack-renting of barns, and over thirty people per house in some areas.[24]. Public Record Office of Northern Ireland, Historical Topics Series 2, The Belfast Blitz, 2007, This page was last edited on 31 January 2023, at 20:18. 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.. The government was blamed by some for inadequate precautions. Brides, Fleet St.; St. Lawrence Jewry; St. Magnus the Martyr; St. Mary-at-hill; St. Dunstan in the East; St. Clement [Eastcheap] and St. Jamess, Piccadilly). 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". The firm had produced Handley Page Hereford bombers since 1936. In each station volunteers were asked for, as it was beyond their normal duties. The M.V. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Singer-songwriter Van Morrison was born here. A victory for the Luftwaffe in the Battle of Britain would indeed have exposed Great Britain to invasion and occupation. They write new content and verify and edit content received from contributors. While every effort has been made to follow citation style rules, there may be some discrepancies. Londoners enjoyed three weeks of uneasy peace until May 1011, the night of a full moon, when the Luftwaffe launched the most intense raid of the Blitz. The district of Belfast has an area of 44 square miles (115 square km). along with England, Scotland, and Wales. The creeping TikTok bans, Hong Kong skyscraper fire seen on city's skyline. By 4 am the entire city seemed to be in flames. [citation needed]. Again the Irish emergency services crossed the border, this time without waiting for an invitation. But the raid of 15-16 April - the Easter Tuesday Raid - was on another scale. 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 use of the Tube system as a shelter saved thousands of lives, and images of Londoners huddled in Underground stations would become an indelible image of British life during World War II. Emma Duffin, a nurse at the Queen's University Hospital, (who previously served during the Great War), who kept a diary; The youngest victim was just six-weeks-old. [19], 220,000 people fled from the city. By the end of the attacks, between 900 and 1,000 people were dead and thousands more were injured, homeless and displaced. On May 11, 1941, Hitler called off the Blitz as he shifted his forces eastward against the Soviet Union. The danger faced in London was greatly increased when the V2 attacks started and the casualty figures mirrored those of the Blitz.. There wasn't enough room for Anna or Billy, so they sheltered elsewhere, a twist of fate that would save their lives. 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. 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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. The first attack was against the city's waterworks, which had been attacked in the previous raid. There were few bomb shelters. 1. [citation needed], There was a second massive air raid on Belfast on Sunday 45 May 1941, three weeks after that of Easter Tuesday. Beginning in September 1940, the Blitz was an aerial bombing campaign conducted by the Luftwaffe against British cities. "It says a lot about how these people are forgotten that there is no Blitz memorial in Belfast," Mr Freeburn says. 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). But the authorities were afraid that bombs might not be the. Munster, for example, operated by the Belfast Steamship Company, plied between Belfast and Liverpool under the tricolour, until she hit a mine and was sunk outside Liverpool. Very early in the German bombing campaign, it became clear that the preparationshowever extensive they seemed to have beenwere inadequate.