10 facts about the belfast blitz 10 facts about the belfast blitz

The bombs continued to fall until 5am. This type of shelteressentially a low steel cage large enough to contain two adults and two small childrenwas designed to be set up indoors and could serve as a refuge if the building began to collapse. No attendant nurse had soothed the last moments of these victims; no gentle reverent hand had closed their eyes or crossed their hands. 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. Video, 00:01:38, At least 17 dead in Jakarta fuel storage depot fire, Australia's 'biggest drug bust' nets $700m of cocaine. Another large-scale attack followed on March 19, when hundreds of houses and shops, many churches, six hospitals, and other public buildings were destroyed or seriously damaged. It became a city by royal charter in 1888. He was asked, in the N.I. There is no slacking in our loyalty. While every effort has been made to follow citation style rules, there may be some discrepancies. These private air-raid shelters were Anderson shelters, constructed of sheets of corrugated galvanised iron covered in earth. The seeming normality of life on the Home Front was shattered in 1944 when the first of the V1's landed. 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. The Belfast Blitz - KS3 History (Environment and society) - BBC Compared to other cities, Belfast was virtually undefended. workers. Sir Basil Brooke, the Minister of Agriculture, was the only active minister. Belfast is the capital and largest city of Northern Ireland. By 4 am the entire city seemed to be in flames. The Belfast blitz. 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. It is situated at on the banks of the River Lagan on the east coast. The next took place on Easter Tuesday, 15 April 1941, when 200 Luftwaffe bombers attacked military and manufacturing targets in the city of Belfast. 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. 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. Nearby were the citys main power station, gasworks, telephone house and the Sirocco Engineering works. 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. The M.V. Belfast's Albert Clock tower is sinking - it leans by four feet. The fourth and final Belfast raid took place on the following night, 56 May. 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. An earlier flight on Oct. 18 allowed the crew to plot several targets in the city. I was definitely one of the first over the target and as I flew in there was no great defence because there were not a great many aircraft over the target at that point, recalled Becker. Your donations help keep MHN afloat. By then most of the major fires were under control and the firemen from Clydeside and other British cities were arriving. Belfast Blitz: Facts In total there were four attacks on the County Antrim city. London seemed ablaze from the docks to Westminster, much damage was done, and casualties were high. By mid-September 1940 the RAF had won the Battle of Britain, and the invasion was postponed indefinitely. Yesterday for once the people of Ireland were united under the shadow of a national blow. 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). Fortunately, the railway telegraphy link between Belfast and Dublin was still operational. On May 11, 1941, Hitler called off the Blitz as he shifted his forces eastward against the Soviet Union. Belfast was not properly prepared for the attacks, with too few shelters and not enough anti-aircraft guns. 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.". Video, 00:02:12, Isabel Oakeshott: Why I leaked Hancock's messages, Tears of relief after man found in Amazon jungle. 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. Belfast | History, Population, Map, Landmarks, & Facts Harland and Wolff: The troubled history of Belfast's shipyard Tragically 35 were crushed to death when the mill wall collapsed. The Germans expanded the Blitz to other cities in November 1940. It would appear that Adolf Hitler, in view of de Valera's negative reaction, was concerned that de Valera and Irish American politicians might encourage the United States to enter the war. 15 Powerful Photos Of The WW2 Blitz | Imperial War Museums Belfast is as worthy a target as Coventry, Birmingham, Bristol or Glasgow.. [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]. Up Next. ", Mapping the lives lost in the Belfast Blitz. The Belfast Blitz: April-May 1941 - History Ireland The A.R.P. By 1940, Short and Harland could shelter its entire workforce and Harland and Wolff had provision to shelter 16,000 workers. Belfast was ill-prepared for the blitz. In addition, there simply was not enough space for everyone who needed shelter in one of the largest and most densely populated cities in the world. Incendiary bombs predominated in this raid. Wherever Churchill is hiding his war material we will go. Belfast is located on the island of Ireland. At conservative gathering, Trump is still the favourite. sprang into action, and Londoners, while maintaining the work, business, and efficiency of their city, displayed remarkable fortitude. 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. Children and World War Two - History Learning Site All were exhausted. John Wood Dunlop invented the pneumatic tyre in Belfast in 1887. There [is] ground for thinking that the enemy could not easily reach Belfast in force except during a period of moonlight. 7. Around 20,000 people were employed on the site with 35,000 further along in the shipyard. 10,000 "officially" crossed the border. People hung black curtains in their windows so that no lights showed outside their houses. Fiber-optic cables are made from thin strings of glass and are generally about one-tenth the width of a . Moya Woodside[23] noted in her diary: "Evacuation is taking on panic proportions. Mr Freeburn set out to find out more about those who died, their personal stories and the tales of those left behind. On September 1, 1939, the day World War II began with Germanys invasion of Poland, the British government implemented a massive evacuation plan. The Blitz was devastating for the people of London and other cities. These shelters, made of corrugated steel, were designed to be dug into a garden and then covered with dirt. He gave an interview saying: "the people of Belfast are Irish people too". Protection of the city fell to seven anti-aircraft batteries of 16 heavy guns and six light guns. The British government had anticipated air attacks on its population centres, and it had predicted catastrophic casualties. London was bombed for 57 consecutive nights from 7 September 1940 Wherever Churchill is hiding his war material we will go Belfast is as worthy a target as Coventry, Birmingham, Bristol or Glasgow." Belfast Blitz: Remembering the ordinary people who lost their lives Video, 00:02:54, At least 17 dead in Jakarta fuel storage depot fire. 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.. Northern Ireland is a part of the United Kingdom . They write new content and verify and edit content received from contributors. After the war, instructions from Joseph Goebbels were discovered ordering it not to be mentioned. Eduard Hempel, the German Minister to Ireland, visited the Irish Ministry for External Affairs to offer sympathy and attempt an explanation. The city covers a total area of 132.5 square kilometers (51 square miles). WW2: How did an elephant beat the Belfast Blitz? - BBC Teach It is perhaps true that many saved their lives running but I am afraid a much greater number lost them or became casualties."[20]. Fewer than 4,000 women and children were evacuated. 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]. Air power alone had failed to knock the United Kingdom out of the war. and Major Sen O'Sullivan, who produced a detailed report for the Dublin government. Learn how your comment data is processed. He went to the Mater Hospital at 2pm, nine hours after the raid ended, to find the street with a traffic jam of ambulances waiting to admit their casualties. 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 "pothole blitz" is a common short-term initiative to combat storm weather damage. 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. Once more, London was targeted and children were victims. Several theatres and many cinemas were open, and there were even a few sporting events. By the end of the attacks, between 900 and 1,000 people were dead and thousands more were injured, homeless and displaced. The Belfast blitz is remembered. Belfast was the birthplace of the RMS Titanic, the world' most famous ship which, when it was constructed in the early 1900s, was longer than the height of the world's tallest building at 882 feet and six inches in length. 6. From papers recovered after the war, we know of a Luftwaffe reconnaissance flight over Belfast on 30 November 1940. In each station volunteers were asked for, as it was beyond their normal duties. At the core of this book is a compelling account of the Luftwaffe's blitz on Belfast in April-May 1941. Omissions? There were few bomb shelters. Weighing 46,328 tonnes, Titanic was to be the largest manmade moveable object the world had ever seen. 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. Morale did suffer amid the death and devastation, but there were few calls for surrender. The Belfast blitz devastated a city that up until 1941 had remained unscathed during World War Two. Added to this was the repair and refitting of 22,000 more vessels. to households. . 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. More than 1,000 people were killed, and the damage was more widespread than on any previous occasion. Public buildings destroyed or badly damaged included Belfast City Hall's Banqueting Hall, the Ulster Hospital for Women and Children and Ballymacarrett library, (the last two being located on Templemore Avenue). After his optician business was destroyed by a bomb, Mickey Davies led an effort to organize the Spitalfield Shelter. St George's Church in High Street was damaged by fire. Those who sought refuge at the school were told that they would quickly be relocated to a safer area, but the evacuation was delayed. Belfast suffered a series of bombing raids in the spring of 1941, which became known as the 'Blitz of Belfast'. In the first days of the Blitz, a tragic incident in the East End stoked public anger over the governments shelter policy. 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 first was on the night of 7-8 April 1941, a small attack which probably took place only to test Belfast's defences. In just these few hours, 430 people were killed and 1,600 were badly injured. John Clarke MacDermott, the Minister of Public Security, after the first bombing, initiated the "Hiram Plan" to evacuate the city and to return Belfast to 'normality' as quickly as possible. Here are 10 facts about both the German Blitzkrieg and the Allied bombing of Germany. Outside of London, with some 900 dead, this was the greatest loss of life in a night raid during the Blitz. But the raid of 15-16 April - the Easter Tuesday Raid - was on another scale. Anna and Billy were buried up their necks in sewage but were rescued and survived. 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. 55,000 houses were damaged leaving 100,000 temporarily homeless. But Mr Freeburn's research casts doubt on this. By Jonathan Bardon. They are sleeping in the same sheugh (ditch), below the same tree or in the same barn. 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. [citation needed], Casualties were lower than at Easter, partly because the sirens had sounded at 11.45pm while the Luftwaffe attacked more cautiously from a greater height. The Blitz | Facts, History, Damage, & Casualties | Britannica When incendiaries were dropped, the city burned as water pressure was too low for effective firefighting. The district of Belfast has an area of 44 square miles (115 square km). Video, 00:00:26, Living through the London Blitz. But the Luftwaffe was ready. 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. They remained for three days, until they were sent back by the Northern Ireland government. "They have never been published before, never seen the light of day.". 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. It remains a high death toll - a shocking number of people killed in just a few weeks. 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. A victory for the Luftwaffe in the Battle of Britain would indeed have exposed Great Britain to invasion and occupation. [9], War materials and food were sent by sea from Belfast to Great Britain, some under the protection of the neutral Irish tricolour. On August 25 the British retaliated by launching a bombing raid on Berlin. THE BELFAST BLITZ was a series of four air raids over Northern Ireland during the spring of 1941. 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. You can see the difference in those letters - post-Blitz is very much a grieving tone. Guided by Davies, the people of the shelter created an ad hoc government and established a set of rules. Reviewed by: Geoffrey Roberts. 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. The danger faced in London was greatly increased when the V2 attacks started and the casualty figures mirrored those of the Blitz.. And even then, Westminster stated it was not ample provision; Stormont still worried about the costs to industry. 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. Authorities had noted Queens Island in the cityas a vulnerable point as early as 1929. Clydeside got its blitz during the period of the last moon. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. A Luftwaffe pilot gave this description "We were in exceptional good humour knowing that we were going for a new target, one of England's last hiding places. William Joyce (known as "Lord Haw-Haw") announced in radio broadcasts from Hamburg that there will be "Easter eggs for Belfast". Belfast was largely unprepared for an attack of such a scale as 200 German bombers shelled the city on 15 April 1941. 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. The World's Most-Famous Ship, The Titanic, was constructed here. One, Tom Coleman, attended to receive recognition for his colleagues' solidarity at such a critical time. 2023 BBC. Dissatisfaction with public shelters also led to another notable development in the East EndMickeys Shelter. Video, 00:01:41NI WW2 veterans honoured by France, The Spitfire turns 80. Video, 00:00:36, Tears of relief after man found in Amazon jungle. The most heavily bombed cities outside London were Liverpool and Birmingham. Neighbouring residential areas were also hit. Video, 00:00:46, Hong Kong skyscraper fire seen on city's skyline, Watch: Matt Hancock message row in 83 seconds. [26], Initial German radio broadcasts celebrated the raid. There was no opposition. Accounts differ as to when flares were dropped to light up the city. Clydeside got its blitz during the period of the last moon. 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. 4. From September 1940 until May 1941, Britain was subjected to sustained enemy bombing campaign, now known as the Blitz. 29 interesting facts about Belfast you never knew - BeeLoved City The creeping TikTok bans. But these people all had families and friends and they had to deal with their loss for the rest of their lives.". In the mistaken belief that they might damage RAF fighters, the anti-aircraft batteries ceased firing. Under the leadership of amon de Valera it had declared its neutrality during the Second World War. 1. 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. Belfast has the world's largest dry dock. When Germany bombed Belfast as part of the Blitz during World War Two, the massive air raids left more than a thousand people dead. 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. The bombs caused death and destruction across the city, affecting those of all religions and political backgrounds. The Belfast Blitz - Inside the Deadly 1941 Luftwaffe Raids on Northern Emma Duffin, a nurse at the Queen's University Hospital, (who previously served during the Great War), who kept a diary; But the RAF had not responded. 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." Van Morrison is from the east part of the city. Another attacked Bangor, killing five. ", 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 'Blitz' - from the German term Blitzkrieg ('lightning war') - was the sustained campaign of aerial bombing attacks on British towns and cities carried out by the Luftwaffe (German Air Force) from September 1940 until May 1941.