Incendiary bombs predominated in this raid. On September 10, 1940, the school was flattened by a German bomb, and people huddled in the basement were killed or trapped in the rubble. 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.. By the end of the attacks, between 900 and 1,000 people were dead and thousands more were injured, homeless and displaced. Morale did suffer amid the death and devastation, but there were few calls for surrender. Once more, London was targeted and children were victims. Omissions? Belfast is as worthy a target as Coventry, Birmingham, Bristol or Glasgow.. ", Mapping the lives lost in the Belfast Blitz. Tragically 35 were crushed to death when the mill wall collapsed. People are leaving from all parts of town and not only from the bombed areas. Another claim was that the Catholic population in general and the IRA in particular guided the bombers. Video, 00:01:41, The German bombing of Coventry. The bombing of British cities - Swansea, Belfast, Glasgow [21] Mass graves for the unclaimed bodies were dug in the Milltown and Belfast City Cemeteries. The first was on the night of 7-8 April 1941, a small attack which probably took place only to test Belfast's defences. 7. 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. Humanity knows no borders, no politics, no differences of religious belief. 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. Yesterday for once the people of Ireland were united under the shadow of a national blow. 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 nights of November 3 and 28 were the only occasions during this period in which Londons peace was unbroken by siren or bomb. The Luftwaffe crews returned to their base in Northern France and reported that Belfast's defences were, "inferior in quality, scanty and insufficient". In spite of blackouts, ubiquitous shelters and sandbags, the visible effects of mass evacuation, the presence of A.R.P. Over 150 people died in what became known as the 'Fire Blitz'. 1. From September 1940 until May 1941, Britain was subjected to sustained enemy bombing campaign, now known as the Blitz. From papers recovered after the war, we know of a Luftwaffe reconnaissance flight over Belfast on 30 November 1940. Video, 00:01:23, Watch: Matt Hancock message row in 83 seconds, Isabel Oakeshott: Why I leaked Hancock's messages. Video, 00:01:38, At least 17 dead in Jakarta fuel storage depot fire, Australia's 'biggest drug bust' nets $700m of cocaine. Several theatres and many cinemas were open, and there were even a few sporting events. The M.V. Since most casualties were caused by falling masonry rather than by blast, they provided effective shelter for those who had them. The creeping TikTok bans. The "Hiram Plan" initiated by Dawson Bates, the Home Affairs Minister, had failed to materialise. Read about our approach to external linking. The first (April 7 -8), a small attack, was most likely carried out to test the city's defenses. By the. 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. For two hours on the first day, 348 German bombers and 617 fighters blasted London. 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. 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." In many cases the daily life of the city was able to resume with delays of only hours. That contrasts with the figure that is often given of more than 900 killed on Easter Tuesday alone. Revised estimates made decades later indicated that close to 600 men, women, and children had been killed in the bombing. 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. Clydeside got its blitz during the period of the last moon. He gave an interview saying: "the people of Belfast are Irish people too". 2023 BBC. 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. Nurse Emma Duffin, who had served in World War I, contrasted death in that conflict with what she saw:.mw-parser-output .templatequote{overflow:hidden;margin:1em 0;padding:0 40px}.mw-parser-output .templatequote .templatequotecite{line-height:1.5em;text-align:left;padding-left:1.6em;margin-top:0}. Lecturer of History, Queens University, Belfast, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Belfast_Blitz&oldid=1136721396, During the war years, Belfast shipyards built or converted over 3,000 navy vessels, repaired more than 22,000 others and launched over half a million tons of merchant shipping over 140. 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'. Harland and Wolff: The troubled history of Belfast's shipyard "They have never been published before, never seen the light of day.". And even then, Westminster stated it was not ample provision; Stormont still worried about the costs to industry. (Some authors count this as the second raid of four). ", Dawson Bates informed the Cabinet of rack-renting of barns, and over thirty people per house in some areas.[24]. THE BELFAST BLITZ was a series of four air raids over Northern Ireland during the spring of 1941. The Blitz began at around 4 pm on September 7, 1940, when German bomber planes first appeared over London. BBC News | NORTHERN IRELAND | The Belfast blitz is remembered On 4-5 May, another raid, made up of 204 bombers, killed another 203 people and the following night 22 more died. the Blitz, (September 7, 1940May 11, 1941), intense bombing campaign undertaken by Nazi Germany against the United Kingdom during World War II. Because basements, a logical destination in the event of an air raid, were a relative rarity in Britain, the A.R.P. Around 1am, Luftwaffe bombers flew over the city, concentrating their attack on the Harbour Estate and Queen's Island. MacDermott would be proved right. 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. For two hours, 348 German bombers and 617 fighters targeted the city, dropping high-explosive bombs as well as incendiary devices. It is perhaps true that many saved their lives running but I am afraid a much greater number lost them or became casualties."[20]. The past doesnt change, its just over.. A force of 180 bombers dropped 750 bombs - including 203 tonnes of high explosives - and 29,000 incendiaries over a five-hour period. This raid overall caused relatively little damage, but a lot was revealed about Belfast's inadequate defences. A short respite followed, until a widespread series of night raids on April 7 included some targets in the London area. 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. That evening over 150 bombers left their bases in northern France and the Netherlands and headed for Belfast. [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. 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 firm had produced Handley Page Hereford bombers since 1936. 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. department distributed more than two million Anderson shelters (named after Sir John Anderson, head of the A.R.P.) There were still 80,000 more in Belfast. The telegram was sent at 4:35am,[citation needed] asking the Irish Taoiseach, amon de Valera for assistance. 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. Belfast Blitz: Marking the lost lives 80 years on. Other Belfast factories manufactured gun mountings. The A.R.P. [citation needed], There was a second massive air raid on Belfast on Sunday 45 May 1941, three weeks after that of Easter Tuesday. There were Heinkel He 111s, Junkers Ju 88s and Dornier Do 17s. Emma Duffin, a nurse at the Queen's University Hospital, (who previously served during the Great War), who kept a diary; Singer-songwriter Van Morrison was born here. [27] One widespread criticism was that the Germans located Belfast by heading for Dublin and following the railway lines north. The period of the next moon from say the 7th to the 16th of April may well bring our turn.. "We can still see the physical scars of the Blitz in Belfast, that is what is left. Can Nigeria's election result be overturned? The attack on Coventry was particularly destructive. 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. Beginning on Black Saturday, London was attacked on 57 straight nights. As the UK was preparing for the conflict, the factories and shipyards of Belfast were gearing up. His death (along with preceding ill-health) came at a bad time and arguably inadvertently caused a leadership vacuum. Roads out of town are still one stream of cars, with mattresses and bedding tied on top. [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]. They remained for three days, until they were sent back by the Northern Ireland government. [25] He followed up with his "they are our people" speech, made in Castlebar, County Mayo, on Sunday 20 April 1941 (Quoted in the Dundalk Democrat dated Saturday 26 April 1941): In the past, and probably in the present, too, a number of them did not see eye to eye with us politically, but they are our people we are one and the same people and their sorrows in the present instance are also our sorrows; and I want to say to them that any help we can give to them in the present time we will give to them whole-heartedly, believing that were the circumstances reversed they would also give us their help whole-heartedly Frank Aiken, the Irish Minister for the Co-ordination of Defensive Measures was in Boston, Massachusetts at the time. workers. C.S Lewis was born in Belfast, and the nearby countryside helped inspire The Chronicles of Narnia. headquarters, Toynbee hall and St. Dunstans; the American, Spanish, Japanese and Peruvian embassies and the buildings of the Times newspaper, the Associated Press of America, and the National City bank of New York; the centre court at Wimbledon, Wembley stadium, the Ring (Blackfriars); Drury Lane, the Queens and the Saville theatres; Rotten row, Lambeth walk, the Burlington arcade and Madame Tussauds. This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Liverpool, for example, protected by 100 guns. 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. By 6am, within two hours of the request for assistance, 71 firemen with 13 fire tenders from Dundalk, Drogheda, Dublin, and Dn Laoghaire were on their way to cross the Irish border to assist their Belfast colleagues. Sir Basil Brooke, the Minister of Agriculture, was the only active minister. Six Heinkel He 111 bombers, from Kampfgruppe 26, flying at 7,000 feet (2,100m), dropped incendiaries, high explosive and parachute-mines. "[22], In his opinion, the greatest want was the lack of hospital facilities. There is no slacking in our loyalty. The attacks by both V1's and V2's only ended as the Allies advanced up through Western Europe . Belfast suffered a series of bombing raids in the spring of 1941, which became known as the 'Blitz of Belfast'. Air power alone had failed to knock the United Kingdom out of the war. When the Blitz began, the government enforced a blackout in an attempt to make targeting more difficult for German night bombers. By then most of the major fires were under control and the firemen from Clydeside and other British cities were arriving. 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. Subs offer. By then 250 firemen from Clydeside had arrived. continuous trek to railway stations. Fiber-optic cables are made from thin strings of glass and are generally about one-tenth the width of a . 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". Belfast's Albert Clock tower is sinking - it leans by four feet. At 10:40pm the air raid sirens sounded. However Belfast was not mentioned again by the Nazis. No significant cut was made in necessary social services, and public and private premises, except when irreparably damaged, were repaired as speedily as possible. No searchlights were set up in the city at the time, and these only arrived on 10 April. "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. 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. Davies also set up medical stations and persuaded off-duty medical personnel to treat the sick and wounded. At conservative gathering, Trump is still the favourite. Video, 00:01:38At least 17 dead in Jakarta fuel storage depot fire, Australia's 'biggest drug bust' nets $700m of cocaine. Many in Northern Ireland thought that Belfast was outside the range of the Luftwaffe. Up Next. Very early in the German bombing campaign, it became clear that the preparationshowever extensive they seemed to have beenwere inadequate. 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. Belfast Blitz: Remembering the ordinary people who lost their lives Taoiseach amon de Valera formally protested to Berlin. High explosives were dropped. Fighter Commands efforts were greatly aided by the lack of any consistent plan of action on the part of the Germans. Since 1:45am all telephones had been cut. The Blitz was devastating for the people of London and other cities. Guided by Davies, the people of the shelter created an ad hoc government and established a set of rules. Prayers were said and hymns sung by the mainly Protestant women and children during the bombing. 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. John Wood Dunlop invented the pneumatic tyre in Belfast in 1887. An air raid shelter on Hallidays Road received a direct hit, killing all those in it. The most heavily bombed area was that which lay between York Street and the Antrim Road, north of the city centre. With the surrender of France in June 1940, Germanys sole remaining enemy lay across the English Channel. Belfast Blitz - Wikipedia Accounts differ as to when flares were dropped to light up the city. 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. Your donations help keep MHN afloat. You can see the difference in those letters - post-Blitz is very much a grieving tone. 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. The danger faced in London was greatly increased when the V2 attacks started and the casualty figures mirrored those of the Blitz.. The Belfast blitz devastated a city that up until 1941 had remained unscathed during World War Two. . Interesting facts about Belfast | Just Fun Facts As many as 5,000 people had packed into this network of underground tunnels, which was dangerously overcrowded, dirty, and dark. 9. For more than six months, German planes had flown reconnaissance flights over Belfast. 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. 10,000 "officially" crossed the border. There are other diarists and narratives. 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 Blitz began at about 4:00 in the afternoon on September 7, 1940, when German planes appeared over London. THE BELFAST BLITZ was a series of four air raids over Northern Ireland during the spring of 1941. [citation needed]. However, the Docklands was also a densely populated and impoverished area where thousands of working-class Londoners lived in run-down housing. In Newtownards, Bangor, Larne, Carrickfergus, Lisburn and Antrim many thousands of Belfast citizens took refuge either with friends or strangers. Belfast Blitz: The Luftwaffe attacks Northern Ireland - WartimeNI Belfast has the world's largest dry dock. After the war, when the first girl from the home got married Billy gave her away, having lost his only daughter. 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. Video, 00:02:12, Isabel Oakeshott: Why I leaked Hancock's messages, Tears of relief after man found in Amazon jungle. So had Clydeside until recently. A victory for the Luftwaffe in the Battle of Britain would indeed have exposed Great Britain to invasion and occupation. 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. Wherever Churchill is hiding his war material we will go. So had Clydeside until recently. As more and more people began sleeping on the platforms, however, the government relented and provided bunk beds and bathrooms for the underground communities. The national government also provided funds to local municipalities to construct public air-raid shelters. [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. parliament: "if the government realized 'that these fast bombers can come to Northern Ireland in two and three quarter hours'". The initial human cost of the Blitz was lower than the government had expected, but the level of destruction exceeded the governments dire predictions. 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. 2023 BBC. These shelters, made of corrugated steel, were designed to be dug into a garden and then covered with dirt. 4. The "pothole blitz" is a common short-term initiative to combat storm weather damage. Although it arrested German spies that its police and military intelligence services caught, the state never broke off diplomatic relations with Axis nations: the German Legation in Dublin remained open throughout the war. 55,000 British civilian casualties were sustained through German bombing before the end of 1940 This included 23,000 deaths. These figures are based on newspaper reports of the time, personal recollections and other primary sources, such as:- Please refer to the appropriate style manual or other sources if you have any questions. In the first days of the Blitz, a tragic incident in the East End stoked public anger over the governments shelter policy. 3. When war broke out in 1939 the city did not expect to be attacked by German bombers: it was geographically remote and deemed a relatively . The fourth and final Belfast raid took place on the following night, 56 May. Reviewed by: Geoffrey Roberts. Video, 00:00:51, Australia's 'biggest drug bust' nets $700m of cocaine, Thanks, but no big speech, in Ken Bruce's sign off. Author Lawrence H. Dawson detailed the damage to Londons historic buildings for the 1941 Britannica Book of the Year: The following curtailed list identifies some of the better known places in inner London that have been damaged by enemy action. The city has been a leader in women's rights. [12], There was little preparation for the conflict with Germany. There was no opposition. Belfast is located on the island of Ireland. Government ministers in Northern Ireland began to realise the Luftwaffe may launch an attack, but it was too little, too late. Wave after wave of bombers dropped their incendiaries, high explosives and land-mines. The Belfast Blitz: the city in the war years - History Ireland 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. 2. It remains a high death toll - a shocking number of people killed in just a few weeks. In each station volunteers were asked for, as it was beyond their normal duties. After the passing of the Government of Ireland Act, 1920, it became the seat of the government of Northern Ireland. 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. The raids hurt Britains war production, but they also killed many civilians and left many others homeless. Video, 00:00:26, Living through the London Blitz. After the bombing began on September 7, local authorities urged displaced people to take shelter at South Hallsville School. When incendiaries were dropped, the city burned as water pressure was too low for effective firefighting.