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. [citation needed]. department distributed more than two million Anderson shelters (named after Sir John Anderson, head of the A.R.P.) It lies where the Lagan River flows into a part of the Irish Sea. 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. 2023 BBC. Liverpool, for example, protected by 100 guns. The first deliberate raid took place on the night of 7 April. There is no slacking in our loyalty. The higher the German planes had to fly to avoid the balloons, the less accurate they were when dropping their bombs. The 2017 film Zoo depicts an air raid during the Belfast Blitz. Neighbouring residential areas were also hit. Taoiseach amon de Valera formally protested to Berlin. The seeming normality of life on the Home Front was shattered in 1944 when the first of the V1's landed. 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]. 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 . Subs offer. parliament: "if the government realized 'that these fast bombers can come to Northern Ireland in two and three quarter hours'". Read about our approach to external linking. Apart from those on London, this was the greatest loss of life in any night raid during the Blitz. Video, 00:01:23, Watch: Matt Hancock message row in 83 seconds, Isabel Oakeshott: Why I leaked Hancock's messages. Brooke noted in his diary "I gave him authority as it is obviously a question of expediency". The Belfast Blitzconsisted of four German air raids on strategic targets in the city of Belfastin Northern Ireland, in April and May 1941 during World War II, causing high casualties. The "pothole blitz" is a common short-term initiative to combat storm weather damage. The first attack was against the city's waterworks, which had been attacked in the previous raid. Brian Barton of Queen's University, Belfast, has written most on this topic.[19]. and Major Sen O'Sullivan, who produced a detailed report for the Dublin government. Belfast's Albert Clock tower is sinking - it leans by four feet. In the mistaken belief that they might damage RAF fighters, the anti-aircraft batteries ceased firing. 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. 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. It is perhaps true that many saved their lives running but I am afraid a much greater number lost them or became casualties."[20]. 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. These figures are based on newspaper reports of the time, personal recollections and other primary sources, such as:- 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. By 4 am the entire city seemed to be in flames. 2. Authorities had noted Queens Island in the cityas a vulnerable point as early as 1929. Some 900 people died as a result of the bombing and 1,500 were injured. Accounts differ as to when flares were dropped to light up the city. 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. He was asked, in the N.I. 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. The attack on Coventry was particularly destructive. "We can still see the physical scars of the Blitz in Belfast, that is what is left. 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. This amounted to nearly half of Britains total civilian deaths for the whole war. 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. It is situated at on the banks of the River Lagan on the east coast. In his interview, Becker stated that only military objectives were aimed for. Given Belfast's geographic position, it was considered to be at the fringe of the operational range of German bombers and hence there was no provision for night-fighter aerial cover. This raid overall caused relatively little damage, but a lot was revealed about Belfast's inadequate defences. There wasn't enough room for Anna or Billy, so they sheltered elsewhere, a twist of fate that would save their lives. 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. 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 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 World's Most-Famous Ship, The Titanic, was constructed here. As well as photographs, the Luftwaffe gathered information on landmarks, potential targets and defences or lack thereof. On May 11, 1941, Hitler called off the Blitz as he shifted his forces eastward against the Soviet Union. Belfast is as worthy a target as Coventry, Birmingham, Bristol or Glasgow.. 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. Heavy jacks were unavailable. Read about our approach to external linking. For two hours, 348 German bombers and 617 fighters targeted the city, dropping high-explosive bombs as well as incendiary devices. Fighter Commands efforts were greatly aided by the lack of any consistent plan of action on the part of the Germans. 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. Video, 00:02:54Living through the London Blitz, At least 17 dead in Jakarta fuel storage depot fire. By the time the raid was over, at least 744 people had lost their lives, including some living in places such as Newtownards, Bangor and Londonderry. 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. . Up to now, we have escaped an attack, said John MacDermott, the Minister for Security, Belfast, on March 24, 1941. Maps and documents uncovered at Gatow Airfield near Berlin in 1945 showed the level of detail involved. In late August the Germans dropped some bombs, apparently by accident, on civilian areas in London. The Premier Online Military History Magazine, Re-printed with permission fromWartimeNI.com. At the core of this book is a compelling account of the Luftwaffe's blitz on Belfast in April-May 1941. Apart from one or two false alarms in the early days of the war, no sirens wailed in London until June 25. When Germany bombed Belfast as part of the Blitz during World War Two, the massive air raids left more than a thousand people dead. Only four were known still to be alive. 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.. Streetlights, car headlights, and illuminated signs were kept off. 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. wardens, and members of the Home Guard drilling in the parks, life went on much as usual. An earlier flight on Oct. 18 allowed the crew to plot several targets in the city. These shelters, made of corrugated steel, were designed to be dug into a garden and then covered with dirt. 10,000 "officially" crossed the border. 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. [21] Mass graves for the unclaimed bodies were dug in the Milltown and Belfast City Cemeteries. Many "arrived in Fermanagh having nothing with them only night shirts". The first was on the night of 7-8 April 1941, a small attack which probably took place only to test Belfast's defences. 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. The government was blamed by some for inadequate precautions. Updates? Fortunately, the railway telegraphy link between Belfast and Dublin was still operational. Six Heinkel He 111 bombers, from Kampfgruppe 26, flying at 7,000 feet (2,100m), dropped incendiaries, high explosive and parachute-mines. 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. The devastation was so great that the Germans coined a new verb, to coventrate, to describe it. 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." Tragically 35 were crushed to death when the mill wall collapsed. 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." 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. And even then, Westminster stated it was not ample provision; Stormont still worried about the costs to industry. 150 corpses remained in the Falls Road baths for three days before they were buried in a mass grave, with 123 still unidentified. Thank you. The fourth and final Belfast raid took place on the following night, 56 May. Men from the South worked with men from the North in the universal cause of the relief of suffering. There was unease with the complacent attitude of the government, which led to resignations: Craigavon died on 24 November 1940. Nevertheless, for all the hardship it caused, the campaign proved to be a strategic mistake by the Germans. Belfast, Irish Bal Feirste, city, district, and capital of Northern Ireland, on the River Lagan, at its entrance to Belfast Lough (inlet of the sea). The Luftwaffe had lost more than 600 aircraft, and, although the RAF had lost fewer than half that many, the battle was claiming British fighters and experienced pilots at too great a rate. 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. Omissions? 8. Several theatres and many cinemas were open, and there were even a few sporting events. 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. [18], Over 900 people died, 1,500 people were injured, 400 of them seriously. Belfast was not properly prepared for the attacks, with too few shelters and not enough anti-aircraft guns. 10 Facts about Belfast City. Get a Britannica Premium subscription and gain access to exclusive content. From papers recovered after the war, we know of a Luftwaffe reconnaissance flight over Belfast on 30 November 1940. Davies also set up medical stations and persuaded off-duty medical personnel to treat the sick and wounded. 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. Over 100 German planes made contact with barrage balloon cables during the Blitz, and two-thirds of them crashed or made forced landings on British soil. For eight months the Luftwaffe dropped bombs on London and other strategic cities across Britain. It was not the first time the alarm had sounded to signify the presence of Luftwaffe bombers over the city. Under the leadership of Prime Minister John Miller Andrews, Northern Ireland remained unprepared. Moya Woodside[23] noted in her diary: "Evacuation is taking on panic proportions. 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." The sense of relative calm was abruptly shattered in the first week of September 1940, when the war came to London in earnest. to households. Clydeside got its blitz during the period of the last moon. 11 churches, two hospitals and two schools were destroyed. London seemed ablaze from the docks to Westminster, much damage was done, and casualties were high. Death should be dignified, peaceful; Hitler had made even death grotesque. During the whole period, although the citys operation was disrupted in ways that were sometimes serious, no essential service was more than temporarily impaired. 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. There [is] ground for thinking that the enemy could not easily reach Belfast in force except during a period of moonlight. 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. The raid so infuriated Hitler that he ordered the Luftwaffe to shift its attacks from RAF sites to London and other cities. 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. When a bombing raid was imminent, air-raid sirens were set off to sound a warning. By the end of the attacks, between 900 and 1,000 people were dead and thousands more were injured, homeless and displaced. [citation needed], There was a second massive air raid on Belfast on Sunday 45 May 1941, three weeks after that of Easter Tuesday. ", Mapping the lives lost in the Belfast Blitz. Another claim was that the Catholic population in general and the IRA in particular guided the bombers. By 1940, Short and Harland could shelter its entire workforce and Harland and Wolff had provision to shelter 16,000 workers. After the bombing began on September 7, local authorities urged displaced people to take shelter at South Hallsville School. Up Next. Many of those who died as a result of enemy action lived in tightly packed, poorly constructed, terraced housing. Belfast was bombed by the Nazis in World War II. 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. Please refer to the appropriate style manual or other sources if you have any questions. Belfast is the capital and largest city of Northern Ireland . Northern Ireland is a part of the United Kingdom . "Through cross-referencing a number of different sources I have been able to get the most accurate number of people who died in the Blitz," he says. The Air Raid Precautions (A.R.P.) Roads out of town are still one stream of cars, with mattresses and bedding tied on top. NI WW2 veterans honoured by France. This part of Belfast was the only one required to provide air raid shelters for workers. Video, 00:00:26, Living through the London Blitz. A Raid From Above Video, 00:00:46, Hong Kong skyscraper fire seen on city's skyline, Watch: Matt Hancock message row in 83 seconds. The attacks were authorized by Germany's chancellor, Adolf Hitler, after the British carried out a nighttime air raid on Berlin. The Belfast blitz is remembered. 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). It is believed that the wartime government covered up the death toll because of concern over the effect it would have had on public morale. Video, 00:01:23Watch: Matt Hancock message row in 83 seconds, One-minute World News. They all say the same thing, that the government is no good. Singer-songwriter Van Morrison was born here. 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. Beginning on Black Saturday, London was attacked on 57 straight nights. 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. When incendiaries were dropped, the city burned as water pressure was too low for effective firefighting. Other targets included Sheffield, Manchester, Coventry, and Southampton. The shipyard was among the largest in the world, producing merchant vessels and military shipping. 24 - The tyres Dunlop were invented in Belfast in 1887 25 - The two H&W cranes are named Samson and Goliath 26 - The Albert Clock is Ireland's leaning tower 27 - The mobile defibrillator was invented in Belfast 28 - Belfast's ice hockey team, the Giants, is one of the best in Europe. 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. Video, 00:00:36Tears of relief after man found in Amazon jungle. The British thus fought with the advantage of superior equipment and undivided aim against an enemy with inconsistent objectives. Government ministers in Northern Ireland began to realise the Luftwaffe may launch an attack, but it was too little, too late. No attendant nurse had soothed the last moments of these victims; no gentle reverent hand had closed their eyes or crossed their hands. 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. Video, 00:01:09The Spitfire turns 80, The German bombing of Coventry. [citation needed]. 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. These shelters were vital as these factories had many employees working late at night and early in the morning when Luftwaffe attacks were likely. He gave an interview saying: "the people of Belfast are Irish people too". 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. The first was on the night of 78 April 1941, a small attack which probably took place only to test Belfast's defences. 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 then 250 firemen from Clydeside had arrived. The mass relocation, called Operation Pied Piper, was the largest internal migration in British history. Video, 00:02:54, At least 17 dead in Jakarta fuel storage depot fire. Death had to a certain extent been made decent. "[22], In his opinion, the greatest want was the lack of hospital facilities. 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. After the war, instructions from Joseph Goebbels were discovered ordering it not to be mentioned. The raids on London primarily targeted the Docklands area of the East End. "Liverpool, Clydebank and Portsmouth all have a memorial to their victims of the Blitz. They are sleeping in the same sheugh (ditch), below the same tree or in the same barn. KS3 History (Environment and society) The Belfast Blitz learning resources for adults, children, parents and teachers. The first (April 7 -8), a small attack, was most likely carried out to test the city's defenses. This view was probably influenced by the decision of the IRA Army Council to support Germany. Video, 00:01:15The Belfast blitz, Up Next. He believed that key targets identified across the city were hit.