Hitlers intention had been to break the morale of the British people so they would pressure their government to surrender. The area included the Harland and Wolff Ltd. Shipyard, the Short and Harland Ltd. Aircraft Factory, and the airfield at RAF Sydenham. 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. "These people are often seen as a statistic but they were human beings, people who lived and grew up in - or moved to - Belfast and died in Belfast," Mr Freeburn, the museum's collections officer, says. 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. Instead of pressing his advantage, however, Hitler abruptly changed his strategy. Fiber-optic cables are made from thin strings of glass and are generally about one-tenth the width of a . 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. O'Sullivan felt that the whole civil defence sector was utterly overwhelmed. In late August the Germans dropped some bombs, apparently by accident, on civilian areas in London. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. 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. After his optician business was destroyed by a bomb, Mickey Davies led an effort to organize the Spitalfield Shelter. to households. NI WW2 veterans honoured by France. The nights of November 3 and 28 were the only occasions during this period in which Londons peace was unbroken by siren or bomb. 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. 255 corpses were laid out in St George's Market. But the RAF had not responded. [9], War materials and food were sent by sea from Belfast to Great Britain, some under the protection of the neutral Irish tricolour. These figures are based on newspaper reports of the time, personal recollections and other primary sources, such as:- 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. Those who sought refuge at the school were told that they would quickly be relocated to a safer area, but the evacuation was delayed. Video, 00:01:38At least 17 dead in Jakarta fuel storage depot fire, Australia's 'biggest drug bust' nets $700m of cocaine. From their photographs, they identified suitable targets: There had been a number of small bombings, probably by planes that missed their targets over the River Clyde in Glasgow or the cities of the northwest of England. By then most of the major fires were under control and the firemen from Clydeside and other British cities were arriving. The period of the next moon from say the 7th to the 16th of April may well bring our turn.. 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. It was not the first time the alarm had sounded to signify the presence of Luftwaffe bombers over the city. Nearby were the citys main power station, gasworks, telephone house and the Sirocco Engineering works. 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. Incendiary bombs predominated in this raid. Similar initiatives bearing the same name were ordered in the past decade by former mayors Libby . Video, 00:00:51, Australia's 'biggest drug bust' nets $700m of cocaine, Thanks, but no big speech, in Ken Bruce's sign off. After the war, instructions from Joseph Goebbels were discovered ordering it not to be mentioned. [6] It was MacDermott who sent a telegram to de Valera seeking assistance. Video, 00:03:09, Mapping the lives lost in the Belfast Blitz, Russian minister laughed at for Ukraine war claims. The higher the German planes had to fly to avoid the balloons, the less accurate they were when dropping their bombs. There were still 80,000 more in Belfast. 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. Video, 00:01:03One-minute World News, Isabel Oakeshott: Why I leaked Hancock's messages. MacDermott would be proved right. These private air-raid shelters were Anderson shelters, constructed of sheets of corrugated galvanised iron covered in earth. That evening over 150 bombers left their bases in northern France and the Netherlands and headed for Belfast. 2023 BBC. Government ministers in Northern Ireland began to realise the Luftwaffe may launch an attack, but it was too little, too late. 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. Three vessels nearing completion at Harland and Wolff's were hit as was its power station. In Bristol, the bombed-out ruins of St Peter's Church were left standing with added memorial plaques to the civilians who were killed. The "pothole blitz" is a common short-term initiative to combat storm weather damage. 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. The first was on the night of 78 April 1941, a small attack which probably took place only to test Belfast's defences. Belfast was not properly prepared for the attacks, with too few shelters and not enough anti-aircraft guns. After the bombing began on September 7, local authorities urged displaced people to take shelter at South Hallsville School. But Mr Freeburn's research casts doubt on this. Under the leadership of amon de Valera it had declared its neutrality during the Second World War. It became a city by royal charter in 1888. 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]. The city has been a leader in women's rights. The Royal Air Force announced that Squadron Leader J.W.C. Read about our approach to external linking. Tragically 35 were crushed to death when the mill wall collapsed. The Air Raid Precautions (A.R.P.) He was asked, in the N.I. 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. Guided by Davies, the people of the shelter created an ad hoc government and established a set of rules. 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. Davies also set up medical stations and persuaded off-duty medical personnel to treat the sick and wounded. From September 1940 until May 1941, Britain was subjected to sustained enemy bombing campaign, now known as the Blitz. Van Morrison is from the east part of the city. department distributed more than two million Anderson shelters (named after Sir John Anderson, head of the A.R.P.) 50,000 houses, more than half the houses in the city, were damaged. Video, 00:01:15The Belfast blitz, Up Next. Morale did suffer amid the death and devastation, but there were few calls for surrender. The first day of the Blitz is remembered as Black Saturday. A Raid From Above 2. A short respite followed, until a widespread series of night raids on April 7 included some targets in the London area. Clydeside got its blitz during the period of the last moon. Apart from one or two false alarms in the early days of the war, no sirens wailed in London until June 25. Your donations help keep MHN afloat. Humanity knows no borders, no politics, no differences of religious belief. While every effort has been made to follow citation style rules, there may be some discrepancies. The creeping TikTok bans. The World's Most-Famous Ship, The Titanic, was constructed here. Reviewed by: Geoffrey Roberts. After the war, when the first girl from the home got married Billy gave her away, having lost his only daughter. 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 most heavily bombed cities outside London were Liverpool and Birmingham. Video, 00:00:51Australia's 'biggest drug bust' nets $700m of cocaine, Thanks, but no big speech, in Ken Bruce's sign off. The South Hallsville School disaster prompted Londoners, especially residents of the East End, to find safer shelters, on their own if necessary. 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.". Fortunately, the railway telegraphy link between Belfast and Dublin was still operational. On September 1, 1939, the day World War II began with Germanys invasion of Poland, the British government implemented a massive evacuation plan. At the core of this book is a compelling account of the Luftwaffe's blitz on Belfast in April-May 1941. This view was probably influenced by the decision of the IRA Army Council to support Germany. Wave after wave of bombers dropped their incendiaries, high explosives and land-mines. [26], Initial German radio broadcasts celebrated the raid. 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. along with England, Scotland, and Wales. The fourth and final Belfast raid took place on the following night, 56 May. The British thus fought with the advantage of superior equipment and undivided aim against an enemy with inconsistent objectives. As many as 5,000 people had packed into this network of underground tunnels, which was dangerously overcrowded, dirty, and dark. Around 1am, Luftwaffe bombers flew over the city, concentrating their attack on the Harbour Estate and Queen's Island. 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." Video, 00:00:46Hong Kong skyscraper fire seen on city's skyline, Watch: Matt Hancock message row in 83 seconds. By mid-September 1940 the RAF had won the Battle of Britain, and the invasion was postponed indefinitely. 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 British, on the other hand, were supremely well prepared for the kind of battle in which they now found themselves. No significant cut was made in necessary social services, and public and private premises, except when irreparably damaged, were repaired as speedily as possible. The first (April 7 -8), a small attack, was most likely carried out to test the city's defenses. Yesterday the hand of good-fellowship was reached across the Border. Targets identified included: the Short and Harland Ltd. Aircraft Factory; the Belfast power station and waterworks; Other maps uncovered following the Second World War also showed the parliament and city hall, Belfast gasworks, a rope factory and the Royal Belfast Academical Institution. It was solemn, tragic, dignified, but here it was grotesque, repulsive, horrible. 9. Video, 00:01:23Watch: Matt Hancock message row in 83 seconds, One-minute World News. What happened in 1941 changed the city forever. 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. Video, 00:00:46, Hong Kong skyscraper fire seen on city's skyline, Watch: Matt Hancock message row in 83 seconds. 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. 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. Maps and documents uncovered at Gatow Airfield near Berlin in 1945 showed the level of detail involved. Air power alone had failed to knock the United Kingdom out of the war. Major Sen O'Sullivan reported on the intensity of the bombing in some areas, such as the Antrim Road, where bombs "fell within fifteen to twenty yards of one another." Read about our approach to external linking. Prior to the "Belfast Blitz" there were only 200 public shelters in the city, although around 4,000 households had built their own private shelters. About 1,000 people were killed during the Belfast Blitz of 1941, with Harland and Wolff among the buildings that were hit by the Luftwaffe. 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 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. 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. Please refer to the appropriate style manual or other sources if you have any questions. "It says a lot about how these people are forgotten that there is no Blitz memorial in Belfast," Mr Freeburn says. 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 is the capital and largest city of Northern Ireland . Indeed, on the night of the first raid, no Royal Air Force (RAF) aircraft took to the air to intercept German planes. They prevented low-flying aircraft from approaching their targets at optimal altitudes and angles of attack. What's the least amount of exercise we can get away with? 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. Clydeside got its blitz during the period of the last moon. His death (along with preceding ill-health) came at a bad time and arguably inadvertently caused a leadership vacuum. People hung black curtains in their windows so that no lights showed outside their houses. Several accounts point out that Belfast, standing at the end of the long inlet of Belfast Lough, would be easily located. [27] One widespread criticism was that the Germans located Belfast by heading for Dublin and following the railway lines north. 7. Heinkel He 111 and Dornier Do 17 planes fitted with Zeiss cameras captured high-quality aerial imagery. Some had received food, others were famished. The attacks by both V1's and V2's only ended as the Allies advanced up through Western Europe . Belfast is the capital and largest city of Northern Ireland. The first deliberate raid took place on the night of 7 April. James Craig, Lord Craigavon, had been Prime Minister of Northern Ireland since its inception in 1921 up until his death in 1940. This amounted to nearly half of Britains total civilian deaths for the whole war. Ulster Historical Foundation. Anna and Billy returned to England and continued running the children's home. Video, 00:02:54Living through the London Blitz, At least 17 dead in Jakarta fuel storage depot fire. Everything on wheels is being pressed into service. 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. Video, 00:01:41, The German bombing of Coventry. 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. Belfast is famous for being the birthplace of the Titanic. 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. Because basements, a logical destination in the event of an air raid, were a relative rarity in Britain, the A.R.P. The Belfast blitz devastated a city that up until 1941 had remained unscathed during World War Two. The Belfast blitz. Another defensive measure employed by the British was barrage balloonslarge oval-shaped unmanned balloons with stabilizing tail finsinstalled in and around major target areas. When incendiaries were dropped, the city burned as water pressure was too low for effective firefighting. The creeping TikTok bans. THE BELFAST BLITZ was a series of four air raids over Northern Ireland during the spring of 1941. The British government had anticipated air attacks on its population centres, and it had predicted catastrophic casualties. The first was on the night of 7-8 April 1941, a small attack which probably took place only to test Belfast's defences. 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. "A lot of the people I spoke to were relatives who ended up donating images and handwritten letters from before and after the Blitz. 11 churches, two hospitals and two schools were destroyed. By then 250 firemen from Clydeside had arrived. So had Clydeside until recently. Video, 00:01:41NI WW2 veterans honoured by France, The Spitfire turns 80. It remains a high death toll - a shocking number of people killed in just a few weeks. "We can still see the physical scars of the Blitz in Belfast, that is what is left. sprang into action, and Londoners, while maintaining the work, business, and efficiency of their city, displayed remarkable fortitude. 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. By British mainland blitz standards, casualties were light. 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). 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. A force of 180 bombers dropped 750 bombs - including 203 tonnes of high explosives - and 29,000 incendiaries over a five-hour period. Moya Woodside[23] noted in her diary: "Evacuation is taking on panic proportions. This option had been forbidden by city officials, who feared that once people began sleeping in Underground stations, they would be reluctant to return to the surface and resume daily life. Taoiseach amon de Valera formally protested to Berlin. 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. It targeted the docks. 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. 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. There wasn't enough room for Anna or Billy, so they sheltered elsewhere, a twist of fate that would save their lives.
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