Video, 00:00:36Tears of relief after man found in Amazon jungle. High explosive bombs predominated in this raid. sprang into action, and Londoners, while maintaining the work, business, and efficiency of their city, displayed remarkable fortitude. 29 - Belfast was once bigger than Dublin along with England, Scotland, and Wales. "Liverpool, Clydebank and Portsmouth all have a memorial to their victims of the Blitz. There was no smokescreen ability, however there were some barrage balloons positioned strategically for protection. Dissatisfaction with public shelters also led to another notable development in the East EndMickeys Shelter. Strand Public Elementary school, York Road railway station, the adjacent Midland Hotel on York Road, and Salisbury Avenue tram depot were all hit. His report concluded with: "a second Belfast would be too horrible to contemplate". Barton insisted that Belfast was "too far north" to use radio guidance. [citation needed], Other writers, such as Tony Gray in The Lost Years state that the Germans did follow their radio guidance beams. 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. [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 spite of blackouts, ubiquitous shelters and sandbags, the visible effects of mass evacuation, the presence of A.R.P. By 4 am the entire city seemed to be in flames. Belfast is famous for being the birthplace of the Titanic. Hitlers intention had been to break the morale of the British people so they would pressure their government to surrender. Jimmy Doherty, an air raid warden (who later served in London during the V1 and V2 blitz), who wrote a book on the Belfast blitz; 3. 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. In the New Lodge area people had taken refuge in a mill. Gring had insisted that such an attack was an impossibility, because of the citys formidable air defense network. 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. 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 the bombing began on September 7, local authorities urged displaced people to take shelter at South Hallsville School. I felt outraged, I should have felt sympathy, grief, but instead feelings of revulsion and disgust assailed me. The attack on Coventry was particularly destructive. Around 20,000 people were employed on the site with 35,000 further along in the shipyard. The Luftwaffe crews returned to their base in Northern France and reported that Belfast's defences were, "inferior in quality, scanty and insufficient". Churches destroyed or wrecked included Macrory Memorial Presbyterian in Duncairn Gardens; Duncairn Methodist, Castleton Presbyterian on York Road; St Silas's on the Oldpark Road; St James's on the Antrim Road; Newington Presbyterian on Limestone Road; Crumlin Road Presbyterian; Holy Trinity on Clifton Street and Clifton Street Presbyterian; York Street Presbyterian and York Street Non-Subscribing Presbyterian; Newtownards Road Methodist and Rosemary Street Presbyterian (the last of which was not rebuilt). Few children had been successfully evacuated. After his optician business was destroyed by a bomb, Mickey Davies led an effort to organize the Spitalfield Shelter. Subs offer. 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. "But there is no such equivalent in Belfast. 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. Updates? Many "arrived in Fermanagh having nothing with them only night shirts". Many of those who died as a result of enemy action lived in tightly packed, poorly constructed, terraced housing. . 50,000 houses, more than half the houses in the city, were damaged. Video, 00:01:23Watch: Matt Hancock message row in 83 seconds, One-minute World News. Belfast was ill-prepared for the blitz. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. The first day of the Blitz is remembered as Black Saturday. In Bristol, the bombed-out ruins of St Peter's Church were left standing with added memorial plaques to the civilians who were killed. 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. The Belfast blitz is remembered. By British mainland blitz standards, casualties were light. In total over 1,300 houses were demolished, some 5,000 badly damaged, nearly 30,000 slightly damaged while 20,000 required "first aid repairs".[3]. Belfast's Albert Clock tower is sinking - it leans by four feet. Of the churches, besides St. Pauls cathedral, where at one time were five unexploded bombs in the immediate vicinity and the roof of which was pierced by another that exploded and shattered the high altar to fragments, those damaged were Westminster abbey, St. Margarets Westminster, Southwark cathedral; fifteen Wren churches (including St. [citation needed]. The Belfast blitz devastated a city that up until 1941 had remained unscathed during World War Two. Video, 00:01:09The Spitfire turns 80, The German bombing of Coventry. The Royal Air Force announced that Squadron Leader J.W.C. Our editors will review what youve submitted and determine whether to revise the article. 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. 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. It is situated at on the banks of the River Lagan on the east coast. These shelters were vital as these factories had many employees working late at night and early in the morning when Luftwaffe attacks were likely. The attacks by both V1's and V2's only ended as the Allies advanced up through Western Europe . As many were caught in the open by blast and secondary missiles, the enormous number of casualties can be readily accounted for. Moya Woodside[23] noted in her diary: "Evacuation is taking on panic proportions. The period of the next moon from say the 7th to the 16th of April may well bring our turn.. However Belfast was not mentioned again by the Nazis. After the war, instructions from Joseph Goebbels were discovered ordering it not to be mentioned. 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. 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. [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." THE BELFAST BLITZ was a series of four air raids over Northern Ireland during the spring of 1941. 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. devised the Morrison shelter (named for Home Secretary Herbert Stanley Morrison) as an alternative to the Anderson shelter. For two hours, 348 German bombers and 617 fighters targeted the city, dropping high-explosive bombs as well as incendiary devices. By 1940, Short and Harland could shelter its entire workforce and Harland and Wolff had provision to shelter 16,000 workers. Singer-songwriter Van Morrison was born here. This raid overall caused relatively little damage, but a lot was revealed about Belfast's inadequate defences. High explosives were dropped. The offensive came to be called the Blitz after the German word blitzkrieg ("lightning war"). 19.99. [26], Initial German radio broadcasts celebrated the raid. He was succeeded by J. M. Andrews, then 69 years old, who was no more capable of dealing with the situation than his predecessor. Death should be dignified, peaceful; Hitler had made even death grotesque. continuous trek to railway stations. Three vessels nearing completion at Harland and Wolff's were hit as was its power station. and Major Sen O'Sullivan, who produced a detailed report for the Dublin government. He believed that key targets identified across the city were hit. Video, 00:03:09, Mapping the lives lost in the Belfast Blitz, Russian minister laughed at for Ukraine war claims. The ill-fated ship was built in the city in 1912, and to this day, there is a museum dedicated to its building and the lives of all of those on board. Added to this was the repair and refitting of 22,000 more vessels. Read about our approach to external linking. 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 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. Read about our approach to external linking. When the Blitz began, the government enforced a blackout in an attempt to make targeting more difficult for German night bombers. At 10:40pm the air raid sirens sounded. ISBN 9781909556324. There are other diarists and narratives. THE BELFAST BLITZ was a series of four air raids over Northern Ireland during the spring of 1941. When the house was hit William, Harriette, Dorothy, 36-year-old Dot and 41-year-old Isa were all killed. 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. But the Luftwaffe was ready. John Wood Dunlop invented the pneumatic tyre in Belfast in 1887. By Jonathan Bardon. Even the children of soldiers had not been evacuated, with calamitous results when the married quarters of Victoria Barracks received a direct hit. These shelters, made of corrugated steel, were designed to be dug into a garden and then covered with dirt. Other targets included Sheffield, Manchester, Coventry, and Southampton. In the mistaken belief that they might damage RAF fighters, the anti-aircraft batteries ceased firing. 2. He was replaced by 54-year-old Sir Basil Brooke on 1 May. 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. Although casualties were heavy, at no time did they approach the estimates that had been made before the war, and only a fraction of the available hospital and ambulance capacity was ever utilized. The bombs caused death and destruction across the city, affecting those of all religions and political backgrounds. 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. Taoiseach amon de Valera formally protested to Berlin. Video, 00:00:51Australia's 'biggest drug bust' nets $700m of cocaine, Thanks, but no big speech, in Ken Bruce's sign off. the Blitz, (September 7, 1940May 11, 1941), intense bombing campaign undertaken by Nazi Germany against the United Kingdom during World War II. Unlike N Ireland, the Irish Free State was no longer part of the UK. The sense of relative calm was abruptly shattered in the first week of September 1940, when the war came to London in earnest. 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. Many bodies and body parts could not be identified. The Titanic was built in Belfast. 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. 13 died, including a soldier killed when an anti-aircraft gun, at the Balmoral show-grounds, misfired. The fourth and final Belfast raid took place on the following night, 56 May. Read about our approach to external linking. Davies also set up medical stations and persuaded off-duty medical personnel to treat the sick and wounded. The famous Harland and Wolff cranes are called Samson and Goliath. Nearby were the citys main power station, gasworks, telephone house and the Sirocco Engineering works. A charitable relief fund for the people of London was opened September 10. Up Next. During the whole period, although the citys operation was disrupted in ways that were sometimes serious, no essential service was more than temporarily impaired. An earlier flight on Oct. 18 allowed the crew to plot several targets in the city. The raids hurt Britains war production, but they also killed many civilians and left many others homeless. The Air Raid Precautions (A.R.P.) 2023 BBC. The first was on the night of 78 April 1941, a small attack which probably took place only to test Belfast's defences. The shipyard was among the largest in the world, producing merchant vessels and military shipping. And even then, Westminster stated it was not ample provision; Stormont still worried about the costs to industry. Video, 00:01:37Thanks, but no big speech, in Ken Bruce's sign off, Tear gas fired at Greece train crash protesters. Brian Barton of Queen's University, Belfast, has written most on this topic.[19]. 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. As more and more people began sleeping on the platforms, however, the government relented and provided bunk beds and bathrooms for the underground communities. Simpson shot down one of the Heinkels over Downpatrick. IWM C 5424 1. 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. 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. Under the leadership of amon de Valera it had declared its neutrality during the Second World War. 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. It was the worst wartime raid outside of London in the UK. The national government also provided funds to local municipalities to construct public air-raid shelters. With tangled hair, staring eyes, clutching hands, contorted limbs, their grey-green faces covered with dust, they lay, bundled into the coffins, half-shrouded in rugs or blankets, or an occasional sheet, still wearing their dirty, torn twisted garments. 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. 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}. Video, 00:01:38At least 17 dead in Jakarta fuel storage depot fire, Australia's 'biggest drug bust' nets $700m of cocaine. An air raid shelter on Hallidays Road received a direct hit, killing all those in it. Where they are going, what they will find to eat when they get there, nobody knows. 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. Tragically 35 were crushed to death when the mill wall collapsed. On April 16 an attack even fiercer and more indiscriminate than those of the previous autumn started at 9:00 pm and continued until 5:00 the following morning; 500 aircraft were believed to have flown over in continuous waves, raining an estimated 450 tons of bombs across the city. 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. A Luftwaffe terror bombing attack on the Spanish city of Guernica (April 26, 1937) during the Spanish Civil War had killed hundreds of civilians and destroyed much of the town. As of October 2020, the population of Belfast is about 350,000 people. 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. It was solemn, tragic, dignified, but here it was grotesque, repulsive, horrible. The firm had produced Handley Page Hereford bombers since 1936. The Belfast Blitz was a series of devastating Luftwaffe air raids that took place in Northern Ireland during the Second World War. For eight months the Luftwaffe dropped bombs on London and other strategic cities across Britain.