Accounts differ as to when flares were dropped to light up the city. Here are 10 facts about both the German Blitzkrieg and the Allied bombing of Germany. This part of Belfast was the only one required to provide air raid shelters for workers. "We can still see the physical scars of the Blitz in Belfast, that is what is left. 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. His report concluded with: "a second Belfast would be too horrible to contemplate". There wasn't enough room for Anna or Billy, so they sheltered elsewhere, a twist of fate that would save their lives. 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. From a purely military perspective, the Blitz was entirely counterproductive to the main purpose of Germanys air offensiveto dominate the skies in advance of an invasion of England. The Royal Air Force announced that Squadron Leader J.W.C. 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. However Belfast was not mentioned again by the Nazis. The attacks were authorized by Germanys chancellor, Adolf Hitler, after the British carried out a nighttime air raid on Berlin. One, Tom Coleman, attended to receive recognition for his colleagues' solidarity at such a critical time. 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. 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 period of the next moon from say the 7th to the 16th of April may well bring our turn.. (Some authors count this as the second raid of four). Please refer to the appropriate style manual or other sources if you have any questions. That night almost 300 people, many from the Protestant Shankill area, took refuge in the Clonard Monastery in the Catholic Falls Road. C.S Lewis was born in Belfast, and the nearby countryside helped inspire The Chronicles of Narnia. And even then, Westminster stated it was not ample provision; Stormont still worried about the costs to industry. Video, 00:00:51, Australia's 'biggest drug bust' nets $700m of cocaine, Thanks, but no big speech, in Ken Bruce's sign off. The most heavily bombed area was that which lay between York Street and the Antrim Road, north of the city centre. 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. Belfast Blitz: Facts In total there were four attacks on the County Antrim city. 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. 9. [citation needed], Other writers, such as Tony Gray in The Lost Years state that the Germans did follow their radio guidance beams. The most significant loss was a 4.5-acre (1.8ha) factory floor for manufacturing the fuselages of Short Stirling bombers. About 1,000 people were killed and bombs hit half of the houses in the city, leaving 100,000 people homeless. 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 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. Over a period of nine months, over 43,500 civilians were killed in the raids, which focused on major cities and industrial centres. Some 27 percent of Londoners utilized private shelters, such as Anderson shelters, while the remaining 64 percent spent their evenings on duty with some branch of the civil defense or remained in their own homes. Let us know if you have suggestions to improve this article (requires login). After a brief lull, the Luftwaffe returned in force on February 17. MacDermott would be proved right. The first day of the Blitz is remembered as Black Saturday. In the first days of the Blitz, a tragic incident in the East End stoked public anger over the governments shelter policy. along with England, Scotland, and Wales. Major O'Sullivan reported that "In the heavily 'blitzed' areas people ran panic-stricken into the streets and made for the open country. Other targets included Sheffield, Manchester, Coventry, and Southampton. Heavy jacks were unavailable. The British thus fought with the advantage of superior equipment and undivided aim against an enemy with inconsistent objectives. London seemed ablaze from the docks to Westminster, much damage was done, and casualties were high. On May 11, 1941, Hitler called off the Blitz as he shifted his forces eastward against the Soviet Union. 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. The offensive came to be called the Blitz after the German word blitzkrieg ("lightning war"). Fiber-optic cables are made from thin strings of glass and are generally about one-tenth the width of a . Incendiary bombs predominated in this raid. Several accounts point out that Belfast, standing at the end of the long inlet of Belfast Lough, would be easily located. People are leaving from all parts of town and not only from the bombed areas. He gave an interview saying: "the people of Belfast are Irish people too". 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. The British, on the other hand, were supremely well prepared for the kind of battle in which they now found themselves. 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. There are other diarists and narratives. Poor visibility on the night meant that the accuracy of the bombers was hampered and the explosives were dropped on densely populated areas of Belfast. Again the Irish emergency services crossed the border, this time without waiting for an invitation. For eight months the Luftwaffe dropped bombs on London and other strategic cities across Britain. The firm had produced Handley Page Hereford bombers since 1936. 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). The city covers a total area of 132.5 square kilometers (51 square miles). Many bodies and body parts could not be identified. The wartime output of the yard included aircraft carriers HMS Formidable and HMS Unicorn, cruisers such as HMS Belfast and more than 130 other vessels used by the Royal Navy. German bombing of London during the Blitz, Discover how the Third Reich attacked Great Britain during World War II's Battle of Britain, atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Watch President Roosevelt outline his Four Freedoms and learn how Britain defeated Germany's Luftwaffe. Belfast is famous for being the birthplace of the Titanic. Simpson shot down one of the Heinkels over Downpatrick. Men from the South worked with men from the North in the universal cause of the relief of suffering. Weighing 46,328 tonnes, Titanic was to be the largest manmade moveable object the world had ever seen. 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. [4], The Government of Northern Ireland lacked the will, energy and capacity to cope with a major crisis when it came. 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. Brian Barton of Queen's University, Belfast, has written most on this topic.[19]. 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. The A.R.P. 10 Facts about Belfast City. London was bombed for 57 consecutive nights from 7 September 1940 The first was on the night of 78 April 1941, a small attack which probably took place only to test Belfast's defences. Barton insisted that Belfast was "too far north" to use radio guidance. 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. 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. In many cases the daily life of the city was able to resume with delays of only hours. The district of Belfast has an area of 44 square miles (115 square km). 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. During the whole period, although the citys operation was disrupted in ways that were sometimes serious, no essential service was more than temporarily impaired. By 4 am the entire city seemed to be in flames. 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.. The Blitz was devastating for the people of London and other cities. 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." It targeted the docks. Read about our approach to external linking. Since most casualties were caused by falling masonry rather than by blast, they provided effective shelter for those who had them. The sense of relative calm was abruptly shattered in the first week of September 1940, when the war came to London in earnest. 8. The attacks were authorized by Germany's chancellor, Adolf Hitler, after the British carried out a nighttime air raid on Berlin. 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. 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. Nine were registered on three separate occasions, and from the start of the Blitz until November 30 there were more than 350 alerts. 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. As many as 5,000 people had packed into this network of underground tunnels, which was dangerously overcrowded, dirty, and dark. Tommy Henderson, an Independent Unionist MP in the House of Commons of Northern Ireland, summed up the feeling when he invited the Minister of Home Affairs to Hannahstown and the Falls Road, saying "The Catholics and the Protestants are going up there mixed and they are talking to one another. Belfast suffered a series of bombing raids in the spring of 1941, which became known as the 'Blitz of Belfast'. Compared to other cities, Belfast was virtually undefended. After the passing of the Government of Ireland Act, 1920, it became the seat of the government of Northern Ireland. Unlike N Ireland, the Irish Free State was no longer part of the UK. 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 bombs caused death and destruction across the city, affecting those of all religions and political backgrounds. Another claim was that the Catholic population in general and the IRA in particular guided the bombers. That evening over 150 bombers left their bases in northern France and the Netherlands and headed for Belfast. He was replaced by 54-year-old Sir Basil Brooke on 1 May. 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. Learn how your comment data is processed. The government announced that 77 people had died, but for years local residents insisted the toll was much higher. The mortuary services had emergency plans to deal with only 200 bodies. 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." 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. Where they are going, what they will find to eat when they get there, nobody knows. The House of Commons, Westminster Abbey, and the British Museum were severely damaged, and The Temple was almost completely destroyed. Death had to a certain extent been made decent. All were exhausted. Gring had insisted that such an attack was an impossibility, because of the citys formidable air defense network. 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. But the Luftwaffe was ready. KS3 History (Environment and society) The Belfast Blitz learning resources for adults, children, parents and teachers. Half of the city's housing was damaged over the course of all the raids. Unauthorized use and/or duplication of any material on this site without expressand written permission from the author and/or owner is strictly prohibited. Anna and Billy were buried up their necks in sewage but were rescued and survived. [citation needed], There was a second massive air raid on Belfast on Sunday 45 May 1941, three weeks after that of Easter Tuesday. Sixty years after the Germans bombed Belfast in World War II BBC News Online looks back and remembers the anniversary of the blitz. About 1,000 people were killed and bombs hit half of the houses in the city, leaving 100,000. But Mr Freeburn's research casts doubt on this. Singer-songwriter Van Morrison was born here. 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." By the end of the attacks, between 900 and 1,000 people were dead and thousands more were injured, homeless and displaced. The initial human cost of the Blitz was lower than the government had expected, but the level of destruction exceeded the governments dire predictions. A charitable relief fund for the people of London was opened September 10. "There will always be people who will slip through the net but I am able to say at least 987 were killed across all raids.". Also, on Queens Island, stood the Short and Harland Ltd. Aircraft Factory. workers. Up Next. Video, 00:01:15The Belfast blitz, Up Next. The Belfast blitz is remembered. 11 churches, two hospitals and two schools were destroyed. A Raid From Above "A lot of the people I spoke to were relatives who ended up donating images and handwritten letters from before and after the Blitz. [21] Mass graves for the unclaimed bodies were dug in the Milltown and Belfast City Cemeteries. Belfast's Albert Clock tower is sinking - it leans by four feet. Once more, London was targeted and children were victims. Click to email a link to a friend (Opens in new window), Click to share on Tumblr (Opens in new window), Click to share on Pinterest (Opens in new window), Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window), Click to share on Reddit (Opens in new window), Click to share on Twitter (Opens in new window), Click to share on LinkedIn (Opens in new window), Click to share on Skype (Opens in new window), The Belfast Blitz Inside the Deadly 1941 Luftwaffe Raids on Northern Ireland, Dutch Weapons and American Independence How the United Provinces Made a Fortune Supplying Muskets in the Revolutionary War , USS Devilfish The Curious Case of the Only U.S. Navy Submarine to be Attacked by a Kamikaze, The Chinchas War Inside the Little-Known Conflict Between Peru and Spain Over Animal Turds, The Battle for Nassau Inside the First Overseas Mission for Americas Marines, Mustang vs. Corsair Inside the U.S. Navys 1944 Match-Up Between the Two Fighters, Stickin It To Em The Last of the Great Bayonet Charges, Bloody First Contact When Vikings Clashed with Native North Americans, Battlefield Stalingrad Four Maps That Tell the Story of World War Twos Pivotal Struggle. John Wood Dunlop invented the pneumatic tyre in Belfast in 1887. Some 900 people died as a result of the bombing and 1,500 were injured. "It says a lot about how these people are forgotten that there is no Blitz memorial in Belfast," Mr Freeburn says. Get a Britannica Premium subscription and gain access to exclusive content. THE BELFAST BLITZ was a series of four air raids over Northern Ireland during the spring of 1941. Air power alone had failed to knock the United Kingdom out of the war. 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. Their Chain Home early warning radar, the most advanced system in the world, gave Fighter Command adequate notice of where and when to direct their forces, and the Luftwaffe never made a concerted effort to neutralize it. However that attack was not an error. For 57 nightsuntil November 2more than 1 million bombs were dropped on the capital city. As well as photographs, the Luftwaffe gathered information on landmarks, potential targets and defences or lack thereof. 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. The higher the German planes had to fly to avoid the balloons, the less accurate they were when dropping their bombs. However, the Docklands was also a densely populated and impoverished area where thousands of working-class Londoners lived in run-down housing. In just these few hours, 430 people were killed and 1,600 were badly injured. The "pothole blitz" is a common short-term initiative to combat storm weather damage. While Anderson shelters offered good protection from bomb fragments and debris, they were cold and damp and generally ill-suited for prolonged occupancy. This view was probably influenced by the decision of the IRA Army Council to support Germany. 19.99. On the 60th anniversary of the Belfast Blitz, Luftwaffe Pilot Gerhardt Becker spoke to BBC Northern Ireland about his mission over Belfast in 1941. In Bristol, the bombed-out ruins of St Peter's Church were left standing with added memorial plaques to the civilians who were killed. Belfast's Albert Clock tower is sinking - it leans by four feet. The telegram was sent at 4:35am,[citation needed] asking the Irish Taoiseach, amon de Valera for assistance. Sir Basil Brooke, the Minister of Agriculture, was the only active minister. The period of the next moon from say the 7th to the 16th of April may well bring our turn." The Battle of Britain Read about our approach to external linking. Belfast was Ireland's industrial home, famous for tobacco, rope-making, linen, and ship-building, which made it the powerhouse it was. The creeping TikTok bans. . Nearby were the citys main power station, gasworks, telephone house and the Sirocco Engineering works. The youngest victim was just six-weeks-old. "[22], In his opinion, the greatest want was the lack of hospital facilities. In every instance, all stepped forward. Clydeside got its blitz during the period of the last moon. Emma Duffin, a nurse at the Queen's University Hospital, (who previously served during the Great War), who kept a diary; The 2017 film Zoo depicts an air raid during the Belfast Blitz. Roads out of town are still one stream of cars, with mattresses and bedding tied on top. Our editors will review what youve submitted and determine whether to revise the article. The Belfast blitz. 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 Belfast Blitz was a series of devastating Luftwaffe air raids that took place in Northern Ireland during the Second World War. His reply was: "We here today are in a state of war and we are prepared with the rest of the United Kingdom and Empire to face all the responsibilities that imposes on the Ulster people. 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. Belfast confetti," said one archive news report. Van Morrison is from the east part of the city. It was the worst wartime raid outside of London in the UK. Wave after wave of bombers dropped their incendiaries, high explosives and land-mines. Few children had been successfully evacuated. As the UK was preparing for the conflict, the factories and shipyards of Belfast were gearing up. 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. In the eight months of attacks, some 43,000 civilians were killed. Revised estimates made decades later indicated that close to 600 men, women, and children had been killed in the bombing. By Jonathan Bardon. 2023 BBC. In clear weather, targets were easily identifiable. Many "arrived in Fermanagh having nothing with them only night shirts". 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. Streetlights, car headlights, and illuminated signs were kept off. You can see the difference in those letters - post-Blitz is very much a grieving tone. He believed that key targets identified across the city were hit. 1. Belfast is the capital and largest city of Northern Ireland. continuous trek to railway stations. By mid-September 1940 the RAF had won the Battle of Britain, and the invasion was postponed indefinitely. Video, 00:02:54Living through the London Blitz, At least 17 dead in Jakarta fuel storage depot fire.
How To Clean Leather Radio Strap,
Unsolved Missing Persons Kentucky,
Penny Hardaway Childhood Home,
Abode Housing Voucher,
Articles OTHER