After his optician business was destroyed by a bomb, Mickey Davies led an effort to organize the Spitalfield Shelter. The bombing of British cities - Swansea, Belfast, Glasgow 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). 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]. On the 60th anniversary of the Belfast Blitz, Luftwaffe Pilot Gerhardt Becker spoke to BBC Northern Ireland about his mission over Belfast in 1941. 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. 10 Facts about Belfast City. Anna and Billy returned to England and continued running the children's home. In every instance, all stepped forward. One, Tom Coleman, attended to receive recognition for his colleagues' solidarity at such a critical time. 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. Fortunately, the railway telegraphy link between Belfast and Dublin was still operational. Compared to other cities, Belfast was virtually undefended. Hundreds of incendiary and many high-explosive bombs were dropped, doing little material damage but causing many casualties. An air raid shelter on Hallidays Road received a direct hit, killing all those in it. They prevented low-flying aircraft from approaching their targets at optimal altitudes and angles of attack. Belfast is famous for being the birthplace of the Titanic. This amounted to nearly half of Britains total civilian deaths for the whole war. 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. And even then, Westminster stated it was not ample provision; Stormont still worried about the costs to industry. The attacks were authorized by Germany's chancellor, Adolf Hitler, after the British carried out a nighttime air raid on Berlin. William Joyce (known as "Lord Haw-Haw") announced in radio broadcasts from Hamburg that there will be "Easter eggs for Belfast". Eduard Hempel, the German Minister to Ireland, visited the Irish Ministry for External Affairs to offer sympathy and attempt an explanation. The next took. 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. 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. Belfast is the capital and largest city of Northern Ireland. 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. Get a Britannica Premium subscription and gain access to exclusive content. St George's Church in High Street was damaged by fire. He successfully busied himself with the task of making Northern Ireland a major supplier of food to Britain in her time of need.[5]. THE BELFAST BLITZ was a series of four air raids over Northern Ireland during the spring of 1941. Video, 00:03:09, Mapping the lives lost in the Belfast Blitz, Russian minister laughed at for Ukraine war claims. The youngest victim was just six-weeks-old. The attacks were authorized by Germanys chancellor, Adolf Hitler, after the British carried out a nighttime air raid on Berlin. They remained for three days, until they were sent back by the Northern Ireland government. 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. Video, 00:01:37, Thanks, but no big speech, in Ken Bruce's sign off, Tear gas fired at Greece train crash protesters. Revised estimates made decades later indicated that close to 600 men, women, and children had been killed in the bombing. 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], 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]. Published: September 7, 2020 at 12:00 pm. 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. As many as 5,000 people had packed into this network of underground tunnels, which was dangerously overcrowded, dirty, and dark. Video, 00:00:26, Living through the London Blitz. Only four were known still to be alive. 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. Belfast was not properly prepared for the attacks, with too few shelters and not enough anti-aircraft guns. The first attack was against the city's waterworks, which had been attacked in the previous raid. 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." Video, 00:00:51, Australia's 'biggest drug bust' nets $700m of cocaine, Thanks, but no big speech, in Ken Bruce's sign off. 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'. Your donations help keep MHN afloat. Authorities quickly implemented plans to protect Londoners from bombs and to house those left homeless by the attacks. He believed that key targets identified across the city were hit. While every effort has been made to follow citation style rules, there may be some discrepancies. devised the Morrison shelter (named for Home Secretary Herbert Stanley Morrison) as an alternative to the Anderson shelter. The British government had anticipated air attacks on its population centres, and it had predicted catastrophic casualties. Belfast - Kids | Britannica Kids | Homework Help 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. On September 1, 1939, the day World War II began with Germanys invasion of Poland, the British government implemented a massive evacuation plan. Read about our approach to external linking. 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. From September 1940 until May 1941, Britain was subjected to sustained enemy bombing campaign, now known as the Blitz. 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. 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. 10 Facts about Belfast City | Fun Facts About Belfast | Europa Hotel It was the worst wartime raid outside of London in the UK. However that attack was not an error. 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. 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. 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. The use of the Tube system as a shelter saved thousands of lives, and images of Londoners huddled in Underground stations would become an indelible image of British life during World War II. Three vessels nearing completion at Harland and Wolff's were hit as was its power station. His death (along with preceding ill-health) came at a bad time and arguably inadvertently caused a leadership vacuum. [citation needed], Other writers, such as Tony Gray in The Lost Years state that the Germans did follow their radio guidance beams. Subs offer. 2. For more than six months, German planes had flown reconnaissance flights over Belfast. On 4-5 May, another raid, made up of 204 bombers, killed another 203 people and the following night 22 more died. When the bombing began, 76-year-old William and 72-year-old Harriette took refuge under the stairs along with Dorothy, Dot and Isa. Incendiary bombs predominated in this raid. Up Next. 55,000 British civilian casualties were sustained through German bombing before the end of 1940 This included 23,000 deaths. Government ministers in Northern Ireland began to realise the Luftwaffe may launch an attack, but it was too little, too late. The raid so infuriated Hitler that he ordered the Luftwaffe to shift its attacks from RAF sites to London and other cities. As of October 2020, the population of Belfast is about 350,000 people. 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. Thank you. At the core of this book is a compelling account of the Luftwaffe's blitz on Belfast in April-May 1941. Anna and Billy were buried up their necks in sewage but were rescued and survived. 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. They write new content and verify and edit content received from contributors. It is situated at on the banks of the River Lagan on the east coast. 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). Many bodies and body parts could not be identified. When the house was hit William, Harriette, Dorothy, 36-year-old Dot and 41-year-old Isa were all killed. The city has been a leader in women's rights. 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. A modern bomb census has attempted to pinpoint the location of every bomb dropped on London during the Blitz, and the visualization of that data makes clear how thoroughly the Luftwaffe saturated the city. On Nov. 30, 1940, a lone Luftwaffe plane flew across the Ards Peninsula unobserved and reported back to Berlin. Added to this was the repair and refitting of 22,000 more vessels. Please select which sections you would like to print: Encyclopaedia Britannica's editors oversee subject areas in which they have extensive knowledge, whether from years of experience gained by working on that content or via study for an advanced degree. Video, 00:01:15The Belfast blitz, Up Next. It remains a high death toll - a shocking number of people killed in just a few weeks. 2. Sixty years after the Germans bombed Belfast in World War II BBC News Online looks back and remembers the anniversary of the blitz. The devastation was so great that the Germans coined a new verb, to coventrate, to describe it. 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. When Germany bombed Belfast as part of the Blitz during World War Two, the massive air raids left more than a thousand people dead. Roads out of town are still one stream of cars, with mattresses and bedding tied on top. The creeping TikTok bans. The Blitz Around Britain - World War 2 | Imperial War Museums 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. The district of Belfast has an area of 44 square miles (115 square km). 50,000 houses, more than half the houses in the city, were damaged. Video, 00:01:41NI WW2 veterans honoured by France, The Spitfire turns 80. Where they are going, what they will find to eat when they get there, nobody knows. But the authorities were afraid that bombs might not be the. 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}. 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. 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. Belfast has the world's largest dry dock. 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. The period of the next moon from say the 7th to the 16th of April may well bring our turn." 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. London seemed ablaze from the docks to Westminster, much damage was done, and casualties were high. In early 1941 the Germans launched another wave of attacks, this time focusing on ports. The first was on the night of 7-8 April 1941, a small attack which probably took place only to test Belfast's defences. Many in Northern Ireland thought that Belfast was outside the range of the Luftwaffe. Prayers were said and hymns sung by the mainly Protestant women and children during the bombing. It has been reported that on Easter Tuesday, Belfast suffered the highest loss of life of any city in the UK in a single raid. But the raid of 15-16 April - the Easter Tuesday Raid - was on another scale. Instead of pressing his advantage, however, Hitler abruptly changed his strategy. Read about our approach to external linking. In the mistaken belief that they might damage RAF fighters, the anti-aircraft batteries ceased firing. On August 25 the British retaliated by launching a bombing raid on Berlin. It is perhaps true that many saved their lives running but I am afraid a much greater number lost them or became casualties."[20]. An earlier flight on Oct. 18 allowed the crew to plot several targets in the city. [4], The Government of Northern Ireland lacked the will, energy and capacity to cope with a major crisis when it came. Video, 00:02:12Isabel Oakeshott: Why I leaked Hancock's messages, Tears of relief after man found in Amazon jungle. 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. 10 fascinating facts about Belfast that you probably didn't know 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; After the bombing began on September 7, local authorities urged displaced people to take shelter at South Hallsville School. Belfast was ill-prepared for the blitz. Tragically 35 were crushed to death when the mill wall collapsed. Video, 00:02:54Living through the London Blitz, At least 17 dead in Jakarta fuel storage depot fire. The Belfast blitz devastated a city that up until 1941 had remained unscathed during World War Two. Another defensive measure employed by the British was barrage balloonslarge oval-shaped unmanned balloons with stabilizing tail finsinstalled in and around major target areas. The seeming normality of life on the Home Front was shattered in 1944 when the first of the V1's landed. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. While Anderson shelters offered good protection from bomb fragments and debris, they were cold and damp and generally ill-suited for prolonged occupancy. The Blitz was devastating for the people of London and other cities. Updates? Find out how it began, what the Germans hoped to achieve and how it severe it was, plus we visit nine places affected by the attacks. When the Blitz began, the government enforced a blackout in an attempt to make targeting more difficult for German night bombers. No searchlights were set up in the city at the time, and these only arrived on 10 April. A short respite followed, until a widespread series of night raids on April 7 included some targets in the London area. John Wood Dunlop invented the pneumatic tyre in Belfast in 1887. Yesterday the hand of good-fellowship was reached across the Border. The Blitz | Facts, History, Damage, & Casualties | Britannica Several accounts point out that Belfast, standing at the end of the long inlet of Belfast Lough, would be easily located. The Belfast Blitz - Inside the Deadly 1941 Luftwaffe Raids on Northern Heinkel He 111 and Dornier Do 17 planes fitted with Zeiss cameras captured high-quality aerial imagery. Mr Freeburn set out to find out more about those who died, their personal stories and the tales of those left behind. [citation needed], There was a second massive air raid on Belfast on Sunday 45 May 1941, three weeks after that of Easter Tuesday. Singer-songwriter Van Morrison was born here. The mortuary services had emergency plans to deal with only 200 bodies. Interesting facts about Belfast | Just Fun Facts Belfast suffered a series of bombing raids in the spring of 1941, which became known as the 'Blitz of Belfast'. 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. 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. 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. This view was probably influenced by the decision of the IRA Army Council to support Germany. Fewer than 4,000 women and children were evacuated. Video, 00:00:51Australia's 'biggest drug bust' nets $700m of cocaine, Thanks, but no big speech, in Ken Bruce's sign off. For eight months the Luftwaffe dropped bombs on London and other strategic cities across Britain. The 2017 film Zoo depicts an air raid during the Belfast Blitz. Beginning on Black Saturday, London was attacked on 57 straight nights. 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. This raid overall caused relatively little damage, but a lot was revealed about Belfast's inadequate defences. Read about our approach to external linking. 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. The House of Commons, Westminster Abbey, and the British Museum were severely damaged, and The Temple was almost completely destroyed. Simpson shot down one of the Heinkels over Downpatrick. In late August the Germans dropped some bombs, apparently by accident, on civilian areas in London. The firm had produced Handley Page Hereford bombers since 1936. 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. In Newtownards, Bangor, Larne, Carrickfergus, Lisburn and Antrim many thousands of Belfast citizens took refuge either with friends or strangers. These shelters, made of corrugated steel, were designed to be dug into a garden and then covered with dirt. They all say the same thing, that the government is no good. Most of the objectives laid out by the reconnaissance crews were of either military or industrial importance. 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. Can Nigeria's election result be overturned? Once more, London was targeted and children were victims. Fiber-optic cables are made from thin strings of glass and are generally about one-tenth the width of a . 1. Again the Irish emergency services crossed the border, this time without waiting for an invitation. 1. Nine were registered on three separate occasions, and from the start of the Blitz until November 30 there were more than 350 alerts. St. Giles, Cripplegate, and St. Mary Wolnooth, also in the city, were damaged, while the Dutch church in Austin Friars, dating from the 14th century and covering a larger area than any church in the city of London, St. Pauls alone excepted, was totally destroyed. The Premier Online Military History Magazine, Re-printed with permission fromWartimeNI.com. The Belfast Blitz - KS3 History (Environment and society) - BBC The refugees looked dazed and horror stricken and many had neglected to bring more than a few belongings Any and every means of exit from the city was availed of and the final destination appeared to be a matter of indifference. 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. There were few bomb shelters. 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. Morale did suffer amid the death and devastation, but there were few calls for surrender. Streetlights, car headlights, and illuminated signs were kept off. [citation needed]. Very early in the German bombing campaign, it became clear that the preparationshowever extensive they seemed to have beenwere inadequate. 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. 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Because basements, a logical destination in the event of an air raid, were a relative rarity in Britain, the A.R.P. 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." London was bombed for 57 consecutive nights from 7 September 1940 4. The city covers a total area of 132.5 square kilometers (51 square miles). Horrendous Belfast losses during World War Two bombing blitz Learn how your comment data is processed. By then 250 firemen from Clydeside had arrived. KS3 History (Environment and society) The Belfast Blitz learning resources for adults, children, parents and teachers. The shipyard was among the largest in the world, producing merchant vessels and military shipping. No significant cut was made in necessary social services, and public and private premises, except when irreparably damaged, were repaired as speedily as possible. As the UK was preparing for the conflict, the factories and shipyards of Belfast were gearing up. 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 BELFAST BLITZ was a series of four air raids over Northern Ireland during the spring of 1941. Belfast Blitz: Marking the lost lives 80 years on. 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. 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. ", Dawson Bates, the Home Affairs Minister, apparently refused to reply to army correspondence and when the Ministry of Home Affairs was informed by imperial defence experts in 1939 that Belfast was regarded as "a very definite German objective", little was done outside providing shelters in the Harbour area.[14]. 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. It was solemn, tragic, dignified, but here it was grotesque, repulsive, horrible. Moya Woodside[23] noted in her diary: "Evacuation is taking on panic proportions. [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." [6] It was MacDermott who sent a telegram to de Valera seeking assistance. and Major Sen O'Sullivan, who produced a detailed report for the Dublin government. The next took place on Easter Tuesday, 15 April 1941, when 200 Luftwaffe bombers attacked military and manufacturing targets in the city of Belfast. Belfast was bombed by the Nazis in World War II. [18], Over 900 people died, 1,500 people were injured, 400 of them seriously. Belfast confetti," said one archive news report. Hitlers intention had been to break the morale of the British people so they would pressure their government to surrender. So had Clydeside until recently. Several theatres and many cinemas were open, and there were even a few sporting events. Death should be dignified, peaceful; Hitler had made even death grotesque. By mid-September 1940 the RAF had won the Battle of Britain, and the invasion was postponed indefinitely. He gave an interview saying: "the people of Belfast are Irish people too". Since 1:45am all telephones had been cut. Belfast Blitz: Facts In total there were four attacks on the County Antrim city.