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). 15 Powerful Photos Of The WW2 Blitz | Imperial War Museums The Belfast blitz devastated a city that up until 1941 had remained unscathed during World War Two. He successfully busied himself with the task of making Northern Ireland a major supplier of food to Britain in her time of need.[5]. 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. Sir Basil Brooke, the Minister of Agriculture, was the only active minister. It is perhaps true that many saved their lives running but I am afraid a much greater number lost them or became casualties."[20]. In another building, the York Street Mill, one of its massive sidewalls collapsed on to Sussex and Vere Streets, killing all those who remained in their homes. Our editors will review what youve submitted and determine whether to revise the article. But the Luftwaffe was ready. He was replaced by 54-year-old Sir Basil Brooke on 1 May. Learn how your comment data is processed. Belfast is as worthy a target as Coventry, Birmingham, Bristol or Glasgow.. St George's Church in High Street was damaged by fire. 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. Around 1am, Luftwaffe bombers flew over the city, concentrating their attack on the Harbour Estate and Queen's Island. 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. Half of the city's housing was damaged over the course of all the raids. So had Clydeside until recently. 10 Facts about Belfast City | Fun Facts About Belfast | Europa Hotel 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. 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. ", Mapping the lives lost in the Belfast Blitz. [citation needed]. Video, 00:00:46Hong Kong skyscraper fire seen on city's skyline, Watch: Matt Hancock message row in 83 seconds. People hung black curtains in their windows so that no lights showed outside their houses. 29 - Belfast was once bigger than Dublin The government announced that 77 people had died, but for years local residents insisted the toll was much higher. More than 500 German planes dropped more than 700 tons of bombs across the city, killing nearly 1,500 people and destroying 11,000 homes. Beginning on Black Saturday, London was attacked on 57 straight nights. These shelters, made of corrugated steel, were designed to be dug into a garden and then covered with dirt. The bombs continued to fall until 5am. Belfast is the capital and largest city of Northern Ireland. For two hours on the first day, 348 German bombers and 617 fighters blasted London. In clear weather, targets were easily identifiable. It was solemn, tragic, dignified, but here it was grotesque, repulsive, horrible. The Belfast Blitz - Inside the Deadly 1941 Luftwaffe Raids on Northern He believed that this was being done already but it was inevitable that a certain number of civilian lives should be lost in the course of heavy bombing from the air". Video, 00:02:54Living through the London Blitz, At least 17 dead in Jakarta fuel storage depot fire. Reviewed by: Geoffrey Roberts. With the surrender of France in June 1940, Germanys sole remaining enemy lay across the English Channel. 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. The famous Harland and Wolff cranes are called Samson and Goliath. Van Morrison is from the east part of the city. 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. There wasn't enough room for Anna or Billy, so they sheltered elsewhere, a twist of fate that would save their lives. What happened in 1941 changed the city forever. Video, 00:01:23, Watch: Matt Hancock message row in 83 seconds, Isabel Oakeshott: Why I leaked Hancock's messages. Compared to other cities, Belfast was virtually undefended. From papers recovered after the war, we know of a Luftwaffe reconnaissance flight over Belfast on 30 November 1940. 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. 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. A charitable relief fund for the people of London was opened September 10. 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. They prevented low-flying aircraft from approaching their targets at optimal altitudes and angles of attack. It remains a high death toll - a shocking number of people killed in just a few weeks. Read about our approach to external linking. However, the Docklands was also a densely populated and impoverished area where thousands of working-class Londoners lived in run-down housing. The Blitz: When Was It, Why Did It Begin And How Did It End Air power alone had failed to knock the United Kingdom out of the war. 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. Horrendous Belfast losses during World War Two bombing blitz The initial human cost of the Blitz was lower than the government had expected, but the level of destruction exceeded the governments dire predictions. Video, 00:01:38At least 17 dead in Jakarta fuel storage depot fire, Australia's 'biggest drug bust' nets $700m of cocaine. Around 20,000 people were employed on the site with 35,000 further along in the shipyard. There are other diarists and narratives. Government ministers in Northern Ireland began to realise the Luftwaffe may launch an attack, but it was too little, too late. There was no smokescreen ability, however there were some barrage balloons positioned strategically for protection. Oakland plans to unleash 'pothole blitz' to fix notorious street damage The success of Mickeys Shelter was another factor that urged the government to improve existing deep shelters and to create new ones. That contrasts with the figure that is often given of more than 900 killed on Easter Tuesday alone. After his optician business was destroyed by a bomb, Mickey Davies led an effort to organize the Spitalfield Shelter. 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. The Titanic was built in Belfast. By 4 am the entire city seemed to be in flames. 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]. 10 Awesome Facts About Fibre - linkedin.com The raids on London primarily targeted the Docklands area of the East End. (Some authors count this as the second raid of four). The Royal Air Force announced that Squadron Leader J.W.C. Video, 00:01:15The Belfast blitz, Up Next. The Luftwaffe crews returned to their base in Northern France and reported that Belfast's defences were, "inferior in quality, scanty and insufficient". 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. This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Days later a group of East Enders occupied the shelter at the upscale Savoy Hotel, and many others began to take refuge in the citys underground railway, or Tube, stations. After a brief lull, the Luftwaffe returned in force on February 17. There was unease with the complacent attitude of the government, which led to resignations: Craigavon died on 24 November 1940. 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. At conservative gathering, Trump is still the favourite. The raid so infuriated Hitler that he ordered the Luftwaffe to shift its attacks from RAF sites to London and other cities. Fiber-optic cables are made from thin strings of glass and are generally about one-tenth the width of a . [6] It was MacDermott who sent a telegram to de Valera seeking assistance. The creeping TikTok bans. As many were caught in the open by blast and secondary missiles, the enormous number of casualties can be readily accounted for. Unlike N Ireland, the Irish Free State was no longer part of the UK. The first (April 7 -8), a small attack, was most likely carried out to test the city's defenses. Fortunately, the railway telegraphy link between Belfast and Dublin was still operational. Here are 10 facts about both the German Blitzkrieg and the Allied bombing of Germany. [citation needed]. There were Heinkel He 111s, Junkers Ju 88s and Dornier Do 17s. After the bombing began on September 7, local authorities urged displaced people to take shelter at South Hallsville School. Video, 00:02:12Isabel Oakeshott: Why I leaked Hancock's messages, Tears of relief after man found in Amazon jungle. 11 churches, two hospitals and two schools were destroyed. 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 each station volunteers were asked for, as it was beyond their normal duties. Most of the objectives laid out by the reconnaissance crews were of either military or industrial importance. 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. 6. Let us know if you have suggestions to improve this article (requires login). When the Blitz began, the government enforced a blackout in an attempt to make targeting more difficult for German night bombers. wardens, and members of the Home Guard drilling in the parks, life went on much as usual. In every instance, all stepped forward. This raid overall caused relatively little damage, but a lot was revealed about Belfast's inadequate defences. [1][2], The third raid on Belfast took place over the evening and morning of 45 May 1941; 150 were killed. Accounts differ as to when flares were dropped to light up the city. 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. It became a city by royal charter in 1888. In just these few hours, 430 people were killed and 1,600 were badly injured. An earlier flight on Oct. 18 allowed the crew to plot several targets in the city. With Britains powerful Royal Navy controlling the surface approaches in the Channel and the North Sea, it fell to the Luftwaffe to establish dominance of the skies above the battle zone. 13 died, including a soldier killed when an anti-aircraft gun, at the Balmoral show-grounds, misfired. The crypt under the sanctuary and the cellar under the working sacristy had been fitted out and opened to the public as an air-raid shelter. The Luftwaffe never attacked the city after May 1941, but it would be many years before life returned to normal for many in the city. His report concluded with: "a second Belfast would be too horrible to contemplate". In his interview, Becker stated that only military objectives were aimed for. The 2017 film Zoo depicts an air raid during 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. Another claim was that the Catholic population in general and the IRA in particular guided the bombers. On November 14, 1940, a German force of more than 500 bombers destroyed much of the old city centre and killed more than 550 people. Author Lawrence H. Dawson detailed the damage to Londons historic buildings for the 1941 Britannica Book of the Year: The following curtailed list identifies some of the better known places in inner London that have been damaged by enemy action. When incendiaries were dropped, the city burned as water pressure was too low for effective firefighting. Ulster Historical Foundation. 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. 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. Video, 00:01:09The Spitfire turns 80, The German bombing of Coventry. WW2: How did an elephant beat the Belfast Blitz? - BBC Teach Several theatres and many cinemas were open, and there were even a few sporting events. Another defensive measure employed by the British was barrage balloonslarge oval-shaped unmanned balloons with stabilizing tail finsinstalled in and around major target areas. British Spies and Irish Rebels by Paul McMahon, Report by the Garda Sochna 23 October 1941 IMA G2/1722, Learn how and when to remove this template message, Irish Minister for the Co-ordination of Defensive Measures, "Eamon de Valera and Hitler: An Analysis of International Reaction to the Visit to the German Minister, May 1945", "Extracts from an article, "The Belfast Blitz, 1941", "Historical Topics Series 2 The Belfast Blitz", "Your Place and Mine The Belfast Blitz", "Northern Ireland Parliamentary Elections Results: Biographies", "Belfast Blitz: The night death and destruction rained down on city", "Multitext - the Blitz - Belfast during the second World War", http://www.niwarmemorial.org/wp-content/uploads/2011/11/The_Belfast_Blitz.pdf, http://www.proni.gov.uk/historical_topics_series_-_02_-_the_belfast_blitz.pdf, Extracts from an article on The Belfast Blitz, 1941. IWM C 5424 1. Belfast, Irish Bal Feirste, city, district, and capital of Northern Ireland, on the River Lagan, at its entrance to Belfast Lough (inlet of the sea). Only four were known still to be alive. 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. 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.. (Great War casualties) had died in hospital beds, their eyes had been reverently closed, their hands crossed to their breasts. On May 11, 1941, Hitler called off the Blitz as he shifted his forces eastward against the Soviet Union. 4. 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. "We can still see the physical scars of the Blitz in Belfast, that is what is left. C.S Lewis was born in Belfast, and the nearby countryside helped inspire The Chronicles of Narnia. Nearby residential areas in east Belfast were also hit when "203 metric tonnes of high explosive bombs, 80 land mines attached to parachutes, and 800 firebomb canisters containing 96,000 incendiary bombs"[16] were dropped. The town of Dromara saw its population increase from 500 to 2,500. The M.V. The mortuary services had emergency plans to deal with only 200 bodies. Northern Ireland is a part of the United Kingdom . Blitz Fibre UK Blitz Fibre UK Published Mar 1, 2023 + Follow Fact 1- Small but Mighty . Again the Irish emergency services crossed the border, this time without waiting for an invitation. Since most casualties were caused by falling masonry rather than by blast, they provided effective shelter for those who had them. [9], War materials and food were sent by sea from Belfast to Great Britain, some under the protection of the neutral Irish tricolour. Death had to a certain extent been made decent. 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. Corrections? In Bristol, the bombed-out ruins of St Peter's Church were left standing with added memorial plaques to the civilians who were killed. 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." ISBN 9781909556324. This part of Belfast was the only one required to provide air raid shelters for workers. Men from the South worked with men from the North in the universal cause of the relief of suffering. Up to now, we have escaped an attack, said John MacDermott, the Minister for Security, Belfast, on March 24, 1941. 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. Taoiseach amon de Valera formally protested to Berlin. Belfast has the world's largest dry dock. They write new content and verify and edit content received from contributors. 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}. and Major Sen O'Sullivan, who produced a detailed report for the Dublin government. The Belfast Blitz - KS3 History (Environment and society) - BBC 2. On 28 April 1943, six members of the Government threatened to resign, forcing him from office. By the middle of December it had reached nearly 1,700,000 (adjusted for inflation, this was the equivalent of roughly 100 million in 2020). Maps and documents uncovered at Gatow Airfield near Berlin in 1945 showed the level of detail involved. [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]. The Germans, however, saw Belfast as a legitimate target due to the shipyards in the city that were contributing to Britain's war efforts. He believed that key targets identified across the city were hit. Hundreds of incendiary and many high-explosive bombs were dropped, doing little material damage but causing many casualties. Apart from those on London, this was the greatest loss of life in any night raid during the Blitz. 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. These private air-raid shelters were Anderson shelters, constructed of sheets of corrugated galvanised iron covered in earth. 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. 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. This view was probably influenced by the decision of the IRA Army Council to support Germany. Other Belfast factories manufactured gun mountings. sprang into action, and Londoners, while maintaining the work, business, and efficiency of their city, displayed remarkable fortitude. 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. Video, 00:00:36Tears of relief after man found in Amazon jungle. And even then, Westminster stated it was not ample provision; Stormont still worried about the costs to industry. Major O'Sullivan reported that "In the heavily 'blitzed' areas people ran panic-stricken into the streets and made for the open country. The Luftwaffe had lost more than 600 aircraft, and, although the RAF had lost fewer than half that many, the battle was claiming British fighters and experienced pilots at too great a rate. 3. He spoke with Professor Flynn, (Theodore Thomson Flynn, an Australian based at the Mater Hospital and father of actor Errol Flynn), head of the casualty service for the city, who told him of "casualties due to shock, blast and secondary missiles, such as glass, stones, pieces of piping, etc." Moya Woodside[23] noted in her diary: "Evacuation is taking on panic proportions. 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). 19.99. Belfast was not properly prepared for the attacks, with too few shelters and not enough anti-aircraft guns. Many of those who died as a result of enemy action lived in tightly packed, poorly constructed, terraced housing. Morale did suffer amid the death and devastation, but there were few calls for 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; 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. Added to this was the repair and refitting of 22,000 more vessels. 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. It lies where the Lagan River flows into a part of the Irish Sea. NI WW2 veterans honoured by France. As well as photographs, the Luftwaffe gathered information on landmarks, potential targets and defences or lack thereof. The raids hurt Britains war production, but they also killed many civilians and left many others homeless. 7. Yesterday for once the people of Ireland were united under the shadow of a national blow. The Blitz of Belfast 1941 - History Learning Site The creeping TikTok bans, Hong Kong skyscraper fire seen on city's skyline. For more than six months, German planes had flown reconnaissance flights over Belfast. 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. They are sleeping in the same sheugh (ditch), below the same tree or in the same barn. For eight months the Luftwaffe dropped bombs on London and other strategic cities across Britain. Fighter Commands efforts were greatly aided by the lack of any consistent plan of action on the part of the Germans. The 'Blitz' - from the German term Blitzkrieg ('lightning war') - was the sustained campaign of aerial bombing attacks on British towns and cities carried out by the Luftwaffe (German Air Force) from September 1940 until May 1941. Streetlights, car headlights, and illuminated signs were kept off. John Wood Dunlop invented the pneumatic tyre in Belfast in 1887. The Belfast blitz during World War Two - BBC News The most significant loss was a 4.5-acre (1.8ha) factory floor for manufacturing the fuselages of Short Stirling bombers. The offensive came to be called the Blitz after the German word blitzkrieg ("lightning war"). The bombing of British cities - Swansea, Belfast, Glasgow Belfast Blitz: Marking the lost lives 80 years on. On 4-5 May, another raid, made up of 204 bombers, killed another 203 people and the following night 22 more died. London was bombed for 57 consecutive nights from 7 September 1940 When the bombing began, 76-year-old William and 72-year-old Harriette took refuge under the stairs along with Dorothy, Dot and Isa. By British mainland blitz standards, casualties were light. About 1,000 people were killed and bombs hit half of the houses in the city, leaving 100,000. 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. The Battle of Britain 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. During the first year of the war, behind-the-lines conditions prevailed in London. Video, 00:02:54, At least 17 dead in Jakarta fuel storage depot fire. 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. During what was known as the "Belfast Blitz," 1,000 people were killed by bombs dropped by the Nazis in 1941 during the Second World War. THE BELFAST BLITZ was a series of four air raids over Northern Ireland during the spring of 1941. Yesterday the hand of good-fellowship was reached across the Border. These figures are based on newspaper reports of the time, personal recollections and other primary sources, such as:- 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. Video, 00:01:41, The German bombing of Coventry. 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.
10 facts about the belfast blitz