Published: September 7, 2020 at 12:00 pm. Incendiary bombs predominated in this raid. The Air Raid Precautions (A.R.P.) 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. Updates? [19], 220,000 people fled from the city. Gring had insisted that such an attack was an impossibility, because of the citys formidable air defense network. Another defensive measure employed by the British was barrage balloonslarge oval-shaped unmanned balloons with stabilizing tail finsinstalled in and around major target areas. But the authorities were afraid that bombs might not be the. What happened in 1941 changed the city forever. Authorities quickly implemented plans to protect Londoners from bombs and to house those left homeless by the attacks. 29 - Belfast was once bigger than Dublin The Belfast Blitzconsisted of four German air raids on strategic targets in the city of Belfastin Northern Ireland, in April and May 1941 during World War II, causing high casualties. At the start of World War Two, Belfast had considered itself safe from an aerial attack, as the city's leaders believed that Belfast was simply too far away for Luftwaffe bombers to reach - assuming that they would have to fly from Nazi Germany. The initial human cost of the Blitz was lower than the government had expected, but the level of destruction exceeded the governments dire predictions. Belfast was ill-prepared for the blitz. 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. IWM C 5424 1. 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. KS3 History (Environment and society) The Belfast Blitz learning resources for adults, children, parents and teachers. Up to now, we have escaped an attack, said John MacDermott, the Minister for Security, Belfast, on March 24, 1941. With the surrender of France in June 1940, Germanys sole remaining enemy lay across the English Channel. [12], There was little preparation for the conflict with Germany. When a bombing raid was imminent, air-raid sirens were set off to sound a warning. Video, 00:02:54, At least 17 dead in Jakarta fuel storage depot fire. Beginning on Black Saturday, London was attacked on 57 straight nights. 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. It was the worst wartime raid outside of London in the UK. Singer-songwriter Van Morrison was born here. "There are plans for one but there isn't one yet. Nevertheless, through sheer weight of numbers, the Germans were on the brink of victory in late August 1940. A victory for the Luftwaffe in the Battle of Britain would indeed have exposed Great Britain to invasion and occupation. ", Mapping the lives lost in the Belfast Blitz. When the house was hit William, Harriette, Dorothy, 36-year-old Dot and 41-year-old Isa were all killed. sprang into action, and Londoners, while maintaining the work, business, and efficiency of their city, displayed remarkable fortitude. John Wood Dunlop invented the pneumatic tyre in Belfast in 1887. That contrasts with the figure that is often given of more than 900 killed on Easter Tuesday alone. Wherever Churchill is hiding his war material we will go. The first was on the night of 78 April 1941, a small attack which probably took place only to test Belfast's defences. O'Sullivan felt that the whole civil defence sector was utterly overwhelmed. Those who sought refuge at the school were told that they would quickly be relocated to a safer area, but the evacuation was delayed. They are sleeping in the same sheugh (ditch), below the same tree or in the same barn. Video, 00:03:09Mapping the lives lost in the Belfast Blitz, Belfast City Hall in darkness as the Blitz is marked, Street fighting in Bakhmut but Russia not in control, Russian minister laughed at for Ukraine war claims. along with England, Scotland, and Wales. Over 500 received care from the Irish Red Cross in Dublin. 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. As many were caught in the open by blast and secondary missiles, the enormous number of casualties can be readily accounted for. 10,000 "officially" crossed the border. The South Hallsville School disaster prompted Londoners, especially residents of the East End, to find safer shelters, on their own if necessary. Belfast Blitz: Marking the lost lives 80 years on. Nearby were the citys main power station, gasworks, telephone house and the Sirocco Engineering works. This part of Belfast was the only one required to provide air raid shelters for workers. After the war, when the first girl from the home got married Billy gave her away, having lost his only daughter. Given Belfast's geographic position, it was considered to be at the fringe of the operational range of German bombers and hence there was no provision for night-fighter aerial cover. 150 corpses remained in the Falls Road baths for three days before they were buried in a mass grave, with 123 still unidentified. The most heavily bombed cities outside London were Liverpool and Birmingham. 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 was no smokescreen ability, however there were some barrage balloons positioned strategically for protection. 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. By the. 7. The first deliberate raid took place on the night of 7 April. 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. 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). Hitlers intention had been to break the morale of the British people so they would pressure their government to surrender. [21] Mass graves for the unclaimed bodies were dug in the Milltown and Belfast City Cemeteries. For two hours, 348 German bombers and 617 fighters targeted the city, dropping high-explosive bombs as well as incendiary devices. Video, 00:01:09The Spitfire turns 80, The German bombing of Coventry. Several accounts point out that Belfast, standing at the end of the long inlet of Belfast Lough, would be easily located. A Raid From Above 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. 9. Apart from one or two false alarms in the early days of the war, no sirens wailed in London until June 25. In early 1941 the Germans launched another wave of attacks, this time focusing on ports. Video, 00:01:23Watch: Matt Hancock message row in 83 seconds, One-minute World News. THE BELFAST BLITZ was a series of four air raids over Northern Ireland during the spring of 1941. 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. No searchlights were set up in the city at the time, and these only arrived on 10 April. . Fighter Commands efforts were greatly aided by the lack of any consistent plan of action on the part of the Germans. 8. 1. Half of the city's housing was damaged over the course of all the raids. The Royal Air Force announced that Squadron Leader J.W.C. [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]. 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). Our editors will review what youve submitted and determine whether to revise the article. 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 Blitz began at around 4 pm on September 7, 1940, when German bomber planes first appeared over London. Several theatres and many cinemas were open, and there were even a few sporting events. 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. An air raid shelter on Hallidays Road received a direct hit, killing all those in it. NI WW2 veterans honoured by France. [1][2], The third raid on Belfast took place over the evening and morning of 45 May 1941; 150 were killed. 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. More than 1,000 people were killed, and the damage was more widespread than on any previous occasion. By mid-September 1940 the RAF had won the Battle of Britain, and the invasion was postponed indefinitely. Video, 00:00:51, Australia's 'biggest drug bust' nets $700m of cocaine, Thanks, but no big speech, in Ken Bruce's sign off. 6. They remained for three days, until they were sent back by the Northern Ireland government. Streets heavily bombed in the city centre included High Street, Ann Street, Callender Street, Chichester Street, Castle Street, Tomb Street, Bridge Street (effectively obliterated), Rosemary Street, Waring Street, North Street, Victoria Street, Donegall Street, York Street, Gloucester Street, and East Bridge Street. This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. His death (along with preceding ill-health) came at a bad time and arguably inadvertently caused a leadership vacuum. As of October 2020, the population of Belfast is about 350,000 people. Heavy jacks were unavailable. The national government also provided funds to local municipalities to construct public air-raid shelters. 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. 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. the Blitz, (September 7, 1940May 11, 1941), intense bombing campaign undertaken by Nazi Germany against the United Kingdom during World War II. 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. Taoiseach amon de Valera formally protested to Berlin. This raid overall caused relatively little damage, but a lot was revealed about Belfast's inadequate defences. 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 Luftwaffe crews returned to their base in Northern France and reported that Belfast's defences were, "inferior in quality, scanty and insufficient". William Joyce (known as "Lord Haw-Haw") announced in radio broadcasts from Hamburg that there will be "Easter eggs for Belfast". Here are 10 facts about both the German Blitzkrieg and the Allied bombing of Germany. I felt outraged, I should have felt sympathy, grief, but instead feelings of revulsion and disgust assailed me. [citation needed], Other writers, such as Tony Gray in The Lost Years state that the Germans did follow their radio guidance beams. 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. 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 danger faced in London was greatly increased when the V2 attacks started and the casualty figures mirrored those of the Blitz.. In Newtownards, Bangor, Larne, Carrickfergus, Lisburn and Antrim many thousands of Belfast citizens took refuge either with friends or strangers. "[22], In his opinion, the greatest want was the lack of hospital facilities. The phrase Business as usual, written in chalk on boarded-up shop windows, exemplified the British determination to keep calm and carry on as best they could. Van Morrison is from the east part of the city. Fewer than 4,000 women and children were evacuated. "A lot of the people I spoke to were relatives who ended up donating images and handwritten letters from before and after the Blitz. 11 churches, two hospitals and two schools were destroyed. Men from the South worked with men from the North in the universal cause of the relief of suffering. The period of the next moon from say the 7th to the 16th of April may well bring our turn.. Roads out of town are still one stream of cars, with mattresses and bedding tied on top. His report concluded with: "a second Belfast would be too horrible to contemplate". In the first days of the Blitz, a tragic incident in the East End stoked public anger over the governments shelter policy. The raids on London primarily targeted the Docklands area of the East End. department distributed more than two million Anderson shelters (named after Sir John Anderson, head of the A.R.P.) Belfast has the world's largest dry dock. He described some distressing consequences, such as how "in one case the leg and arm of a child had to be amputated before it could be extricated. 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. While every effort has been made to follow citation style rules, there may be some discrepancies. 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; 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. Moya Woodside[23] noted in her diary: "Evacuation is taking on panic proportions. Video, 00:01:38At least 17 dead in Jakarta fuel storage depot fire, Australia's 'biggest drug bust' nets $700m of cocaine. Looking back on the Belfast Blitz, Oberleutnant Becker signed off with the following words: A war is the worst thing that can happen to Mankind. The bombing of British cities - Swansea, Belfast, Glasgow Before the war broke out, civilians had been issued with gas masks and Anderson shelters, which people were encouraged to build at the. 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. The working-class living close to industrial centres suffered more than anyone over the course of the four raids. 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.

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