The city has been a leader in women's rights. For eight months the Luftwaffe dropped bombs on London and other strategic cities across Britain. One, Tom Coleman, attended to receive recognition for his colleagues' solidarity at such a critical time. The mass relocation, called Operation Pied Piper, was the largest internal migration in British history. The telegram was sent at 4:35am,[citation needed] asking the Irish Taoiseach, amon de Valera for assistance. But Mr Freeburn's research casts doubt on this. Anna and Billy returned to England and continued running the children's home. 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. Raids between February and May pounded Plymouth, Portsmouth, Bristol, Newcastle upon Tyne, and Hull in England; Swansea in Wales; Belfast in Northern Ireland; and Clydeside in Scotland. Two of the crews received refreshments in Banbridge; others were entertained in the Ancient Order of Hibernians hall in Newry. Brian Barton of Queen's University, Belfast, has written most on this topic.[19]. The bombs continued to fall until 5am. and Major Sen O'Sullivan, who produced a detailed report for the Dublin government. 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. The British, on the other hand, were supremely well prepared for the kind of battle in which they now found themselves. Men from the South worked with men from the North in the universal cause of the relief of suffering. 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. In every instance, all stepped forward. wardens, and members of the Home Guard drilling in the parks, life went on much as usual. Belfast has the world's largest dry dock. Reviewed by: Geoffrey Roberts. A Raid From Above 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. As the UK was preparing for the conflict, the factories and shipyards of Belfast were gearing up. Even the children of soldiers had not been evacuated, with calamitous results when the married quarters of Victoria Barracks received a direct hit. The famous Harland and Wolff cranes are called Samson and Goliath. 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. Only four were known still to be alive. 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. Hitlers intention had been to break the morale of the British people so they would pressure their government to surrender. When the house was hit William, Harriette, Dorothy, 36-year-old Dot and 41-year-old Isa were all killed. The Blitz began at around 4 pm on September 7, 1940, when German bomber planes first appeared over London. In Bristol, the bombed-out ruins of St Peter's Church were left standing with added memorial plaques to the civilians who were killed. The Luftwaffe crews returned to their base in Northern France and reported that Belfast's defences were, "inferior in quality, scanty and insufficient". While some of the poorer and more crowded suburban areas suffered severely, the mansions of Mayfair, the luxury flats of Kensington, and Buckingham Palace itselfwhich was bombed four separate timesfared little better. "They have never been published before, never seen the light of day.". [citation needed], Casualties were lower than at Easter, partly because the sirens had sounded at 11.45pm while the Luftwaffe attacked more cautiously from a greater height. Video, 00:01:23Watch: Matt Hancock message row in 83 seconds, One-minute World News. In the east of the city, Westbourne and Newcastle Streets on the Newtownards Road, Thorndyke Street off the Albertbridge Road and Ravenscroft Avenue were destroyed or damaged. When the Blitz began, the government enforced a blackout in an attempt to make targeting more difficult for German night bombers. Prayers were said and hymns sung by the mainly Protestant women and children during the bombing. There was no opposition. Dissatisfaction with public shelters also led to another notable development in the East EndMickeys Shelter. 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. No searchlights were set up in the city at the time, and these only arrived on 10 April. Video, 00:00:51, Australia's 'biggest drug bust' nets $700m of cocaine, Thanks, but no big speech, in Ken Bruce's sign off. Another attacked Bangor, killing five. Those who sought refuge at the school were told that they would quickly be relocated to a safer area, but the evacuation was delayed. 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). The first (April 7 -8), a small attack, was most likely carried out to test the city's defenses. 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 offensive came to be called the Blitz after the German word blitzkrieg (lightning war). The firm had produced Handley Page Hereford bombers since 1936. It would appear that Adolf Hitler, in view of de Valera's negative reaction, was concerned that de Valera and Irish American politicians might encourage the United States to enter the war. 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. 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. Once more, London was targeted and children were victims. 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. Fortunately, the railway telegraphy link between Belfast and Dublin was still operational. 1. Half of the city's housing was damaged over the course of all the raids. THE BELFAST BLITZ was a series of four air raids over Northern Ireland during the spring of 1941. Barton insisted that Belfast was "too far north" to use radio guidance. 55,000 British civilian casualties were sustained through German bombing before the end of 1940 This included 23,000 deaths. And even then, Westminster stated it was not ample provision; Stormont still worried about the costs to industry. "Liverpool, Clydebank and Portsmouth all have a memorial to their victims of the Blitz. By mid-September 1940 the RAF had won the Battle of Britain, and the invasion was postponed indefinitely. Can Nigeria's election result be overturned? Simpson shot down one of the Heinkels over Downpatrick. After a brief lull, the Luftwaffe returned in force on February 17. Video, 00:01:15The Belfast blitz, Up Next. ISBN 9781909556324. 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. 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. Many "arrived in Fermanagh having nothing with them only night shirts". As of October 2020, the population of Belfast is about 350,000 people. 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. devised the Morrison shelter (named for Home Secretary Herbert Stanley Morrison) as an alternative to the Anderson shelter. [citation needed]. 8. 2. 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. Many of those who died as a result of enemy action lived in tightly packed, poorly constructed, terraced housing. "It says a lot about how these people are forgotten that there is no Blitz memorial in Belfast," Mr Freeburn says. Just before Easter 1941, Anna and Billy Burdett and their 12-year-old daughter, Dorothy, returned to Belfast from England to visit Anna's family. Death should be dignified, peaceful; Hitler had made even death grotesque. That night almost 300 people, many from the Protestant Shankill area, took refuge in the Clonard Monastery in the Catholic Falls Road. Authorities had noted Queens Island in the cityas a vulnerable point as early as 1929. 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. London seemed ablaze from the docks to Westminster, much damage was done, and casualties were high. It is perhaps true that many saved their lives running but I am afraid a much greater number lost them or became casualties."[20]. the Blitz, (September 7, 1940May 11, 1941), intense bombing campaign undertaken by Nazi Germany against the United Kingdom during World War II. 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. Death had to a certain extent been made decent. 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). What happened in 1941 changed the city forever. Since most casualties were caused by falling masonry rather than by blast, they provided effective shelter for those who had them. On July 16, 1940, Hitler issued a directive ordering the preparation and, if necessary, execution of Operation Sea Lion, the amphibious invasion of Great Britain. On 4-5 May, another raid, made up of 204 bombers, killed another 203 people and the following night 22 more died. Video, 00:00:36Tears of relief after man found in Amazon jungle. 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". The devastation was so great that the Germans coined a new verb, to coventrate, to describe it. Subs offer. 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. 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. 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. Video, 00:01:23, Watch: Matt Hancock message row in 83 seconds, Isabel Oakeshott: Why I leaked Hancock's messages. 4. Fiber-optic cables are made from thin strings of glass and are generally about one-tenth the width of a . 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. Streetlights, car headlights, and illuminated signs were kept off. It is situated at on the banks of the River Lagan on the east coast. Richard Dawson Bates was the Home Affairs Minister. 255 corpses were laid out in St George's Market. [4], The Government of Northern Ireland lacked the will, energy and capacity to cope with a major crisis when it came. Around 1am, Luftwaffe bombers flew over the city, concentrating their attack on the Harbour Estate and Queen's Island. "But there is no such equivalent in Belfast. There are other diarists and narratives. C.S Lewis was born in Belfast, and the nearby countryside helped inspire The Chronicles of Narnia. It was solemn, tragic, dignified, but here it was grotesque, repulsive, horrible. Video, 00:01:38, At least 17 dead in Jakarta fuel storage depot fire, Australia's 'biggest drug bust' nets $700m of cocaine. Several accounts point out that Belfast, standing at the end of the long inlet of Belfast Lough, would be easily located. "Through resources such as the Public Records Office and ancestry and genealogy websites I managed to get about 100 photos - which is about one tenth of the victims," he says. Elsewhere in the skies over Britain, Nazi official Rudolph Hess chose that same evening to parachute into Scotland on a quixotic and wholly unauthorized peace mission. Beginning on Black Saturday, London was attacked on 57 straight nights. The raid so infuriated Hitler that he ordered the Luftwaffe to shift its attacks from RAF sites to London and other cities. An air raid shelter on Hallidays Road received a direct hit, killing all those in it. [citation needed], Other writers, such as Tony Gray in The Lost Years state that the Germans did follow their radio guidance beams. At 10:40 on the evening of Easter Tuesday 1941 air raid sirens sounded across Belfast, sending people across the city scrambling for safety - in one of the 200 public shelters in the city or the thousands of shelters or other "safe" spaces in private homes. Three vessels nearing completion at Harland and Wolff's were hit as was its power station. He believed that key targets identified across the city were hit. 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. As well as photographs, the Luftwaffe gathered information on landmarks, potential targets and defences or lack thereof. Belfast is famous for being the birthplace of the Titanic. The period of the next moon from say the 7th to the 16th of April may well bring our turn." By 1940, Short and Harland could shelter its entire workforce and Harland and Wolff had provision to shelter 16,000 workers. Accounts differ as to when flares were dropped to light up the city. Video, 00:01:41NI WW2 veterans honoured by France, The Spitfire turns 80. The creeping TikTok bans, Hong Kong skyscraper fire seen on city's skyline. In the mistaken belief that they might damage RAF fighters, the anti-aircraft batteries ceased firing. IWM C 5424 1. Another claim was that the Catholic population in general and the IRA in particular guided the bombers. So had Clydeside until recently. ", 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]. Fighter Commands efforts were greatly aided by the lack of any consistent plan of action on the part of the Germans. Under the leadership of amon de Valera it had declared its neutrality during the Second World War. While every effort has been made to follow citation style rules, there may be some discrepancies. The 2017 film Zoo depicts an air raid during the Belfast Blitz. 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. The sense of relative calm was abruptly shattered in the first week of September 1940, when the war came to London in earnest. 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. By 4 am the entire city seemed to be in flames. Davies also set up medical stations and persuaded off-duty medical personnel to treat the sick and wounded. Six Heinkel He 111 bombers, from Kampfgruppe 26, flying at 7,000 feet (2,100m), dropped incendiaries, high explosive and parachute-mines. Taoiseach amon de Valera formally protested to Berlin. Hundreds of incendiary and many high-explosive bombs were dropped, doing little material damage but causing many casualties. The first was on the night of 78 April 1941, a small attack which probably took place only to test Belfast's defences. However that attack was not an error. 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 creeping TikTok bans. The initial human cost of the Blitz was lower than the government had expected, but the level of destruction exceeded the governments dire predictions. The raids on London primarily targeted the Docklands area of the East End. When the bombing began, 76-year-old William and 72-year-old Harriette took refuge under the stairs along with Dorothy, Dot and Isa. The Royal Air Force announced that Squadron Leader J.W.C. [6] It was MacDermott who sent a telegram to de Valera seeking assistance. Heavy jacks were unavailable. It remains a high death toll - a shocking number of people killed in just a few weeks. 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. After the war, instructions from Joseph Goebbels were discovered ordering it not to be mentioned. 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. 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. 29 - Belfast was once bigger than Dublin The fourth and final Belfast raid took place on the following night, 56 May. Video, 00:01:38At least 17 dead in Jakarta fuel storage depot fire, Australia's 'biggest drug bust' nets $700m of cocaine. By the time the raid was over, at least 744 people had lost their lives, including some living in places such as Newtownards, Bangor and Londonderry. In spite of blackouts, ubiquitous shelters and sandbags, the visible effects of mass evacuation, the presence of A.R.P. The Titanic was built in Belfast. Video, 00:02:54, At least 17 dead in Jakarta fuel storage depot fire. At 4:15am John MacDermott, the Minister of Public Security, managed to contact Basil Brooke (then Agriculture Minister), seeking permission to seek help from the Irish government. 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. I felt outraged, I should have felt sympathy, grief, but instead feelings of revulsion and disgust assailed me. On August 25 the British retaliated by launching a bombing raid on Berlin. There were Heinkel He 111s, Junkers Ju 88s and Dornier Do 17s. What's the least amount of exercise we can get away with? High explosive bombs predominated in this raid. The period of the next moon from say the 7th to the 16th of April may well bring our turn.. 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. [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]. These shelters were vital as these factories had many employees working late at night and early in the morning when Luftwaffe attacks were likely. Belfast was ill-prepared for the blitz. In each station volunteers were asked for, as it was beyond their normal duties. Over a period of nine months, over 43,500 civilians were killed in the raids, which focused on major cities and industrial centres. Belfast is as worthy a target as Coventry, Birmingham, Bristol or Glasgow.. By 6am, within two hours of the request for assistance, 71 firemen with 13 fire tenders from Dundalk, Drogheda, Dublin, and Dn Laoghaire were on their way to cross the Irish border to assist their Belfast colleagues. [19], 220,000 people fled from the city. The government was blamed by some for inadequate precautions. 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. Thank you. Sixty years after the Germans bombed Belfast in World War II BBC News Online looks back and remembers the anniversary of the blitz. 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. From September 1940 until May 1941, Britain was subjected to sustained enemy bombing campaign, now known as the Blitz. The attacks were authorized by Germanys chancellor, Adolf Hitler, after the British carried out a nighttime air raid on Berlin. 13 died, including a soldier killed when an anti-aircraft gun, at the Balmoral show-grounds, misfired. parliament: "if the government realized 'that these fast bombers can come to Northern Ireland in two and three quarter hours'". 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. 19.99. Learn how your comment data is processed. These figures are based on newspaper reports of the time, personal recollections and other primary sources, such as:- 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. Wherever Churchill is hiding his war material we will go. Published: September 7, 2020 at 12:00 pm. 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. [citation needed] However on 20 October 1941 the Garda Sochna captured a comprehensive IRA report on captured member Helena Kelly giving a detailed analysis of damage inflicted on Belfast and highlighting prime targets such as Shortt and Harland aircraft factory and RAF Sydenham, describing them as 'the remaining and most outstanding objects of military significance, as yet unblitzed' and suggesting they should be 'bombed by the Luftwaffe as thoroughly as other areas in recent raids'[28][29], After three days, sometime after 6pm, the fire crews from south of the border began taking up their hoses and ladders to head for home. Apart from one or two false alarms in the early days of the war, no sirens wailed in London until June 25. In the eight months of attacks, some 43,000 civilians were killed. The Battle of Britain 50,000 houses, more than half the houses in the city, were damaged. Rescue workers search through the rubble of Eglington Street in Belfast, Northern Ireland, after a German Luftwaffe air raid, 7 May 1941, Anna (left) and her husband Billy (back right) survived while Harriette, Dorothy and Billy were killed along with Dot and Isa, Dot and Isa, with Dorothy when she was a toddler, Royal Welch Fusiliers assist in clearing bomb damage in Belfast, Northern Ireland, 7 May 1941, Mapping the lives lost in the Belfast Blitz. ", US journalist Ben Robertson reported that at night Dublin was the only city without a blackout between New York and Moscow, and between Lisbon and Sweden and that German bombers often flew overhead to check their bearings using its lights, angering the British. 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. Many bodies and body parts could not be identified. Tragically 35 were crushed to death when the mill wall collapsed. Eduard Hempel, the German Minister to Ireland, visited the Irish Ministry for External Affairs to offer sympathy and attempt an explanation. As more and more people began sleeping on the platforms, however, the government relented and provided bunk beds and bathrooms for the underground communities. By Jonathan Bardon. Clydeside got its blitz during the period of the last moon.