Another claim was that the Catholic population in general and the IRA in particular guided the bombers. to households. There was no opposition. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. 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. Video, 00:01:37, Thanks, but no big speech, in Ken Bruce's sign off, Tear gas fired at Greece train crash protesters. On May 11, 1941, Hitler called off the Blitz as he shifted his forces eastward against the Soviet Union. Interesting facts about Belfast. Very early in the German bombing campaign, it became clear that the preparationshowever extensive they seemed to have beenwere inadequate. Unauthorized use and/or duplication of any material on this site without expressand written permission from the author and/or owner is strictly prohibited. Where they are going, what they will find to eat when they get there, nobody knows. For eight months the Luftwaffe dropped bombs on London and other strategic cities across Britain. On August 25 the British retaliated by launching a bombing raid on Berlin. Major O'Sullivan reported that "In the heavily 'blitzed' areas people ran panic-stricken into the streets and made for the open country. along with England, Scotland, and Wales. It was not the last time Belfast would suffer. While every effort has been made to follow citation style rules, there may be some discrepancies. 2. [25] He followed up with his "they are our people" speech, made in Castlebar, County Mayo, on Sunday 20 April 1941 (Quoted in the Dundalk Democrat dated Saturday 26 April 1941): In the past, and probably in the present, too, a number of them did not see eye to eye with us politically, but they are our people we are one and the same people and their sorrows in the present instance are also our sorrows; and I want to say to them that any help we can give to them in the present time we will give to them whole-heartedly, believing that were the circumstances reversed they would also give us their help whole-heartedly Frank Aiken, the Irish Minister for the Co-ordination of Defensive Measures was in Boston, Massachusetts at the time. Added to this was the repair and refitting of 22,000 more vessels. The ill-fated ship was built in the city in 1912, and to this day, there is a museum dedicated to its building and the lives of all of those on board. Three vessels nearing completion at Harland and Wolff's were hit as was its power station. About 1,000 people were killed and bombs hit half of the houses in the city, leaving 100,000 people homeless. Most of the objectives laid out by the reconnaissance crews were of either military or industrial importance. Fortunately, the railway telegraphy link between Belfast and Dublin was still operational. 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 Royal Air Force announced that Squadron Leader J.W.C. From papers recovered after the war, we know of a Luftwaffe reconnaissance flight over Belfast on 30 November 1940. The creeping TikTok bans, Hong Kong skyscraper fire seen on city's skyline. The raids hurt Britains war production, but they also killed many civilians and left many others homeless. By then 250 firemen from Clydeside had arrived. 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. 7. During the whole period, although the citys operation was disrupted in ways that were sometimes serious, no essential service was more than temporarily impaired. Heinkel He 111 and Dornier Do 17 planes fitted with Zeiss cameras captured high-quality aerial imagery. London was bombed for 57 consecutive nights from 7 September 1940 By 1941, production of the Short Stirling Bomber and the Short Sunderland Flying Boat was underway. The South Hallsville School disaster prompted Londoners, especially residents of the East End, to find safer shelters, on their own if necessary. Video, 00:01:09The Spitfire turns 80, The German bombing of Coventry. Belfast was Ireland's industrial home, famous for tobacco, rope-making, linen, and ship-building, which made it the powerhouse it was. 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. 1. It was the worst wartime raid outside of London in the UK. As the UK was preparing for the conflict, the factories and shipyards of Belfast were gearing up. They all say the same thing, that the government is no good. 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. When war broke out in 1939 the city did not expect to be attacked by German bombers: it was geographically remote and deemed a relatively . Two of the crews received refreshments in Banbridge; others were entertained in the Ancient Order of Hibernians hall in Newry. The Germans, however, saw Belfast as a legitimate target due to the shipyards in the city that were contributing to Britain's war efforts. Many in Northern Ireland thought that Belfast was outside the range of the Luftwaffe. "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. 10 Facts about Belfast City. They are sleeping in the same sheugh (ditch), below the same tree or in the same barn. 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. The devastation was so great that the Germans coined a new verb, to coventrate, to describe it. 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. With the surrender of France in June 1940, Germanys sole remaining enemy lay across the English Channel. At 10:40pm the air raid sirens sounded. High explosive bombs predominated in this raid. As more and more people began sleeping on the platforms, however, the government relented and provided bunk beds and bathrooms for the underground communities. It remains a high death toll - a shocking number of people killed in just a few weeks. Can Nigeria's election result be overturned? Tragically 35 were crushed to death when the mill wall collapsed. [18], Over 900 people died, 1,500 people were injured, 400 of them seriously. Beginning on Black Saturday, London was attacked on 57 straight nights. There is no slacking in our loyalty. Over 150 people died in what became known as the 'Fire Blitz'. It was not the first time the alarm had sounded to signify the presence of Luftwaffe bombers over the city. In the New Lodge area people had taken refuge in a mill. 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. 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. "Through cross-referencing a number of different sources I have been able to get the most accurate number of people who died in the Blitz," he says. Everything on wheels is being pressed into service. The attack on Coventry was particularly destructive. 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. The Blitz was devastating for the people of London and other cities. The area included the Harland and Wolff Ltd. Shipyard, the Short and Harland Ltd. Aircraft Factory, and the airfield at RAF Sydenham. 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. 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. Video, 00:01:41, The German bombing of Coventry. department distributed more than two million Anderson shelters (named after Sir John Anderson, head of the A.R.P.) Over a period of nine months, over 43,500 civilians were killed in the raids, which focused on major cities and industrial centres. It is perhaps true that many saved their lives running but I am afraid a much greater number lost them or became casualties."[20]. C.S Lewis was born in Belfast, and the nearby countryside helped inspire The Chronicles of Narnia. The raid so infuriated Hitler that he ordered the Luftwaffe to shift its attacks from RAF sites to London and other cities. These figures are based on newspaper reports of the time, personal recollections and other primary sources, such as:- Air power alone had failed to knock the United Kingdom out of the war. Up to now, we have escaped an attack, said John MacDermott, the Minister for Security, Belfast, on March 24, 1941. It lies where the Lagan River flows into a part of the Irish Sea. [6] It was MacDermott who sent a telegram to de Valera seeking assistance. The Battle of Britain There were still 80,000 more in Belfast. ", Dawson Bates informed the Cabinet of rack-renting of barns, and over thirty people per house in some areas.[24]. Video, 00:00:26, Living through the London Blitz. You can see the difference in those letters - post-Blitz is very much a grieving tone. When Germany bombed Belfast as part of the Blitz during World War Two, the massive air raids left more than a thousand people dead. workers. The most heavily bombed area was that which lay between York Street and the Antrim Road, north of the city centre. The Belfast blitz. Wave after wave of bombers dropped their incendiaries, high explosives and land-mines. 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. Brooke noted in his diary "I gave him authority as it is obviously a question of expediency". 55,000 British civilian casualties were sustained through German bombing before the end of 1940 This included 23,000 deaths. headquarters, Toynbee hall and St. Dunstans; the American, Spanish, Japanese and Peruvian embassies and the buildings of the Times newspaper, the Associated Press of America, and the National City bank of New York; the centre court at Wimbledon, Wembley stadium, the Ring (Blackfriars); Drury Lane, the Queens and the Saville theatres; Rotten row, Lambeth walk, the Burlington arcade and Madame Tussauds. 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. The shipyard was among the largest in the world, producing merchant vessels and military shipping. On 4-5 May, another raid, made up of 204 bombers, killed another 203 people and the following night 22 more died. [citation needed]. These balloons, the largest of which were some 60 feet (18 metres) long, were essentially an airspace denial tool. The government announced that 77 people had died, but for years local residents insisted the toll was much higher. continuous trek to railway stations. The British, on the other hand, were supremely well prepared for the kind of battle in which they now found themselves. Revised estimates made decades later indicated that close to 600 men, women, and children had been killed in the bombing. Updates? In late August the Germans dropped some bombs, apparently by accident, on civilian areas in London. Clydeside got its blitz during the period of the last moon. Belfast Blitz: Marking the lost lives 80 years on. This amounted to nearly half of Britains total civilian deaths for the whole war. 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. What happened in 1941 changed the city forever. 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. Still, many in Northern Ireland believed no Luftwaffe attack would come. Video, 00:01:37Thanks, but no big speech, in Ken Bruce's sign off, Tear gas fired at Greece train crash protesters. This raid overall caused relatively little damage, but a lot was revealed about Belfast's inadequate defences. 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." 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. That evening over 150 bombers left their bases in northern France and the Netherlands and headed for Belfast. Around 20,000 people were employed on the site with 35,000 further along in the shipyard. Many "arrived in Fermanagh having nothing with them only night shirts". O'Sullivan reported: "There were many terrible mutilations among both living and dead heads crushed, ghastly abdominal and face wounds, penetration by beams, mangled and crushed limbs etc.". While Anderson shelters offered good protection from bomb fragments and debris, they were cold and damp and generally ill-suited for prolonged occupancy. 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. Eduard Hempel, the German Minister to Ireland, visited the Irish Ministry for External Affairs to offer sympathy and attempt an explanation. 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. The first (April 7 -8), a small attack, was most likely carried out to test the city's defenses. Ulster Historical Foundation. William Joyce (known as "Lord Haw-Haw") announced in radio broadcasts from Hamburg that there will be "Easter eggs for Belfast". No attendant nurse had soothed the last moments of these victims; no gentle reverent hand had closed their eyes or crossed their hands. The A.R.P. 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. Some are a total loss; others are already under repair with little outward sign of the damage sustained: Besides Buckingham palace, the chapel of which was wrecked, and Guildhall (the six-centuries old centre of London civic ceremonies and of great architectural beauty), which was destroyed by fire, Kensington palace (the London home of the earl of Athlone, governor general of Canada, and the birthplace of Queen Mary and Queen Victoria), the banqueting hall of Eltham palace (dating from King Johns time and long a royal residence), Lambeth palace (the archbishop of Canterbury), and Holland house (famous for its 17th century domestic architecture, its political associations, and its art treasures), suffered, the latter severely. Accounts differ as to when flares were dropped to light up the city. Here are 10 facts about both the German Blitzkrieg and the Allied bombing of Germany. 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. Read about our approach to external linking. Death had to a certain extent been made decent. Heavy jacks were unavailable. He believed that key targets identified across the city were hit. 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. 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". Indeed, on the night of the first raid, no Royal Air Force (RAF) aircraft took to the air to intercept German planes. The M.V. Again the Irish emergency services crossed the border, this time without waiting for an invitation. As many were caught in the open by blast and secondary missiles, the enormous number of casualties can be readily accounted for. 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. The Luftwaffe crews returned to their base in Northern France and reported that Belfast's defences were, "inferior in quality, scanty and insufficient". Protection of the city fell to seven anti-aircraft batteries of 16 heavy guns and six light guns. 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.. Londoners enjoyed three weeks of uneasy peace until May 1011, the night of a full moon, when the Luftwaffe launched the most intense raid of the Blitz. 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 of those who died as a result of enemy action lived in tightly packed, poorly constructed, terraced housing. 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. 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. The Premier Online Military History Magazine, Re-printed with permission fromWartimeNI.com. This view was probably influenced by the decision of the IRA Army Council to support Germany. The government was blamed by some for inadequate precautions. Those who sought refuge at the school were told that they would quickly be relocated to a safer area, but the evacuation was delayed. It became a city by royal charter in 1888. 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. On Nov. 30, 1940, a lone Luftwaffe plane flew across the Ards Peninsula unobserved and reported back to Berlin. 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." The next took place on Easter Tuesday, 15 April 1941, when 200 Luftwaffe bombers attacked military and manufacturing targets in the city of Belfast. Nevertheless, for all the hardship it caused, the campaign proved to be a strategic mistake by the Germans. After his optician business was destroyed by a bomb, Mickey Davies led an effort to organize the Spitalfield Shelter. Wherever Churchill is hiding his war material we will go Belfast is as worthy a target as Coventry, Birmingham, Bristol or Glasgow." By 4 am the entire city seemed to be in flames. Subs offer. 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]. "Liverpool, Clydebank and Portsmouth all have a memorial to their victims of the Blitz. KS3 History (Environment and society) The Belfast Blitz learning resources for adults, children, parents and teachers. . Streetlights, car headlights, and illuminated signs were kept off. Several theatres and many cinemas were open, and there were even a few sporting events. Video, 00:01:15The Belfast blitz, Up Next. Under the leadership of amon de Valera it had declared its neutrality during the Second World War. Barton wrote: "the Catholic population was much more strongly opposed to conscription, was inclined to sympathise with Germany", "there were suspicions that the Germans were assisted in identifying targets, held by the Unionist population." "But there is no such equivalent in Belfast. The fourth and final Belfast raid took place on the following night, 56 May. But these people all had families and friends and they had to deal with their loss for the rest of their lives.". Around 1am, Luftwaffe bombers flew over the city, concentrating their attack on the Harbour Estate and Queen's Island. Major Sen O'Sullivan reported on the intensity of the bombing in some areas, such as the Antrim Road, where bombs "fell within fifteen to twenty yards of one another." 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. The fall of France in June, 1940, enabled the Luftwaffe to establish airfields across the north of the country, leaving Ulster within reach of bombers. The danger faced in London was greatly increased when the V2 attacks started and the casualty figures mirrored those of the Blitz.. Our editors will review what youve submitted and determine whether to revise the article. Video, 00:00:36Tears of relief after man found in Amazon jungle. and Major Sen O'Sullivan, who produced a detailed report for the Dublin government. The Air Raid Precautions (A.R.P.) In the eight months of attacks, some 43,000 civilians were killed. There [is] ground for thinking that the enemy could not easily reach Belfast in force except during a period of moonlight. It was solemn, tragic, dignified, but here it was grotesque, repulsive, horrible. Your donations help keep MHN afloat. "It says a lot about how these people are forgotten that there is no Blitz memorial in Belfast," Mr Freeburn says. By 1940, Short and Harland could shelter its entire workforce and Harland and Wolff had provision to shelter 16,000 workers. The British government had anticipated air attacks on its population centres, and it had predicted catastrophic casualties. In spite of blackouts, ubiquitous shelters and sandbags, the visible effects of mass evacuation, the presence of A.R.P. Wherever Churchill is hiding his war material we will go. Since 1:45am all telephones had been cut. 2. The Germans expanded the Blitz to other cities in November 1940. Video, 00:00:26The German bombing of Coventry, Living through the London Blitz. [17] A stray bomber attacked Derry, killing 15. Fewer than 4,000 women and children were evacuated. Compared to other cities, Belfast was virtually undefended. NI WW2 veterans honoured by France. In early 1941 the Germans launched another wave of attacks, this time focusing on ports. But the authorities were afraid that bombs might not be the. sprang into action, and Londoners, while maintaining the work, business, and efficiency of their city, displayed remarkable fortitude. After the bombing began on September 7, local authorities urged displaced people to take shelter at South Hallsville School. [26], Initial German radio broadcasts celebrated the raid. 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. He was asked, in the N.I. At conservative gathering, Trump is still the favourite. Munster, for example, operated by the Belfast Steamship Company, plied between Belfast and Liverpool under the tricolour, until she hit a mine and was sunk outside Liverpool. Barton insisted that Belfast was "too far north" to use radio guidance. ", Mapping the lives lost in the Belfast Blitz. Authorities quickly implemented plans to protect Londoners from bombs and to house those left homeless by the attacks. [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. Van Morrison is from the east part of the city. 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. [4], The Government of Northern Ireland lacked the will, energy and capacity to cope with a major crisis when it came. 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. When the Blitz began, the government enforced a blackout in an attempt to make targeting more difficult for German night bombers. By the. The House of Commons, Westminster Abbey, and the British Museum were severely damaged, and The Temple was almost completely destroyed. 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. The Blitz began at about 4:00 in the afternoon on September 7, 1940, when German planes appeared over London. 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. These shelters, made of corrugated steel, were designed to be dug into a garden and then covered with dirt. For eight months the Luftwaffe dropped bombs on London and other strategic cities across Britain. In many cases the daily life of the city was able to resume with delays of only hours. But the RAF had not responded. The period of the next moon from say the 7th to the 16th of April may well bring our turn.. These shelters were vital as these factories had many employees working late at night and early in the morning when Luftwaffe attacks were likely. In the first days of the Blitz, a tragic incident in the East End stoked public anger over the governments shelter policy. 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. . The Titanic was built in Belfast. Belfast, the city with the highest population density in the UK at the time, also had the lowest proportion of public air-raid shelters. [21] Mass graves for the unclaimed bodies were dug in the Milltown and Belfast City Cemeteries. 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. As of October 2020, the population of Belfast is about 350,000 people. ", 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]. That night almost 300 people, many from the Protestant Shankill area, took refuge in the Clonard Monastery in the Catholic Falls Road. Up Next. Clydeside got its blitz during the period of the last moon. 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 town of Dromara saw its population increase from 500 to 2,500. As well as photographs, the Luftwaffe gathered information on landmarks, potential targets and defences or lack thereof. 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. [19], 220,000 people fled from the city. For two hours on the first day, 348 German bombers and 617 fighters blasted London. Blitz Fibre UK Blitz Fibre UK Published Mar 1, 2023 + Follow Fact 1- Small but Mighty . Video, 00:00:51Australia's 'biggest drug bust' nets $700m of cocaine, Thanks, but no big speech, in Ken Bruce's sign off. Video, 00:02:12, Isabel Oakeshott: Why I leaked Hancock's messages, Tears of relief after man found in Amazon jungle.
Ballotin Chocolate Peanut Butter Whiskey Nutrition Facts, Articles OTHER
Ballotin Chocolate Peanut Butter Whiskey Nutrition Facts, Articles OTHER