Many in Northern Ireland thought that Belfast was outside the range of the Luftwaffe. 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. Wherever Churchill is hiding his war material we will go Belfast is as worthy a target as Coventry, Birmingham, Bristol or Glasgow." The Germans expanded the Blitz to other cities in November 1940. 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. Guided by Davies, the people of the shelter created an ad hoc government and established a set of rules. Another claim was that the Catholic population in general and the IRA in particular guided the bombers. For eight months the Luftwaffe dropped bombs on London and other strategic cities across Britain. THE BELFAST BLITZ was a series of four air raids over Northern Ireland during the spring of 1941. 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. Over 500 received care from the Irish Red Cross in Dublin. 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. By Jonathan Bardon. Read about our approach to external linking. No attendant nurse had soothed the last moments of these victims; no gentle reverent hand had closed their eyes or crossed their hands. 2023 BBC. Protection of the city fell to seven anti-aircraft batteries of 16 heavy guns and six light guns. [13] However at the time Lord Craigavon, Prime Minister of Northern Ireland since its inception in 1921, said: "Ulster is ready when we get the word and always will be." Belfast Blitz - Wikipedia [citation needed], There was a second massive air raid on Belfast on Sunday 45 May 1941, three weeks after that of Easter Tuesday. The creeping TikTok bans, Hong Kong skyscraper fire seen on city's skyline. There were still 80,000 more in Belfast. In each station volunteers were asked for, as it was beyond their normal duties. 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. "There will always be people who will slip through the net but I am able to say at least 987 were killed across all raids.". Again the Irish emergency services crossed the border, this time without waiting for an invitation. 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 Blitz was devastating for the people of London and other cities. THE BELFAST BLITZ was a series of four air raids over Northern Ireland during the spring of 1941. There are other diarists and narratives. continuous trek to railway stations. Belfast was not properly prepared for the attacks, with too few shelters and not enough anti-aircraft guns. After his optician business was destroyed by a bomb, Mickey Davies led an effort to organize the Spitalfield Shelter. 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. 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.". Video, 00:01:23Watch: Matt Hancock message row in 83 seconds, One-minute World News. But Mr Freeburn's research casts doubt on this. Brooke noted in his diary "I gave him authority as it is obviously a question of expediency". 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. 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. 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. 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. 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}. 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. As the UK was preparing for the conflict, the factories and shipyards of Belfast were gearing up. Fortunately, the railway telegraphy link between Belfast and Dublin was still operational. This raid overall caused relatively little damage, but a lot was revealed about Belfast's inadequate defences. The raids hurt Britains war production, but they also killed many civilians and left many others homeless. "But there is no such equivalent in Belfast. [4], The Government of Northern Ireland lacked the will, energy and capacity to cope with a major crisis when it came. However, the Docklands was also a densely populated and impoverished area where thousands of working-class Londoners lived in run-down housing. the Blitz, (September 7, 1940May 11, 1941), intense bombing campaign undertaken by Nazi Germany against the United Kingdom during World War II. [26], Initial German radio broadcasts celebrated the raid. Let us know if you have suggestions to improve this article (requires login). Some 900 people died as a result of the bombing and 1,500 were injured. 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. Belfast is famous for being the birthplace of the Titanic. [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. Davies also set up medical stations and persuaded off-duty medical personnel to treat the sick and wounded. This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. 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. The British, on the other hand, were supremely well prepared for the kind of battle in which they now found themselves. 13 Facts You Didn't Know About Belfast The Blitz: When Was It, Why Did It Begin And How Did It End Government ministers in Northern Ireland began to realise the Luftwaffe may launch an attack, but it was too little, too late. Morale did suffer amid the death and devastation, but there were few calls for surrender. Yesterday for once the people of Ireland were united under the shadow of a national blow. The Belfast blitz is remembered. 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. Belfast suffered a series of bombing raids in the spring of 1941, which became known as the 'Blitz of Belfast'. 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. In spite of blackouts, ubiquitous shelters and sandbags, the visible effects of mass evacuation, the presence of A.R.P. Video, 00:01:37, Thanks, but no big speech, in Ken Bruce's sign off, Tear gas fired at Greece train crash protesters. 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. Since 1:45am all telephones had been cut. The British thus fought with the advantage of superior equipment and undivided aim against an enemy with inconsistent objectives. 4. From September 1940 until May 1941, Britain was subjected to sustained enemy bombing campaign, now known as the Blitz. There were few bomb shelters. 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. 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. He successfully busied himself with the task of making Northern Ireland a major supplier of food to Britain in her time of need.[5]. Even the children of soldiers had not been evacuated, with calamitous results when the married quarters of Victoria Barracks received a direct hit. workers. 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. 1. After the war, instructions from Joseph Goebbels were discovered ordering it not to be mentioned. 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. The first attack was against the city's waterworks, which had been attacked in the previous raid. As well as photographs, the Luftwaffe gathered information on landmarks, potential targets and defences or lack thereof. 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. The attacks were authorized by Germanys chancellor, Adolf Hitler, after the British carried out a nighttime air raid on Berlin. This amounted to nearly half of Britains total civilian deaths for the whole war. The Titanic was built in Belfast. Sometimes they were trying establish a blockade by destroying shipping and port facilities, sometimes they were directly attacking Fighter Command ground installations, sometimes they were targeting aircraft factories, and sometimes they were attempting to engage Fighter Command in the skies. The area included the Harland and Wolff Ltd. Shipyard, the Short and Harland Ltd. Aircraft Factory, and the airfield at RAF Sydenham. For two hours on the first day, 348 German bombers and 617 fighters blasted London. 2023 BBC. 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. [citation needed], Other writers, such as Tony Gray in The Lost Years state that the Germans did follow their radio guidance beams. There wasn't enough room for Anna or Billy, so they sheltered elsewhere, a twist of fate that would save their lives. to households. Richard Dawson Bates was the Home Affairs Minister. Also, on Queens Island, stood the Short and Harland Ltd. Aircraft Factory. . In a survey of shelter use, it was found that, although the public shelters were fully occupied every night, just 9 percent of Londoners made use of them. Apart from one or two false alarms in the early days of the war, no sirens wailed in London until June 25. When the Blitz began, the government enforced a blackout in an attempt to make targeting more difficult for German night bombers. Video, 00:00:26, Living through the London Blitz. 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. He gave an interview saying: "the people of Belfast are Irish people too". [citation needed]. 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. No significant cut was made in necessary social services, and public and private premises, except when irreparably damaged, were repaired as speedily as possible. The sense of relative calm was abruptly shattered in the first week of September 1940, when the war came to London in earnest. 7. The danger faced in London was greatly increased when the V2 attacks started and the casualty figures mirrored those of the Blitz..
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