10 facts about the belfast blitz

Here are 10 facts about both the German Blitzkrieg and the Allied bombing of Germany. 10 Facts about Belfast City. Under the leadership of Prime Minister John Miller Andrews, Northern Ireland remained unprepared. 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. Only four were known still to be alive. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. People are leaving from all parts of town and not only from the bombed areas. By the. It was not the last time Belfast would suffer. Children and World War Two - History Learning Site Video, 00:00:26, Living through the London Blitz. Around 1am, Luftwaffe bombers flew over the city, concentrating their attack on the Harbour Estate and Queen's Island. Death should be dignified, peaceful; Hitler had made even death grotesque. By then 250 firemen from Clydeside had arrived. Belfast's Albert Clock tower is sinking - it leans by four feet. Some had received food, others were famished. 19.99. NI WW2 veterans honoured by France. [citation needed]. 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. London seemed ablaze from the docks to Westminster, much damage was done, and casualties were high. Mr Freeburn set out to find out more about those who died, their personal stories and the tales of those left behind. He gave an interview saying: "the people of Belfast are Irish people too". Blitz, The - Kids | Britannica Kids | Homework Help In addition, there simply was not enough space for everyone who needed shelter in one of the largest and most densely populated cities in the world. For eight months the Luftwaffe dropped bombs on London and other strategic cities across Britain. An earlier flight on Oct. 18 allowed the crew to plot several targets in the city. Video, 00:01:38, At least 17 dead in Jakarta fuel storage depot fire, Australia's 'biggest drug bust' nets $700m of cocaine. Two of the crews received refreshments in Banbridge; others were entertained in the Ancient Order of Hibernians hall in Newry. 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. Hundreds of incendiary and many high-explosive bombs were dropped, doing little material damage but causing many casualties. 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. On May 11, 1941, Hitler called off the Blitz as he shifted his forces eastward against the Soviet Union. Learn how your comment data is processed. For two hours on the first day, 348 German bombers and 617 fighters blasted London. The higher the German planes had to fly to avoid the balloons, the less accurate they were when dropping their bombs. The database Mr Freeburn has compiled is, he believes, the most accurate list of those killed and includes 222 children aged 16 or under. 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. Video, 00:01:41, The German bombing of Coventry. workers. High explosive bombs predominated in this raid. Video, 00:01:03One-minute World News, Isabel Oakeshott: Why I leaked Hancock's messages. Sir Basil Brooke, the Minister of Agriculture, was the only active minister. Taoiseach amon de Valera formally protested to Berlin. 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. Video, 00:01:37, Thanks, but no big speech, in Ken Bruce's sign off, Tear gas fired at Greece train crash protesters. Death had to a certain extent been made decent. Everything on wheels is being pressed into service. 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. The youngest victim was just six-weeks-old. Fiber-optic cables are made from thin strings of glass and are generally about one-tenth the width of a . So had Clydeside until recently. 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. The sense of relative calm was abruptly shattered in the first week of September 1940, when the war came to London in earnest. Unauthorized use and/or duplication of any material on this site without expressand written permission from the author and/or owner is strictly prohibited. For 57 nightsuntil November 2more than 1 million bombs were dropped on the capital city. From September 1940 until May 1941, Britain was subjected to sustained enemy bombing campaign, now known as the Blitz. 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. Belfast is the capital and largest city of Northern Ireland. But the Luftwaffe was ready. When incendiaries were dropped, the city burned as water pressure was too low for effective firefighting. The bombs caused death and destruction across the city, affecting those of all religions and political backgrounds. By 1940, Short and Harland could shelter its entire workforce and Harland and Wolff had provision to shelter 16,000 workers. As the UK was preparing for the conflict, the factories and shipyards of Belfast were gearing up. The town of Dromara saw its population increase from 500 to 2,500. Instead of pressing his advantage, however, Hitler abruptly changed his strategy. "Liverpool, Clydebank and Portsmouth all have a memorial to their victims of the Blitz. Up Next. 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. 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. 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.". 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.. An air raid shelter on Hallidays Road received a direct hit, killing all those in it. From papers recovered after the war, we know of a Luftwaffe reconnaissance flight over Belfast on 30 November 1940. In the mistaken belief that they might damage RAF fighters, the anti-aircraft batteries ceased firing. Belfast suffered a series of bombing raids in the spring of 1941, which became known as the 'Blitz of Belfast'. Emma Duffin, a nurse at the Queen's University Hospital, (who previously served during the Great War), who kept a diary; On April 16 an attack even fiercer and more indiscriminate than those of the previous autumn started at 9:00 pm and continued until 5:00 the following morning; 500 aircraft were believed to have flown over in continuous waves, raining an estimated 450 tons of bombs across the city. Belfast Blitz: Marking the lost lives 80 years on. Belfast was not properly prepared for the attacks, with too few shelters and not enough anti-aircraft guns. There [is] ground for thinking that the enemy could not easily reach Belfast in force except during a period of moonlight. Some 900 people died as a result of the bombing and 1,500 were injured. Maps and documents uncovered at Gatow Airfield near Berlin in 1945 showed the level of detail involved. The A.R.P. It targeted the docks. 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 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, 00:00:26The German bombing of Coventry, Living through the London Blitz. A victory for the Luftwaffe in the Battle of Britain would indeed have exposed Great Britain to invasion and occupation. The Battle of Britain 2. Harland and Wolff: The troubled history of Belfast's shipyard 2. Government ministers in Northern Ireland began to realise the Luftwaffe may launch an attack, but it was too little, too late. 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. In the eight months of attacks, some 43,000 civilians were killed. 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. 2023 BBC. Video, 00:00:36Tears of relief after man found in Amazon jungle. NI WW2 veterans honoured by France. Indeed, on the night of the first raid, no Royal Air Force (RAF) aircraft took to the air to intercept German planes. 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. Subs offer. [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. Humanity knows no borders, no politics, no differences of religious belief. 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. After the bombing began on September 7, local authorities urged displaced people to take shelter at South Hallsville School. A charitable relief fund for the people of London was opened September 10. 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. Barton insisted that Belfast was "too far north" to use radio guidance. 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. devised the Morrison shelter (named for Home Secretary Herbert Stanley Morrison) as an alternative to the Anderson shelter. Brian Barton of Queen's University, Belfast, has written most on this topic.[19]. When the bombing began, 76-year-old William and 72-year-old Harriette took refuge under the stairs along with Dorothy, Dot and Isa. [6] It was MacDermott who sent a telegram to de Valera seeking assistance. Belfast was ill-prepared for the blitz. It is situated at on the banks of the River Lagan on the east coast. Belfast's Albert Clock tower is sinking - it leans by four feet. However, the Docklands was also a densely populated and impoverished area where thousands of working-class Londoners lived in run-down housing. 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 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. The first attack was against the city's waterworks, which had been attacked in the previous raid. Major O'Sullivan reported that "In the heavily 'blitzed' areas people ran panic-stricken into the streets and made for the open country. 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. These shelters, made of corrugated steel, were designed to be dug into a garden and then covered with dirt. Fortunately, the railway telegraphy link between Belfast and Dublin was still operational. 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. This part of Belfast was the only one required to provide air raid shelters for workers. A Raid From Above The Germans, however, saw Belfast as a legitimate target due to the shipyards in the city that were contributing to Britain's war efforts. 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. 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). (Great War casualties) had died in hospital beds, their eyes had been reverently closed, their hands crossed to their breasts. Nevertheless, through sheer weight of numbers, the Germans were on the brink of victory in late August 1940. Belfast - Kids | Britannica Kids | Homework Help They are sleeping in the same sheugh (ditch), below the same tree or in the same barn. Read about our approach to external linking. 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). . 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. Prayers were said and hymns sung by the mainly Protestant women and children during the bombing. It remains a high death toll - a shocking number of people killed in just a few weeks. So had Clydeside until recently. Read about our approach to external linking. Another claim was that the Catholic population in general and the IRA in particular guided the bombers. About 1,000 people were killed and bombs hit half of the houses in the city, leaving 100,000. It was solemn, tragic, dignified, but here it was grotesque, repulsive, horrible. The creeping TikTok bans. Video, 00:00:46, Hong Kong skyscraper fire seen on city's skyline, Watch: Matt Hancock message row in 83 seconds. The next took place on Easter Tuesday, 15 April 1941, when 200 Luftwaffe bombers attacked military and manufacturing targets in the city of Belfast. In just these few hours, 430 people were killed and 1,600 were badly injured. Updates? Belfast is located on the island of Ireland. However that attack was not an error. Later, guided by the raging fires caused by the first attack, a second group of planes began another assault that lasted until 4:30 the following morning. As well as these two major targets, other firms in Belfast produced valuable materials for the war effort including munitions, linen, ropes, food supplies and, of course, cigarettes. Northern Ireland is a part of the United Kingdom . Few children had been successfully evacuated. 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 is perhaps true that many saved their lives running but I am afraid a much greater number lost them or became casualties."[20]. Has it taken bursting bombs to remind the people of this little country that they have common tradition, a common genius and a common home? Beginning in September 1940, the Blitz was an aerial bombing campaign conducted by the Luftwaffe against British cities. Nine were registered on three separate occasions, and from the start of the Blitz until November 30 there were more than 350 alerts. 10 Facts About the Blitz and the Bombing of Germany 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. Let us know if you have suggestions to improve this article (requires login). In the New Lodge area people had taken refuge in a mill. Many of the surface shelters built by local authorities were flimsy and provided little protection from bombs, falling debris, and fire. His report concluded with: "a second Belfast would be too horrible to contemplate". Six Heinkel He 111 bombers, from Kampfgruppe 26, flying at 7,000 feet (2,100m), dropped incendiaries, high explosive and parachute-mines. 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." 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. But the authorities were afraid that bombs might not be the. 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. And even then, Westminster stated it was not ample provision; Stormont still worried about the costs to industry. It was not the first time the alarm had sounded to signify the presence of Luftwaffe bombers over the city. The telegram was sent at 4:35am,[citation needed] asking the Irish Taoiseach, amon de Valera for assistance. wardens, and members of the Home Guard drilling in the parks, life went on much as usual. Incendiary bombs predominated in this raid. The Blitz | Facts, History, Damage, & Casualties | Britannica ", Mapping the lives lost in the Belfast Blitz. Train after train and bus after bus were filled with those next in line. There were Heinkel He 111s, Junkers Ju 88s and Dornier Do 17s. There was unease with the complacent attitude of the government, which led to resignations: Craigavon died on 24 November 1940. Belfast confetti," said one archive news report. Video, Russian minister laughed at for Ukraine war claims, US-made cheese can be called 'gruyere' - court, AOC under investigation for Met Gala dress, Saving Private Ryan actor Tom Sizemore dies at 61, The children left behind in Cuba's exodus, Walkie Talkie architect Rafael Violy dies aged 78, Alex Murdaugh's legal troubles are far from over, Mother who killed her five children euthanised. Davies also set up medical stations and persuaded off-duty medical personnel to treat the sick and wounded. 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. The attacks were authorized by Germanys chancellor, Adolf Hitler, after the British carried out a nighttime air raid on Berlin. 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. 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. 55,000 British civilian casualties were sustained through German bombing before the end of 1940 This included 23,000 deaths. The Blitz began at about 4:00 in the afternoon on September 7, 1940, when German planes appeared over London. Video, 00:01:23Watch: Matt Hancock message row in 83 seconds, One-minute World News. [26], Initial German radio broadcasts celebrated the raid. 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. Video, 00:02:12, Isabel Oakeshott: Why I leaked Hancock's messages, Tears of relief after man found in Amazon jungle. 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. [1][2], The third raid on Belfast took place over the evening and morning of 45 May 1941; 150 were killed. I felt outraged, I should have felt sympathy, grief, but instead feelings of revulsion and disgust assailed me. The most significant loss was a 4.5-acre (1.8ha) factory floor for manufacturing the fuselages of Short Stirling bombers. 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. 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. By mid-September 1940 the RAF had won the Battle of Britain, and the invasion was postponed indefinitely. 14 Breathtaking Facts about Belfast - Fact City 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. [12], There was little preparation for the conflict with Germany. People hung black curtains in their windows so that no lights showed outside their houses. Again the Irish emergency services crossed the border, this time without waiting for an invitation. High explosives were dropped. 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. Interesting facts about Belfast | Just Fun Facts 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. However Belfast was not mentioned again by the Nazis. The initial human cost of the Blitz was lower than the government had expected, but the level of destruction exceeded the governments dire predictions. Published: September 7, 2020 at 12:00 pm. Apart from those on London, this was the greatest loss of life in any night raid during the Blitz. Around 20,000 people were employed on the site with 35,000 further along in the shipyard. The creeping TikTok bans. 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. The Belfast blitz is remembered. The government announced that 77 people had died, but for years local residents insisted the toll was much higher. By 4 am the entire city seemed to be in flames. 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. 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.

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