the Blitz, (September 7, 1940May 11, 1941), intense bombing campaign undertaken by Nazi Germany against the United Kingdom during World War II. It lies where the Lagan River flows into a part of the Irish Sea. 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. 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. 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. A charitable relief fund for the people of London was opened September 10. Updates? The Blitz began at about 4:00 in the afternoon on September 7, 1940, when German planes appeared over London. The Air Raid Precautions (A.R.P.) Death had to a certain extent been made decent. Between April 7 and May 6 of that year, Luftwaffe bombers unleashed death and destruction on the cities of Belfast, Bangor, Derry/Londonderry and Newtownards. Gring had insisted that such an attack was an impossibility, because of the citys formidable air defense network. 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. You can see the difference in those letters - post-Blitz is very much a grieving tone. 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. 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. 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. Up Next. Davies also set up medical stations and persuaded off-duty medical personnel to treat the sick and wounded. A victory for the Luftwaffe in the Battle of Britain would indeed have exposed Great Britain to invasion and occupation. 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. It was not the last time Belfast would suffer. 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. John Clarke MacDermott, the Minister of Public Security, after the first bombing, initiated the "Hiram Plan" to evacuate the city and to return Belfast to 'normality' as quickly as possible. 1. The South Hallsville School disaster prompted Londoners, especially residents of the East End, to find safer shelters, on their own if necessary. 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}. Unauthorized use and/or duplication of any material on this site without expressand written permission from the author and/or owner is strictly prohibited. Incendiary bombs predominated in this raid. [citation needed], Other writers, such as Tony Gray in The Lost Years state that the Germans did follow their radio guidance beams. "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.". It is perhaps true that many saved their lives running but I am afraid a much greater number lost them or became casualties."[20]. Belfast confetti," said one archive news report. There were still 80,000 more in Belfast. The attacks were authorized by Germany's chancellor, Adolf Hitler, after the British carried out a nighttime air raid on Berlin. 55,000 houses were damaged leaving 100,000 temporarily homeless. 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.. Nevertheless, for all the hardship it caused, the campaign proved to be a strategic mistake by the Germans. Also, on Queens Island, stood the Short and Harland Ltd. Aircraft Factory. When a bombing raid was imminent, air-raid sirens were set off to sound a warning. During the first year of the war, behind-the-lines conditions prevailed in London. The most significant loss was a 4.5-acre (1.8ha) factory floor for manufacturing the fuselages of Short Stirling bombers. Six Heinkel He 111 bombers, from Kampfgruppe 26, flying at 7,000 feet (2,100m), dropped incendiaries, high explosive and parachute-mines. 2. Read about our approach to external linking. [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. The British thus fought with the advantage of superior equipment and undivided aim against an enemy with inconsistent objectives. Video, 00:00:36, Tears of relief after man found in Amazon jungle. Everything on wheels is being pressed into service. In each station volunteers were asked for, as it was beyond their normal duties. 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. Belfast was bombed by the Nazis in World War II. However, the Docklands was also a densely populated and impoverished area where thousands of working-class Londoners lived in run-down housing. In early 1941 the Germans launched another wave of attacks, this time focusing on ports. Subs offer. The M.V. It is believed that the wartime government covered up the death toll because of concern over the effect it would have had on public morale. After his optician business was destroyed by a bomb, Mickey Davies led an effort to organize the Spitalfield Shelter. Corrections? As many were caught in the open by blast and secondary missiles, the enormous number of casualties can be readily accounted for. The wartime output of the yard included aircraft carriers HMS Formidable and HMS Unicorn, cruisers such as HMS Belfast and more than 130 other vessels used by the Royal Navy. By mid-September 1940 the RAF had won the Battle of Britain, and the invasion was postponed indefinitely. Other Belfast factories manufactured gun mountings. In spite of blackouts, ubiquitous shelters and sandbags, the visible effects of mass evacuation, the presence of A.R.P. MacDermott would be proved right. 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. Under the leadership of Prime Minister John Miller Andrews, Northern Ireland remained unprepared. 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 Belfast blitz devastated a city that up until 1941 had remained unscathed during World War Two. 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 House of Commons, Westminster Abbey, and the British Museum were severely damaged, and The Temple was almost completely destroyed. There was unease with the complacent attitude of the government, which led to resignations: Craigavon died on 24 November 1940. 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. 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. However that attack was not an error. Video, 00:03:09, Mapping the lives lost in the Belfast Blitz, Russian minister laughed at for Ukraine war claims. As many as 5,000 people had packed into this network of underground tunnels, which was dangerously overcrowded, dirty, and dark. Outside of London, with some 900 dead, this was the greatest loss of life in a night raid during the Blitz. 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. By 1940, Short and Harland could shelter its entire workforce and Harland and Wolff had provision to shelter 16,000 workers. 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. Apart from those on London, this was the greatest loss of life in any night raid during the Blitz. 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. In Newtownards, Bangor, Larne, Carrickfergus, Lisburn and Antrim many thousands of Belfast citizens took refuge either with friends or strangers. Maps and documents uncovered at Gatow Airfield near Berlin in 1945 showed the level of detail involved. to households. 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. 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. Hitlers intention had been to break the morale of the British people so they would pressure their government to surrender. At the start of World War Two, Belfast had considered itself safe from an aerial attack, as the city's leaders believed that Belfast was simply too far away for Luftwaffe bombers to reach - assuming that they would have to fly from Nazi Germany. But the authorities were afraid that bombs might not be the. [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]. 150 corpses remained in the Falls Road baths for three days before they were buried in a mass grave, with 123 still unidentified. 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. In the first days of the Blitz, a tragic incident in the East End stoked public anger over the governments shelter policy. As of October 2020, the population of Belfast is about 350,000 people. [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. 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. The most heavily bombed cities outside London were Liverpool and Birmingham. 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. Your donations help keep MHN afloat. "These people are often seen as a statistic but they were human beings, people who lived and grew up in - or moved to - Belfast and died in Belfast," Mr Freeburn, the museum's collections officer, says. Richard Dawson Bates was the Home Affairs Minister. He went to the Mater Hospital at 2pm, nine hours after the raid ended, to find the street with a traffic jam of ambulances waiting to admit their casualties. [citation needed]. "They have never been published before, never seen the light of day.". 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. 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. With the surrender of France in June 1940, Germanys sole remaining enemy lay across the English Channel. No attendant nurse had soothed the last moments of these victims; no gentle reverent hand had closed their eyes or crossed their hands. By then most of the major fires were under control and the firemen from Clydeside and other British cities were arriving. Belfast is the capital and largest city of Northern Ireland. In late August the Germans dropped some bombs, apparently by accident, on civilian areas in London. Only four were known still to be alive. Despite the military and industrial importance of the city, the Luftwaffe described the defences asweak, scanty, insufficient. Authorities quickly implemented plans to protect Londoners from bombs and to house those left homeless by the attacks. This option had been forbidden by city officials, who feared that once people began sleeping in Underground stations, they would be reluctant to return to the surface and resume daily life. ISBN 9781909556324. On May 11, 1941, Hitler called off the Blitz as he shifted his forces eastward against the Soviet Union. Under the leadership of amon de Valera it had declared its neutrality during the Second World War. He spoke with Professor Flynn, (Theodore Thomson Flynn, an Australian based at the Mater Hospital and father of actor Errol Flynn), head of the casualty service for the city, who told him of "casualties due to shock, blast and secondary missiles, such as glass, stones, pieces of piping, etc." Prayers were said and hymns sung by the mainly Protestant women and children during the bombing. Read about our approach to external linking. 7. Why Alex Murdaugh was spared the death penalty, Why Trudeau is facing calls for a public inquiry, The shocking legacy of the Dutch 'Hunger Winter'. However Belfast was not mentioned again by the Nazis. THE BELFAST BLITZ was a series of four air raids over Northern Ireland during the spring of 1941. "[22], In his opinion, the greatest want was the lack of hospital facilities. 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. Get a Britannica Premium subscription and gain access to exclusive content. The first was on the night of 78 April 1941, a small attack which probably took place only to test Belfast's defences. They write new content and verify and edit content received from contributors. 11 churches, two hospitals and two schools were destroyed. Belfast has the world's largest dry dock. Death should be dignified, peaceful; Hitler had made even death grotesque. 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. Published: September 7, 2020 at 12:00 pm. 6. While every effort has been made to follow citation style rules, there may be some discrepancies. 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." Nevertheless, through sheer weight of numbers, the Germans were on the brink of victory in late August 1940. 2. Looking back on the Belfast Blitz, Oberleutnant Becker signed off with the following words: A war is the worst thing that can happen to Mankind. 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. Churches destroyed or wrecked included Macrory Memorial Presbyterian in Duncairn Gardens; Duncairn Methodist, Castleton Presbyterian on York Road; St Silas's on the Oldpark Road; St James's on the Antrim Road; Newington Presbyterian on Limestone Road; Crumlin Road Presbyterian; Holy Trinity on Clifton Street and Clifton Street Presbyterian; York Street Presbyterian and York Street Non-Subscribing Presbyterian; Newtownards Road Methodist and Rosemary Street Presbyterian (the last of which was not rebuilt). 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." Belfast is located on the island of Ireland. The area included the Harland and Wolff Ltd. Shipyard, the Short and Harland Ltd. Aircraft Factory, and the airfield at RAF Sydenham. So had Clydeside until recently. That contrasts with the figure that is often given of more than 900 killed on Easter Tuesday alone. Around 20,000 people were employed on the site with 35,000 further along in the shipyard. 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. With Britains powerful Royal Navy controlling the surface approaches in the Channel and the North Sea, it fell to the Luftwaffe to establish dominance of the skies above the battle zone. So had Clydeside until recently. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. 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. This view was probably influenced by the decision of the IRA Army Council to support Germany. In many cases the daily life of the city was able to resume with delays of only hours. The Germans expanded the Blitz to other cities in November 1940. 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. 2023 BBC. 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. and Major Sen O'Sullivan, who produced a detailed report for the Dublin government. His report concluded with: "a second Belfast would be too horrible to contemplate". John Wood Dunlop invented the pneumatic tyre in Belfast in 1887. Can Nigeria's election result be overturned? In the eight months of attacks, some 43,000 civilians were killed. [26], Initial German radio broadcasts celebrated the raid. Most of the objectives laid out by the reconnaissance crews were of either military or industrial importance. People hung black curtains in their windows so that no lights showed outside their houses. Another attacked Bangor, killing five. 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." The mortuary services had emergency plans to deal with only 200 bodies. 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. Belfast, the city with the highest population density in the UK at the time, also had the lowest proportion of public air-raid shelters. Over 150 people died in what became known as the 'Fire Blitz'. ", Mapping the lives lost in the Belfast Blitz. Streetlights, car headlights, and illuminated signs were kept off. O'Sullivan felt that the whole civil defence sector was utterly overwhelmed. These shelters were vital as these factories had many employees working late at night and early in the morning when Luftwaffe attacks were likely. He was replaced by 54-year-old Sir Basil Brooke on 1 May. 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". On Nov. 30, 1940, a lone Luftwaffe plane flew across the Ards Peninsula unobserved and reported back to Berlin. parliament: "if the government realized 'that these fast bombers can come to Northern Ireland in two and three quarter hours'". After the bombing began on September 7, local authorities urged displaced people to take shelter at South Hallsville School. Please refer to the appropriate style manual or other sources if you have any questions. On 28 April 1943, six members of the Government threatened to resign, forcing him from office. Video, 00:01:38, At least 17 dead in Jakarta fuel storage depot fire, Australia's 'biggest drug bust' nets $700m of cocaine. While Anderson shelters offered good protection from bomb fragments and debris, they were cold and damp and generally ill-suited for prolonged occupancy. For two hours on the first day, 348 German bombers and 617 fighters blasted London. German bombing of London during the Blitz, Discover how the Third Reich attacked Great Britain during World War II's Battle of Britain, atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Watch President Roosevelt outline his Four Freedoms and learn how Britain defeated Germany's Luftwaffe. Interesting facts about Belfast. The sense of relative calm was abruptly shattered in the first week of September 1940, when the war came to London in earnest. Roads out of town are still one stream of cars, with mattresses and bedding tied on top. 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. Weighing 46,328 tonnes, Titanic was to be the largest manmade moveable object the world had ever seen. 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). Sir Basil Brooke, the Minister of Agriculture, was the only active minister. 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 World's Most-Famous Ship, The Titanic, was constructed here. During the whole period, although the citys operation was disrupted in ways that were sometimes serious, no essential service was more than temporarily impaired. Islington parish church, the rebuilt Our Lady of Victories (Kensington), the French church by Leicester square, St. Annes, Soho (famous for its music), All Souls, Langham place, and Christ Church in Westminster Bridge road (whose towerfortunately savedcommemorates President Lincolns abolition of slavery), were among a large number of others. People are leaving from all parts of town and not only from the bombed areas. The Belfast blitz is remembered. It targeted the docks. 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). 9. 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. 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. Belfast suffered a series of bombing raids in the spring of 1941, which became known as the 'Blitz of Belfast'. When the house was hit William, Harriette, Dorothy, 36-year-old Dot and 41-year-old Isa were all killed. VideoRussian minister laughed at for Ukraine war claims, The children left behind in Cuba's mass exodus, Xi Jinping's power grab - and why it matters, Snow, Fire and Lights: Photos of the Week. The refugees looked dazed and horror stricken and many had neglected to bring more than a few belongings Any and every means of exit from the city was availed of and the final destination appeared to be a matter of indifference. Beginning in September 1940, the Blitz was an aerial bombing campaign conducted by the Luftwaffe against British cities. But Mr Freeburn's research casts doubt on this. "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. For more than six months, German planes had flown reconnaissance flights over Belfast. 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. NI WW2 veterans honoured by France. "A lot of the people I spoke to were relatives who ended up donating images and handwritten letters from before and after the Blitz. 4. . The district of Belfast has an area of 44 square miles (115 square km). 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 city covers a total area of 132.5 square kilometers (51 square miles). The creeping TikTok bans. For eight months the Luftwaffe dropped bombs on London and other strategic cities across Britain. The first (April 7 -8), a small attack, was most likely carried out to test the city's defenses. Humanity knows no borders, no politics, no differences of religious belief. This part of Belfast was the only one required to provide air raid shelters for workers. When the Blitz began, the government enforced a blackout in an attempt to make targeting more difficult for German night bombers. [citation needed], There was a second massive air raid on Belfast on Sunday 45 May 1941, three weeks after that of Easter Tuesday. After the war, when the first girl from the home got married Billy gave her away, having lost his only daughter. There were few bomb shelters. . Emma Duffin, a nurse at the Queen's University Hospital, (who previously served during the Great War), who kept a diary; The Blitz was devastating for the people of London and other cities.
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