This hub of industry and trade represented a legitimate military target for the Germans, and some 25,000 bombs were dropped on the Port of London alone. 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. Since most casualties were caused by falling masonry rather than by blast, they provided effective shelter for those who had them. Ulster Historical Foundation. The period of the next moon from say the 7th to the 16th of April may well bring our turn." There was unease with the complacent attitude of the government, which led to resignations: Craigavon died on 24 November 1940. 2. 19.99. Men from the South worked with men from the North in the universal cause of the relief of suffering. Where they are going, what they will find to eat when they get there, nobody knows. Beginning in September 1940, the Blitz was an aerial bombing campaign conducted by the Luftwaffe against British cities. The next took. More than 500 German planes dropped more than 700 tons of bombs across the city, killing nearly 1,500 people and destroying 11,000 homes. The House of Commons, Westminster Abbey, and the British Museum were severely damaged, and The Temple was almost completely destroyed. The initial human cost of the Blitz was lower than the government had expected, but the level of destruction exceeded the governments dire predictions. "It says a lot about how these people are forgotten that there is no Blitz memorial in Belfast," Mr Freeburn says. By the end of the attacks, between 900 and 1,000 people were dead and thousands more were injured, homeless and displaced. 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." 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. 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.". Some 900 people died as a result of the bombing and 1,500 were injured. 6. Video, 00:00:46Hong Kong skyscraper fire seen on city's skyline, Watch: Matt Hancock message row in 83 seconds. Corrections? 4. In just these few hours, 430 people were killed and 1,600 were badly injured. The city covers a total area of 132.5 square kilometers (51 square miles). [6] It was MacDermott who sent a telegram to de Valera seeking assistance. In the course of four Luftwaffe attacks on the nights of 7-8 April, 15-16 April, 4-5 May and 5-6 May 1941, lasting ten hours in total, 1,100 people died, over 56,000 houses in the city were damaged (53 per cent of its entire housing stock), roughly 100,000 made temporarily homeless and 20 million damage was caused to property at wartime values. 11 churches, two hospitals and two schools were destroyed. 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. 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. 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. department distributed more than two million Anderson shelters (named after Sir John Anderson, head of the A.R.P.) The attacks were authorized by Germany's chancellor, Adolf Hitler, after the British carried out a nighttime air raid on Berlin. 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". along with England, Scotland, and Wales. In many cases the daily life of the city was able to resume with delays of only hours. 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). Our editors will review what youve submitted and determine whether to revise the article. A Raid From Above 3. Nevertheless, through sheer weight of numbers, the Germans were on the brink of victory in late August 1940. Belfast is the capital and largest city of Northern Ireland. He believed that key targets identified across the city were hit. Apart from those on London, this was the greatest loss of life in any night raid during the Blitz. Three vessels nearing completion at Harland and Wolff's were hit as was its power station. Another attacked Bangor, killing five. Brooke noted in his diary "I gave him authority as it is obviously a question of expediency". 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). London was bombed for 57 consecutive nights from 7 September 1940 The danger faced in London was greatly increased when the V2 attacks started and the casualty figures mirrored those of the Blitz.. As well as photographs, the Luftwaffe gathered information on landmarks, potential targets and defences or lack thereof. Yesterday for once the people of Ireland were united under the shadow of a national blow. Many in Northern Ireland thought that Belfast was outside the range of the Luftwaffe. Video, 00:01:15The Belfast blitz, Up Next. Six Heinkel He 111 bombers, from Kampfgruppe 26, flying at 7,000 feet (2,100m), dropped incendiaries, high explosive and parachute-mines. 13 died, including a soldier killed when an anti-aircraft gun, at the Balmoral show-grounds, misfired. There were Heinkel He 111s, Junkers Ju 88s and Dornier Do 17s. The first was on the night of 7-8 April 1941, a small attack which probably took place only to test Belfast's defences. Wherever Churchill is hiding his war material we will go Belfast is as worthy a target as Coventry, Birmingham, Bristol or Glasgow." Prior to the "Belfast Blitz" there were only 200 public shelters in the city, although around 4,000 households had built their own private shelters. By mid-September 1940 the RAF had won the Battle of Britain, and the invasion was postponed indefinitely. An air raid shelter on Hallidays Road received a direct hit, killing all those in it. IWM C 5424 1. 7. Other Belfast factories manufactured gun mountings. These shelters were vital as these factories had many employees working late at night and early in the morning when Luftwaffe attacks were likely. continuous trek to railway stations. On Nov. 30, 1940, a lone Luftwaffe plane flew across the Ards Peninsula unobserved and reported back to Berlin. Belfast was ill-prepared for the blitz. Many "arrived in Fermanagh having nothing with them only night shirts". O'Sullivan felt that the whole civil defence sector was utterly overwhelmed. Get a Britannica Premium subscription and gain access to exclusive content. In the first days of the Blitz, a tragic incident in the East End stoked public anger over the governments shelter policy. 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. A short respite followed, until a widespread series of night raids on April 7 included some targets in the London area. A charitable relief fund for the people of London was opened September 10. Northern Ireland is a part of the United Kingdom . These private air-raid shelters were Anderson shelters, constructed of sheets of corrugated galvanised iron covered in earth. No searchlights were set up in the city at the time, and these only arrived on 10 April. 1. By Jonathan Bardon. Guided by Davies, the people of the shelter created an ad hoc government and established a set of rules. It targeted the docks. The most heavily bombed cities outside London were Liverpool and Birmingham. Between Black Saturday and December 2, there was no 24-hour period without at least one alertas the alarms came to be calledand generally far more. In 1995, on the 50th anniversary of the ending of the Second World War, an invitation was received by the Dublin Fire Brigade for any survivors of that time to attend a function at Hillsborough Castle and meet Prince Charles. Anna and Billy returned to England and continued running the children's home. Read about our approach to external linking. Video, 00:00:51Australia's 'biggest drug bust' nets $700m of cocaine, Thanks, but no big speech, in Ken Bruce's sign off. Video, 00:02:54Living through the London Blitz, At least 17 dead in Jakarta fuel storage depot fire. Major O'Sullivan reported that "In the heavily 'blitzed' areas people ran panic-stricken into the streets and made for the open country. Incendiary bombs predominated in this raid. 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). 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. It was not the first time the alarm had sounded to signify the presence of Luftwaffe bombers over the city. However, the Docklands was also a densely populated and impoverished area where thousands of working-class Londoners lived in run-down housing. 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. In his interview, Becker stated that only military objectives were aimed for. On September 1, 1939, the day World War II began with Germanys invasion of Poland, the British government implemented a massive evacuation plan. A force of 180 bombers dropped 750 bombs - including 203 tonnes of high explosives - and 29,000 incendiaries over a five-hour period. Prayers were said and hymns sung by the mainly Protestant women and children during the bombing. On May 11, 1941, Hitler called off the Blitz as he shifted his forces eastward against the Soviet Union. 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. 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. 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. From their photographs, they identified suitable targets: There had been a number of small bombings, probably by planes that missed their targets over the River Clyde in Glasgow or the cities of the northwest of England. On 28 April 1943, six members of the Government threatened to resign, forcing him from office. Morale did suffer amid the death and devastation, but there were few calls for surrender. Mr Freeburn set out to find out more about those who died, their personal stories and the tales of those left behind. In late August the Germans dropped some bombs, apparently by accident, on civilian areas in London. 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. ", US journalist Ben Robertson reported that at night Dublin was the only city without a blackout between New York and Moscow, and between Lisbon and Sweden and that German bombers often flew overhead to check their bearings using its lights, angering the British. Targets identified included: the Short and Harland Ltd. Aircraft Factory; the Belfast power station and waterworks; Other maps uncovered following the Second World War also showed the parliament and city hall, Belfast gasworks, a rope factory and the Royal Belfast Academical Institution. The working-class living close to industrial centres suffered more than anyone over the course of the four raids. On 4-5 May, another raid, made up of 204 bombers, killed another 203 people and the following night 22 more died. Several accounts point out that Belfast, standing at the end of the long inlet of Belfast Lough, would be easily located. Those who sought refuge at the school were told that they would quickly be relocated to a safer area, but the evacuation was delayed. Learn how your comment data is processed. Added to this was the repair and refitting of 22,000 more vessels. 150 corpses remained in the Falls Road baths for three days before they were buried in a mass grave, with 123 still unidentified. By 1941, production of the Short Stirling Bomber and the Short Sunderland Flying Boat was underway. Emma Duffin, a nurse at the Queen's University Hospital, (who previously served during the Great War), who kept a diary; They prevented low-flying aircraft from approaching their targets at optimal altitudes and angles of attack. Again the Irish emergency services crossed the border, this time without waiting for an invitation. 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. 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. 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." The Battle of Britain It remains a high death toll - a shocking number of people killed in just a few weeks. When the house was hit William, Harriette, Dorothy, 36-year-old Dot and 41-year-old Isa were all killed. 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." After the war, instructions from Joseph Goebbels were discovered ordering it not to be mentioned. By the time the raid was over, at least 744 people had lost their lives, including some living in places such as Newtownards, Bangor and Londonderry. When a bombing raid was imminent, air-raid sirens were set off to sound a warning. 2. 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. 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. [citation needed]. As many were caught in the open by blast and secondary missiles, the enormous number of casualties can be readily accounted for. 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. One, Tom Coleman, attended to receive recognition for his colleagues' solidarity at such a critical time. These figures are based on newspaper reports of the time, personal recollections and other primary sources, such as:- In total over 1,300 houses were demolished, some 5,000 badly damaged, nearly 30,000 slightly damaged while 20,000 required "first aid repairs".[3]. 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. 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. 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. 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. What's the least amount of exercise we can get away with? 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. 2023 BBC. Published: September 7, 2020 at 12:00 pm. Belfast made a considerable contribution towards the Allied war effort, producing many naval ships, aircraft and munitions; therefore, the city was deemed a suitable bombing target by the Luftwaffe. Clydeside got its blitz during the period of the last moon. Unauthorized use and/or duplication of any material on this site without expressand written permission from the author and/or owner is strictly prohibited. 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. The Blitz began at around 4 pm on September 7, 1940, when German bomber planes first appeared over London. Death had to a certain extent been made decent. "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. Many bodies and body parts could not be identified. The attacks were authorized by Germanys chancellor, Adolf Hitler, after the British carried out a nighttime air raid on 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. Few children had been successfully evacuated. No attendant nurse had soothed the last moments of these victims; no gentle reverent hand had closed their eyes or crossed their hands. 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 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. . Several theatres and many cinemas were open, and there were even a few sporting events. Death should be dignified, peaceful; Hitler had made even death grotesque. 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. "But there is no such equivalent in Belfast. In every instance, all stepped forward. [9], War materials and food were sent by sea from Belfast to Great Britain, some under the protection of the neutral Irish tricolour. Outside of London, with some 900 dead, this was the greatest loss of life in a night raid during the Blitz. 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. The Blitz was devastating for the people of London and other cities. It became a city by royal charter in 1888. The Luftwaffe crews returned to their base in Northern France and reported that Belfast's defences were, "inferior in quality, scanty and insufficient". 55,000 houses were damaged leaving 100,000 temporarily homeless. Tragically 35 were crushed to death when the mill wall collapsed. The Royal Air Force announced that Squadron Leader J.W.C. The first (April 7 -8), a small attack, was most likely carried out to test the city's defenses. As more and more people began sleeping on the platforms, however, the government relented and provided bunk beds and bathrooms for the underground communities. Nine were registered on three separate occasions, and from the start of the Blitz until November 30 there were more than 350 alerts. It has been reported that on Easter Tuesday, Belfast suffered the highest loss of life of any city in the UK in a single raid. The offensive came to be called the Blitz after the German word blitzkrieg ("lightning war"). Simpson shot down one of the Heinkels over Downpatrick. Belfast was the birthplace of the RMS Titanic, the world' most famous ship which, when it was constructed in the early 1900s, was longer than the height of the world's tallest building at 882 feet and six inches in length. The attacks by both V1's and V2's only ended as the Allies advanced up through Western Europe . Reviewed by: Geoffrey Roberts. 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.

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