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. After a brief lull, the Luftwaffe returned in force on February 17. 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 youngest victim was just six-weeks-old. Up Next. [12], There was little preparation for the conflict with Germany. 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. As of October 2020, the population of Belfast is about 350,000 people. 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. [citation needed]. On the 17th I heard that hundreds who either could not get away or could not leave for other reasons simply went out into the fields and remained in the open all night with whatever they could take in the way of covering. Heinkel He 111 and Dornier Do 17 planes fitted with Zeiss cameras captured high-quality aerial imagery. However they were not in a position to communicate with the Germans, and information recovered from Germany after the war showed that the planning of the blitz was based entirely on German aerial reconnaissance. 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. 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]. 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. Revised estimates made decades later indicated that close to 600 men, women, and children had been killed in the bombing. 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. Roads out of town are still one stream of cars, with mattresses and bedding tied on top. 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. There were few bomb shelters. Thank you. During what was known as the "Belfast Blitz," 1,000 people were killed by bombs dropped by the Nazis in 1941 during the Second World War. This raid overall caused relatively little damage, but a lot was revealed about Belfast's inadequate defences. The shipyard was among the largest in the world, producing merchant vessels and military shipping. The past doesnt change, its just over.. 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. The Belfast blitz during World War Two - BBC News 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. On September 1, 1939, the day World War II began with Germanys invasion of Poland, the British government implemented a massive evacuation plan. 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. Video, 00:02:54Living through the London Blitz, At least 17 dead in Jakarta fuel storage depot fire. Over 500 received care from the Irish Red Cross in Dublin. About 1,000 people were killed and bombs hit half of the houses in the city, leaving 100,000. 11 churches, two hospitals and two schools were destroyed. "Liverpool, Clydebank and Portsmouth all have a memorial to their victims of the Blitz. At nightfall the Northern Counties Station was packed from platform gates to entrance gates and still refugees were coming along in a steady stream from the surrounding streets Open military lorries were finally put into service and even expectant mothers and mothers with young children were put into these in the rather heavy drizzle that lasted throughout the evening. 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 raid so infuriated Hitler that he ordered the Luftwaffe to shift its attacks from RAF sites to London and other cities. Another attacked Bangor, killing five. No significant cut was made in necessary social services, and public and private premises, except when irreparably damaged, were repaired as speedily as possible. [17] A stray bomber attacked Derry, killing 15. Fewer than 4,000 women and children were evacuated. Video, 00:01:09The Spitfire turns 80, The German bombing of Coventry. In many cases the daily life of the city was able to resume with delays of only hours. Moya Woodside[23] noted in her diary: "Evacuation is taking on panic proportions. 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. The database Mr Freeburn has compiled is, he believes, the most accurate list of those killed and includes 222 children aged 16 or under. When a bombing raid was imminent, air-raid sirens were set off to sound a warning. No searchlights were set up in the city at the time, and these only arrived on 10 April. That evening over 150 bombers left their bases in northern France and the Netherlands and headed for Belfast. The famous Harland and Wolff cranes are called Samson and Goliath. Video, 00:01:41, The German bombing of Coventry. Since most casualties were caused by falling masonry rather than by blast, they provided effective shelter for those who had them. 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. Simpson shot down one of the Heinkels over Downpatrick. When the bombing began, 76-year-old William and 72-year-old Harriette took refuge under the stairs along with Dorothy, Dot and Isa. 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. Prayers were said and hymns sung by the mainly Protestant women and children during the bombing. The first (April 7 -8), a small attack, was most likely carried out to test the city's defenses. Belfast, the city with the highest population density in the UK at the time, also had the lowest proportion of public air-raid shelters. 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". 29 interesting facts about Belfast you never knew - BeeLoved City Reviewed by: Geoffrey Roberts. Video, 00:01:41NI WW2 veterans honoured by France, The Spitfire turns 80. Brian Barton of Queen's University, Belfast, has written most on this topic.[19]. It was the worst wartime raid outside of London in the UK. Six Heinkel He 111 bombers, from Kampfgruppe 26, flying at 7,000 feet (2,100m), dropped incendiaries, high explosive and parachute-mines. Clydeside got its blitz during the period of the last moon. Find out how it began, what the Germans hoped to achieve and how it severe it was, plus we visit nine places affected by the attacks. 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. Ulster Historical Foundation. It is situated at on the banks of the River Lagan on the east coast. 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. 2023 BBC. Apart from one or two false alarms in the early days of the war, no sirens wailed in London until June 25. Men from the South worked with men from the North in the universal cause of the relief of suffering. 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. There [is] ground for thinking that the enemy could not easily reach Belfast in force except during a period of moonlight. The first attack was against the city's waterworks, which had been attacked in the previous raid. 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. [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." The fourth and final Belfast raid took place on the following night, 56 May. The Luftwaffe crews returned to their base in Northern France and reported that Belfast's defences were, "inferior in quality, scanty and insufficient". In spite of blackouts, ubiquitous shelters and sandbags, the visible effects of mass evacuation, the presence of A.R.P. 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. Authorities had noted Queens Island in the cityas a vulnerable point as early as 1929. 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. Tragically 35 were crushed to death when the mill wall collapsed. Video, 00:03:09, Mapping the lives lost in the Belfast Blitz, Russian minister laughed at for Ukraine war claims. They prevented low-flying aircraft from approaching their targets at optimal altitudes and angles of attack. The attacks by both V1's and V2's only ended as the Allies advanced up through Western Europe . Half of the city's housing was damaged over the course of all the raids. 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. Other targets included Sheffield, Manchester, Coventry, and Southampton. 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. 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.. In Newtownards, Bangor, Larne, Carrickfergus, Lisburn and Antrim many thousands of Belfast citizens took refuge either with friends or strangers. The British government had anticipated air attacks on its population centres, and it had predicted catastrophic casualties. Video, 00:00:36Tears of relief after man found in Amazon jungle. By British mainland blitz standards, casualties were light. Read about our approach to external linking. James Craig, Lord Craigavon, had been Prime Minister of Northern Ireland since its inception in 1921 up until his death in 1940. By then most of the major fires were under control and the firemen from Clydeside and other British cities were arriving. . In the first days of the Blitz, a tragic incident in the East End stoked public anger over the governments shelter policy. At the time of the first attack in April 1941, there were no operational searchlights, too few anti-aircraft batteries and scarcely enough public air raid shelters for a quarter of the population. 2. By 4 am the entire city seemed to be in flames. 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). It was not the first time the alarm had sounded to signify the presence of Luftwaffe bombers over the city. Your donations help keep MHN afloat. Belfast Blitz - Wikipedia O'Sullivan felt that the whole civil defence sector was utterly overwhelmed. Dissatisfaction with public shelters also led to another notable development in the East EndMickeys Shelter. In his interview, Becker stated that only military objectives were aimed for. Beginning in September 1940, the Blitz was an aerial bombing campaign conducted by the Luftwaffe against British cities. Belfast suffered a series of bombing raids in the spring of 1941, which became known as the 'Blitz of Belfast'. Belfast Blitz: Facts In total there were four attacks on the County Antrim city. 10 Facts about Belfast City. The area included the Harland and Wolff Ltd. Shipyard, the Short and Harland Ltd. Aircraft Factory, and the airfield at RAF Sydenham. parliament: "if the government realized 'that these fast bombers can come to Northern Ireland in two and three quarter hours'". Taoiseach amon de Valera formally protested to Berlin. 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. There were Heinkel He 111s, Junkers Ju 88s and Dornier Do 17s. 6. The Blitz Around Britain - World War 2 | Imperial War Museums Those who sought refuge at the school were told that they would quickly be relocated to a safer area, but the evacuation was delayed. 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. and Major Sen O'Sullivan, who produced a detailed report for the Dublin government. However that attack was not an error. By mid-September 1940 the RAF had won the Battle of Britain, and the invasion was postponed indefinitely. The raids on London primarily targeted the Docklands area of the East End. The offensive came to be called the Blitz after the German word blitzkrieg ("lightning war"). 1. 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.