Because basements, a logical destination in the event of an air raid, were a relative rarity in Britain, the A.R.P. A charitable relief fund for the people of London was opened September 10. When a bombing raid was imminent, air-raid sirens were set off to sound a warning. 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." On August 25 the British retaliated by launching a bombing raid on Berlin. No significant cut was made in necessary social services, and public and private premises, except when irreparably damaged, were repaired as speedily as possible. As well as photographs, the Luftwaffe gathered information on landmarks, potential targets and defences or lack thereof. Indeed, on the night of the first raid, no Royal Air Force (RAF) aircraft took to the air to intercept German planes. Video, 00:00:51Australia's 'biggest drug bust' nets $700m of cocaine, Thanks, but no big speech, in Ken Bruce's sign off. Video, 00:01:23Watch: Matt Hancock message row in 83 seconds, One-minute World News. 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. "We can still see the physical scars of the Blitz in Belfast, that is what is left. 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. The most heavily bombed cities outside London were Liverpool and Birmingham. 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. MacDermott would be proved right. In the west and north of the city, streets heavily bombed included Percy Street, York Park, York Crescent, Eglinton Street, Carlisle Street, Ballyclare, Ballycastle and Ballynure Streets off the Oldpark Road; Southport Street, Walton Street, Antrim Road, Annadale Street, Cliftonville Road, Hillman Street, Atlantic Avenue, Hallidays Road, Hughenden Avenue, Sunningdale Park, Shandarragh Park, and Whitewell Road. 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.. The raids hurt Britains war production, but they also killed many civilians and left many others homeless. There [is] ground for thinking that the enemy could not easily reach Belfast in force except during a period of moonlight. 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 Belfast blitz devastated a city that up until 1941 had remained unscathed during World War Two. ", Mapping the lives lost in the Belfast Blitz. 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. 2023 BBC. C.S Lewis was born in Belfast, and the nearby countryside helped inspire The Chronicles of Narnia. 6. Compared to other cities, Belfast was virtually undefended. In the eight months of attacks, some 43,000 civilians were killed. The Luftwaffe never attacked the city after May 1941, but it would be many years before life returned to normal for many in the city. There was unease with the complacent attitude of the government, which led to resignations: Craigavon died on 24 November 1940. The "pothole blitz" is a common short-term initiative to combat storm weather damage. [1][2], The third raid on Belfast took place over the evening and morning of 45 May 1941; 150 were killed. By 1940, Short and Harland could shelter its entire workforce and Harland and Wolff had provision to shelter 16,000 workers. 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. The youngest victim was just six-weeks-old. 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. 4. 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. Another attacked Bangor, killing five. 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. Under the leadership of Prime Minister John Miller Andrews, Northern Ireland remained unprepared. 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. 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. In just these few hours, 430 people were killed and 1,600 were badly injured. For two hours on the first day, 348 German bombers and 617 fighters blasted London. In late August the Germans dropped some bombs, apparently by accident, on civilian areas in London. But the RAF had not responded. Air power alone had failed to knock the United Kingdom out of the war. Video, 00:01:15The Belfast blitz, Up Next. Video, 00:01:37, Thanks, but no big speech, in Ken Bruce's sign off, Tear gas fired at Greece train crash protesters. There were Heinkel He 111s, Junkers Ju 88s and Dornier Do 17s. There are other diarists and narratives. The first attack was against the city's waterworks, which had been attacked in the previous raid. 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. 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. The attacks were authorized by Germanys chancellor, Adolf Hitler, after the British carried out a nighttime air raid on Berlin. Unlike N Ireland, the Irish Free State was no longer part of the UK. He was succeeded by J. M. Andrews, then 69 years old, who was no more capable of dealing with the situation than his predecessor. The government was blamed by some for inadequate precautions. William Joyce "Lord Haw-Haw" announced that "The Fhrer will give you time to bury your dead before the next attack Tuesday was only a sample." Video, 00:00:51, Australia's 'biggest drug bust' nets $700m of cocaine, Thanks, but no big speech, in Ken Bruce's sign off. Over 150 people died in what became known as the 'Fire Blitz'. Fighter Commands efforts were greatly aided by the lack of any consistent plan of action on the part of the Germans. Gring had insisted that such an attack was an impossibility, because of the citys formidable air defense network. 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 Royal Air Force announced that Squadron Leader J.W.C. Brooke noted in his diary "I gave him authority as it is obviously a question of expediency". 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. 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. The seeming normality of life on the Home Front was shattered in 1944 when the first of the V1's landed. Only four were known still to be alive. The Belfast Blitz consisted of four German air raids on strategic targets in the city of Belfast in Northern Ireland, in April and May 1941 during World War II, causing high casualties. This view was probably influenced by the decision of the IRA Army Council to support Germany. [18], Over 900 people died, 1,500 people were injured, 400 of them seriously. By then most of the major fires were under control and the firemen from Clydeside and other British cities were arriving. Richard Dawson Bates was the Home Affairs Minister. Simpson shot down one of the Heinkels over Downpatrick. Video, 00:00:36, Tears of relief after man found in Amazon jungle. Please refer to the appropriate style manual or other sources if you have any questions. The Belfast blitz. Apart from those on London, this was the greatest loss of life in any night raid during the Blitz. Subs offer. KS3 History (Environment and society) The Belfast Blitz learning resources for adults, children, parents and teachers. 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. Yesterday for once the people of Ireland were united under the shadow of a national blow. Humanity knows no borders, no politics, no differences of religious belief. The House of Commons, Westminster Abbey, and the British Museum were severely damaged, and The Temple was almost completely destroyed. The higher the German planes had to fly to avoid the balloons, the less accurate they were when dropping their bombs. 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." A short respite followed, until a widespread series of night raids on April 7 included some targets in the London area. After the first week of September, although night bombing on a large scale continued, the large mass attacks by day, which had proved so costly to the Luftwaffe during the Battle of Britain, were replaced by smaller parties coming over in successive waves. 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. 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). [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]. The Blitz began at around 4 pm on September 7, 1940, when German bomber planes first appeared over London. Other targets included Sheffield, Manchester, Coventry, and Southampton. Belfast was ill-prepared for the 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). Very early in the German bombing campaign, it became clear that the preparationshowever extensive they seemed to have beenwere inadequate. But the Luftwaffe was ready. After the passing of the Government of Ireland Act, 1920, it became the seat of the government of Northern Ireland. In the subsequent years, this lack of preparation has often dominated the discussion about the Belfast Blitz, but a new project led by Alan Freeburn from the Northern Ireland War Memorial aims to shift the focus back to the ordinary men, women and children who lost their lives. Nevertheless, for all the hardship it caused, the campaign proved to be a strategic mistake by the Germans. Once more, London was targeted and children were victims. 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. For eight months the Luftwaffe dropped bombs on London and other strategic cities across Britain. 55,000 British civilian casualties were sustained through German bombing before the end of 1940 This included 23,000 deaths. Dissatisfaction with public shelters also led to another notable development in the East EndMickeys Shelter. Video, 00:00:46Hong Kong skyscraper fire seen on city's skyline, Watch: Matt Hancock message row in 83 seconds. Video, 00:03:09, Mapping the lives lost in the Belfast Blitz, Russian minister laughed at for Ukraine war claims. Many in Northern Ireland thought that Belfast was outside the range of the Luftwaffe. When the Blitz began, the government enforced a blackout in an attempt to make targeting more difficult for German night bombers. Train after train and bus after bus were filled with those next in line. The British, on the other hand, were supremely well prepared for the kind of battle in which they now found themselves. 2. In many cases the daily life of the city was able to resume with delays of only hours. 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. London seemed ablaze from the docks to Westminster, much damage was done, and casualties were high. 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. The famous Harland and Wolff cranes are called Samson and Goliath. Moya Woodside[23] noted in her diary: "Evacuation is taking on panic proportions. The Blitz was devastating for the people of London and other cities. But these people all had families and friends and they had to deal with their loss for the rest of their lives.". Incendiary bombs predominated in this raid. Video, 00:00:36Tears of relief after man found in Amazon jungle. High explosive bombs predominated in this raid. Video, 00:02:54, At least 17 dead in Jakarta fuel storage depot fire. 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. 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. The past doesnt change, its just over.. 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. Belfast Blitz: Facts In total there were four attacks on the County Antrim city. Death should be dignified, peaceful; Hitler had made even death grotesque. [6] It was MacDermott who sent a telegram to de Valera seeking assistance. Mr Freeburn set out to find out more about those who died, their personal stories and the tales of those left behind. 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}. Accounts differ as to when flares were dropped to light up the city. Sir Basil Brooke, the Minister of Agriculture, was the only active minister. The M.V. Revised estimates made decades later indicated that close to 600 men, women, and children had been killed in the bombing. Strand Public Elementary school, York Road railway station, the adjacent Midland Hotel on York Road, and Salisbury Avenue tram depot were all hit. 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. Video, 00:02:12Isabel Oakeshott: Why I leaked Hancock's messages, Tears of relief after man found in Amazon jungle.
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