10 facts about the belfast blitz

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. 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. Video, 00:02:12Isabel Oakeshott: Why I leaked Hancock's messages, Tears of relief after man found in Amazon jungle. [26], Initial German radio broadcasts celebrated the raid. Video, 00:01:38, At least 17 dead in Jakarta fuel storage depot fire, Australia's 'biggest drug bust' nets $700m of cocaine. Protection of the city fell to seven anti-aircraft batteries of 16 heavy guns and six light guns. "A lot of the people I spoke to were relatives who ended up donating images and handwritten letters from before and after the Blitz. As many as 5,000 people had packed into this network of underground tunnels, which was dangerously overcrowded, dirty, and dark. When the bombing began, 76-year-old William and 72-year-old Harriette took refuge under the stairs along with Dorothy, Dot and Isa. Unauthorized use and/or duplication of any material on this site without expressand written permission from the author and/or owner is strictly prohibited. You can see the difference in those letters - post-Blitz is very much a grieving tone. Liverpool, for example, protected by 100 guns. Added to this was the repair and refitting of 22,000 more vessels. At 10:40pm the air raid sirens sounded. Belfast's Albert Clock tower is sinking - it leans by four feet. 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. These figures are based on newspaper reports of the time, personal recollections and other primary sources, such as:- Belfast, the city with the highest population density in the UK at the time, also had the lowest proportion of public air-raid shelters. Belfast confetti," said one archive news report. Again the Irish emergency services crossed the border, this time without waiting for an invitation. The mortuary services had emergency plans to deal with only 200 bodies. There were still 80,000 more in Belfast. About 1,000 people were killed and bombs hit half of the houses in the city, leaving 100,000. With the surrender of France in June 1940, Germanys sole remaining enemy lay across the English Channel. 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. [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." There was no smokescreen ability, however there were some barrage balloons positioned strategically for protection. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. 2. Under the leadership of amon de Valera it had declared its neutrality during the Second World War. In clear weather, targets were easily identifiable. Belfast has the world's largest dry dock. Roads out of town are still one stream of cars, with mattresses and bedding tied on top. Indeed, on the night of the first raid, no Royal Air Force (RAF) aircraft took to the air to intercept German planes. Blitz Fibre UK Blitz Fibre UK Published Mar 1, 2023 + Follow Fact 1- Small but Mighty . A short respite followed, until a widespread series of night raids on April 7 included some targets in the London area. Subs offer. The famous Harland and Wolff cranes are called Samson and Goliath. For eight months the Luftwaffe dropped bombs on London and other strategic cities across Britain. From a purely military perspective, the Blitz was entirely counterproductive to the main purpose of Germanys air offensiveto dominate the skies in advance of an invasion of England. They all say the same thing, that the government is no good. Since 1:45am all telephones had been cut. In just these few hours, 430 people were killed and 1,600 were badly injured. London seemed ablaze from the docks to Westminster, much damage was done, and casualties were high. 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. The national government also provided funds to local municipalities to construct public air-raid shelters. [6] It was MacDermott who sent a telegram to de Valera seeking assistance. 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. An air raid shelter on Hallidays Road received a direct hit, killing all those in it. 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. 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. After his optician business was destroyed by a bomb, Mickey Davies led an effort to organize the Spitalfield Shelter. The first was on the night of 7-8 April 1941, a small attack which probably took place only to test Belfast's defences. 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 most heavily bombed cities outside London were Liverpool and Birmingham. 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. Video, 00:02:54, At least 17 dead in Jakarta fuel storage depot fire. The area included the Harland and Wolff Ltd. Shipyard, the Short and Harland Ltd. Aircraft Factory, and the airfield at RAF Sydenham. John Wood Dunlop invented the pneumatic tyre in Belfast in 1887. The first (April 7 -8), a small attack, was most likely carried out to test the city's defenses. Accounts differ as to when flares were dropped to light up the city. It is perhaps true that many saved their lives running but I am afraid a much greater number lost them or became casualties."[20]. Over 500 received care from the Irish Red Cross in Dublin. It remains a high death toll - a shocking number of people killed in just a few weeks. The Germans, however, saw Belfast as a legitimate target due to the shipyards in the city that were contributing to Britain's war efforts. [citation needed]. Video, 00:00:51Australia's 'biggest drug bust' nets $700m of cocaine, Thanks, but no big speech, in Ken Bruce's sign off. On September 1, 1939, the day World War II began with Germanys invasion of Poland, the British government implemented a massive evacuation plan. 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. As more and more people began sleeping on the platforms, however, the government relented and provided bunk beds and bathrooms for the underground communities. Author Lawrence H. Dawson detailed the damage to Londons historic buildings for the 1941 Britannica Book of the Year: The following curtailed list identifies some of the better known places in inner London that have been damaged by enemy action. The creeping TikTok bans. Apart from those on London, this was the greatest loss of life in any night raid during the Blitz. Beginning in September 1940, the Blitz was an aerial bombing campaign conducted by the Luftwaffe against British cities. While every effort has been made to follow citation style rules, there may be some discrepancies. 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 attacks were authorized by Germanys chancellor, Adolf Hitler, after the British carried out a nighttime air raid on Berlin. By then 250 firemen from Clydeside had arrived. The past doesnt change, its just over.. C.S Lewis was born in Belfast, and the nearby countryside helped inspire The Chronicles of Narnia. The period of the next moon from say the 7th to the 16th of April may well bring our turn.. 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. 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. By British mainland blitz standards, casualties were light. 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.". Many of those who died as a result of enemy action lived in tightly packed, poorly constructed, terraced housing. I felt outraged, I should have felt sympathy, grief, but instead feelings of revulsion and disgust assailed me. the Blitz, (September 7, 1940May 11, 1941), intense bombing campaign undertaken by Nazi Germany against the United Kingdom during World War II. A Raid From Above Clydeside got its blitz during the period of the last moon. 2023 BBC. Everything on wheels is being pressed into service. At 10:40 on the evening of Easter Tuesday 1941 air raid sirens sounded across Belfast, sending people across the city scrambling for safety - in one of the 200 public shelters in the city or the thousands of shelters or other "safe" spaces in private homes. Let us know if you have suggestions to improve this article (requires login). "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. However Belfast was not mentioned again by the Nazis. 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. Three vessels nearing completion at Harland and Wolff's were hit as was its power station. Major O'Sullivan reported that "In the heavily 'blitzed' areas people ran panic-stricken into the streets and made for the open country. 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. Video, 00:01:38At least 17 dead in Jakarta fuel storage depot fire, Australia's 'biggest drug bust' nets $700m of cocaine. devised the Morrison shelter (named for Home Secretary Herbert Stanley Morrison) as an alternative to the Anderson shelter. The Belfast blitz devastated a city that up until 1941 had remained unscathed during World War Two. The most significant loss was a 4.5-acre (1.8ha) factory floor for manufacturing the fuselages of Short Stirling bombers. 50,000 houses, more than half the houses in the city, were damaged. Many in Northern Ireland thought that Belfast was outside the range of the Luftwaffe. When the house was hit William, Harriette, Dorothy, 36-year-old Dot and 41-year-old Isa were all killed. 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.