Morale did suffer amid the death and devastation, but there were few calls for surrender. Authorities had noted Queens Island in the cityas a vulnerable point as early as 1929. By Jonathan Bardon. [1][2], The third raid on Belfast took place over the evening and morning of 45 May 1941; 150 were killed. ", Dawson Bates informed the Cabinet of rack-renting of barns, and over thirty people per house in some areas.[24]. Taoiseach amon de Valera formally protested to Berlin. Fighter Commands efforts were greatly aided by the lack of any consistent plan of action on the part of the Germans. Compared to other cities, Belfast was virtually undefended. About 1,000 people were killed and bombs hit half of the houses in the city, leaving 100,000. 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". When Germany bombed Belfast as part of the Blitz during World War Two, the massive air raids left more than a thousand people dead. 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. On 24 March 1941, John MacDermott, Minister for Security, wrote to Prime Minister John Andrews, expressing his concerns that Belfast was so poorly protected: "Up to now we have escaped attack. The A.R.P. Other Belfast factories manufactured gun mountings. The government announced that 77 people had died, but for years local residents insisted the toll was much higher. That night almost 300 people, many from the Protestant Shankill area, took refuge in the Clonard Monastery in the Catholic Falls Road. There was no smokescreen ability, however there were some barrage balloons positioned strategically for protection. The Germans expanded the Blitz to other cities in November 1940. 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. 2023 BBC. Few children had been successfully evacuated. 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. Another claim was that the Catholic population in general and the IRA in particular guided the bombers. Even the children of soldiers had not been evacuated, with calamitous results when the married quarters of Victoria Barracks received a direct hit. Belfast is the capital and largest city of Northern Ireland. Tragically 35 were crushed to death when the mill wall collapsed. 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 raids hurt Britains war production, but they also killed many civilians and left many others homeless. Brian Barton of Queen's University, Belfast, has written most on this topic.[19]. By mid-September 1940 the RAF had won the Battle of Britain, and the invasion was postponed indefinitely. Read about our approach to external linking. Sixty years after the Germans bombed Belfast in World War II BBC News Online looks back and remembers the anniversary of the blitz. Under the leadership of amon de Valera it had declared its neutrality during the Second World War. Three vessels nearing completion at Harland and Wolff's were hit as was its power station. Video, 00:00:46, Hong Kong skyscraper fire seen on city's skyline, Watch: Matt Hancock message row in 83 seconds. "They have never been published before, never seen the light of day.". MacDermott would be proved right. The Belfast blitz is remembered. The period of the next moon from say the 7th to the 16th of April may well bring our turn.. devised the Morrison shelter (named for Home Secretary Herbert Stanley Morrison) as an alternative to the Anderson shelter. 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. These balloons, the largest of which were some 60 feet (18 metres) long, were essentially an airspace denial tool. High explosive bombs predominated in this raid. The government was blamed by some for inadequate precautions. He stated that "he would once more tell his government how he felt about the matter and he would ask them to confine the operations to military objectives as far as it was humanly possible. Video, 00:01:37, Thanks, but no big speech, in Ken Bruce's sign off, Tear gas fired at Greece train crash protesters. John Wood Dunlop invented the pneumatic tyre in Belfast in 1887. Over 100 German planes made contact with barrage balloon cables during the Blitz, and two-thirds of them crashed or made forced landings on British soil. A Raid From Above The first was on the night of 78 April 1941, a small attack which probably took place only to test Belfast's defences. All were exhausted. The most significant loss was a 4.5-acre (1.8ha) factory floor for manufacturing the fuselages of Short Stirling bombers. The higher the German planes had to fly to avoid the balloons, the less accurate they were when dropping their bombs. 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. 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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. Van Morrison is from the east part of the city. The city has been a leader in women's rights. 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. When incendiaries were dropped, the city burned as water pressure was too low for effective firefighting. [citation needed]. By the end of the attacks, between 900 and 1,000 people were dead and thousands more were injured, homeless and displaced. 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. Many of the surface shelters built by local authorities were flimsy and provided little protection from bombs, falling debris, and fire. [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." 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. 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. 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. [citation needed], Other writers, such as Tony Gray in The Lost Years state that the Germans did follow their radio guidance beams. 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. Apart from those on London, this was the greatest loss of life in any night raid during the Blitz. More than 1,000 people were killed, and the damage was more widespread than on any previous occasion. "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.". The Blitz was devastating for the people of London and other cities. C.S Lewis was born in Belfast, and the nearby countryside helped inspire The Chronicles of Narnia. 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. Video, 00:00:26The German bombing of Coventry, Living through the London Blitz. Video, 00:00:51, Australia's 'biggest drug bust' nets $700m of cocaine, Thanks, but no big speech, in Ken Bruce's sign off. Singer-songwriter Van Morrison was born here. But the raid of 15-16 April - the Easter Tuesday Raid - was on another scale. 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. KS3 History (Environment and society) The Belfast Blitz learning resources for adults, children, parents and teachers. This amounted to nearly half of Britains total civilian deaths for the whole war. A Luftwaffe terror bombing attack on the Spanish city of Guernica (April 26, 1937) during the Spanish Civil War had killed hundreds of civilians and destroyed much of the town. Belfast was ill-prepared for the blitz. While Anderson shelters offered good protection from bomb fragments and debris, they were cold and damp and generally ill-suited for prolonged occupancy.
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