Interesting facts about Belfast. The creeping TikTok bans, Hong Kong skyscraper fire seen on city's skyline. And even then, Westminster stated it was not ample provision; Stormont still worried about the costs to industry. Wave after wave of bombers dropped their incendiaries, high explosives and land-mines. The youngest victim was just six-weeks-old. Accounts differ as to when flares were dropped to light up the city. The World's Most-Famous Ship, The Titanic, was constructed here. It is perhaps true that many saved their lives running but I am afraid a much greater number lost them or became casualties."[20]. 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." It targeted the docks. Just before Easter 1941, Anna and Billy Burdett and their 12-year-old daughter, Dorothy, returned to Belfast from England to visit Anna's family. However Belfast was not mentioned again by the Nazis. The creeping TikTok bans, Hong Kong skyscraper fire seen on city's skyline. Authorities had noted Queens Island in the cityas a vulnerable point as early as 1929. It was the worst wartime raid outside of London in the UK. VideoRussian minister laughed at for Ukraine war claims, The children left behind in Cuba's mass exodus, Xi Jinping's power grab - and why it matters, Snow, Fire and Lights: Photos of the Week. By the end of the attacks, between 900 and 1,000 people were dead and thousands more were injured, homeless and displaced. Churches destroyed or wrecked included Macrory Memorial Presbyterian in Duncairn Gardens; Duncairn Methodist, Castleton Presbyterian on York Road; St Silas's on the Oldpark Road; St James's on the Antrim Road; Newington Presbyterian on Limestone Road; Crumlin Road Presbyterian; Holy Trinity on Clifton Street and Clifton Street Presbyterian; York Street Presbyterian and York Street Non-Subscribing Presbyterian; Newtownards Road Methodist and Rosemary Street Presbyterian (the last of which was not rebuilt). After his optician business was destroyed by a bomb, Mickey Davies led an effort to organize the Spitalfield Shelter. Omissions? When the bombing began, 76-year-old William and 72-year-old Harriette took refuge under the stairs along with Dorothy, Dot and Isa. Liverpool, for example, protected by 100 guns. 2. You can see the difference in those letters - post-Blitz is very much a grieving tone. They remained for three days, until they were sent back by the Northern Ireland government. There [is] ground for thinking that the enemy could not easily reach Belfast in force except during a period of moonlight. Since 1:45am all telephones had been cut. Roads out of town are still one stream of cars, with mattresses and bedding tied on top. St George's Church in High Street was damaged by fire. In the first days of the Blitz, a tragic incident in the East End stoked public anger over the governments shelter policy. Brides, Fleet St.; St. Lawrence Jewry; St. Magnus the Martyr; St. Mary-at-hill; St. Dunstan in the East; St. Clement [Eastcheap] and St. Jamess, Piccadilly). On September 1, 1939, the day World War II began with Germanys invasion of Poland, the British government implemented a massive evacuation plan. Beginning in September 1940, the Blitz was an aerial bombing campaign conducted by the Luftwaffe against British cities. His death (along with preceding ill-health) came at a bad time and arguably inadvertently caused a leadership vacuum. Belfast is the capital and largest city of Northern Ireland. The working-class living close to industrial centres suffered more than anyone over the course of the four raids. 150 corpses remained in the Falls Road baths for three days before they were buried in a mass grave, with 123 still unidentified. Get a Britannica Premium subscription and gain access to exclusive content. The most heavily bombed area was that which lay between York Street and the Antrim Road, north of the city centre. Moya Woodside[23] noted in her diary: "Evacuation is taking on panic proportions. "[22], In his opinion, the greatest want was the lack of hospital facilities. Emma Duffin, a nurse at the Queen's University Hospital, (who previously served during the Great War), who kept a diary; KS3 History (Environment and society) The Belfast Blitz learning resources for adults, children, parents and teachers. 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. Sir Basil Brooke, the Minister of Agriculture, was the only active minister. Please select which sections you would like to print: Encyclopaedia Britannica's editors oversee subject areas in which they have extensive knowledge, whether from years of experience gained by working on that content or via study for an advanced degree. The town of Dromara saw its population increase from 500 to 2,500. 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. Wherever Churchill is hiding his war material we will go. By British mainland blitz standards, casualties were light. During the first year of the war, behind-the-lines conditions prevailed in London. At conservative gathering, Trump is still the favourite. wardens, and members of the Home Guard drilling in the parks, life went on much as usual. The devastation was so great that the Germans coined a new verb, to coventrate, to describe it. He was asked, in the N.I. No searchlights were set up in the city at the time, and these only arrived on 10 April. 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. Read about our approach to external linking. 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.". 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. However that attack was not an error. The telegram was sent at 4:35am,[citation needed] asking the Irish Taoiseach, amon de Valera for assistance. Morale did suffer amid the death and devastation, but there were few calls for surrender. 29 - Belfast was once bigger than Dublin 55,000 houses were damaged leaving 100,000 temporarily homeless. In late August the Germans dropped some bombs, apparently by accident, on civilian areas in London. With Britains powerful Royal Navy controlling the surface approaches in the Channel and the North Sea, it fell to the Luftwaffe to establish dominance of the skies above the battle zone. An air raid shelter on Hallidays Road received a direct hit, killing all those in it. 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. Jimmy Doherty, an air raid warden (who later served in London during the V1 and V2 blitz), who wrote a book on the Belfast blitz; 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." In spite of blackouts, ubiquitous shelters and sandbags, the visible effects of mass evacuation, the presence of A.R.P. Here are 10 facts about both the German Blitzkrieg and the Allied bombing of Germany. devised the Morrison shelter (named for Home Secretary Herbert Stanley Morrison) as an alternative to the Anderson shelter. Belfast suffered a series of bombing raids in the spring of 1941, which became known as the 'Blitz of Belfast'. "They have never been published before, never seen the light of day.". As the UK was preparing for the conflict, the factories and shipyards of Belfast were gearing up. As many as 5,000 people had packed into this network of underground tunnels, which was dangerously overcrowded, dirty, and dark. 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. O'Sullivan felt that the whole civil defence sector was utterly overwhelmed. The seeming normality of life on the Home Front was shattered in 1944 when the first of the V1's landed. Video, 00:01:37Thanks, but no big speech, in Ken Bruce's sign off, Tear gas fired at Greece train crash protesters. The most heavily bombed cities outside London were Liverpool and Birmingham. Initially it was thought that the Germans had mistaken this reservoir for the harbour and shipyards, where many ships, including HMS Ark Royal were being repaired. The Blitz was devastating for the people of London and other cities. Video, 00:00:51, Australia's 'biggest drug bust' nets $700m of cocaine, Thanks, but no big speech, in Ken Bruce's sign off. Three vessels nearing completion at Harland and Wolff's were hit as was its power station. 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]. Brian Barton of Queen's University, Belfast, has written most on this topic.[19]. When the Blitz began, the government enforced a blackout in an attempt to make targeting more difficult for German night bombers. Subs offer. They prevented low-flying aircraft from approaching their targets at optimal altitudes and angles of attack. The RAFs Spitfire was a superlative fighter, and it was not always easy for the Germans to distinguish it from the slightly less maneuverable but much more numerous Hurricanes. 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. Death had to a certain extent been made decent. 24 - The tyres Dunlop were invented in Belfast in 1887 25 - The two H&W cranes are named Samson and Goliath 26 - The Albert Clock is Ireland's leaning tower 27 - The mobile defibrillator was invented in Belfast 28 - Belfast's ice hockey team, the Giants, is one of the best in Europe. Ulster Historical Foundation. Another claim was that the Catholic population in general and the IRA in particular guided the bombers. The raids on London primarily targeted the Docklands area of the East End. When war broke out in 1939 the city did not expect to be attacked by German bombers: it was geographically remote and deemed a relatively . Belfast was bombed by the Nazis in World War II. These balloons, the largest of which were some 60 feet (18 metres) long, were essentially an airspace denial tool. In every instance, all stepped forward. Once more, London was targeted and children were victims. As of October 2020, the population of Belfast is about 350,000 people. "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.". 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). The mortuary services had emergency plans to deal with only 200 bodies. In many cases the daily life of the city was able to resume with delays of only hours. On 28 April 1943, six members of the Government threatened to resign, forcing him from office. Blitz Fibre UK Blitz Fibre UK Published Mar 1, 2023 + Follow Fact 1- Small but Mighty . The Royal Air Force announced that Squadron Leader J.W.C. Nearby were the citys main power station, gasworks, telephone house and the Sirocco Engineering works. Very early in the German bombing campaign, it became clear that the preparationshowever extensive they seemed to have beenwere inadequate. Some 900 people died as a result of the bombing and 1,500 were injured. 55,000 British civilian casualties were sustained through German bombing before the end of 1940 This included 23,000 deaths. 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. There was unease with the complacent attitude of the government, which led to resignations: Craigavon died on 24 November 1940. James Craig, Lord Craigavon, had been Prime Minister of Northern Ireland since its inception in 1921 up until his death in 1940. In Bristol, the bombed-out ruins of St Peter's Church were left standing with added memorial plaques to the civilians who were killed. Air-raid damage was widespread; hospitals, clubs, churches, museums, residential and shopping streets, hotels, public houses, theatres, schools, monuments, newspaper offices, embassies, and the London Zoo were bombed. 10,000 "officially" crossed the border. THE BELFAST BLITZ was a series of four air raids over Northern Ireland during the spring of 1941. 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 offensive came to be called the Blitz after the German word blitzkrieg ("lightning war"). 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. [citation needed] However on 20 October 1941 the Garda Sochna captured a comprehensive IRA report on captured member Helena Kelly giving a detailed analysis of damage inflicted on Belfast and highlighting prime targets such as Shortt and Harland aircraft factory and RAF Sydenham, describing them as 'the remaining and most outstanding objects of military significance, as yet unblitzed' and suggesting they should be 'bombed by the Luftwaffe as thoroughly as other areas in recent raids'[28][29], After three days, sometime after 6pm, the fire crews from south of the border began taking up their hoses and ladders to head for home. Our editors will review what youve submitted and determine whether to revise the article. Nine were registered on three separate occasions, and from the start of the Blitz until November 30 there were more than 350 alerts. By mid-September 1940 the RAF had won the Battle of Britain, and the invasion was postponed indefinitely. William Joyce (known as "Lord Haw-Haw") announced in radio broadcasts from Hamburg that there will be "Easter eggs for Belfast". 3. The night raids on London continued into 1941, and January 1011 saw exceptionally heavy attacks; the Mansion House (residence of the lord mayor of London) and the Bank of England narrowly avoided destruction when a bomb fell directly between them, creating a gigantic crater. He believed that key targets identified across the city were hit. Tommy Henderson, an Independent Unionist MP in the House of Commons of Northern Ireland, summed up the feeling when he invited the Minister of Home Affairs to Hannahstown and the Falls Road, saying "The Catholics and the Protestants are going up there mixed and they are talking to one another. "But there is no such equivalent in Belfast. 6. The attacks by both V1's and V2's only ended as the Allies advanced up through Western Europe . These private air-raid shelters were Anderson shelters, constructed of sheets of corrugated galvanised iron covered in earth. Video, Russian minister laughed at for Ukraine war claims, US-made cheese can be called 'gruyere' - court, AOC under investigation for Met Gala dress, Saving Private Ryan actor Tom Sizemore dies at 61, The children left behind in Cuba's exodus, Walkie Talkie architect Rafael Violy dies aged 78, Alex Murdaugh's legal troubles are far from over, Mother who killed her five children euthanised. Since most casualties were caused by falling masonry rather than by blast, they provided effective shelter for those who had them. It lies where the Lagan River flows into a part of the Irish Sea. Indeed, on the night of the first raid, no Royal Air Force (RAF) aircraft took to the air to intercept German planes. Because basements, a logical destination in the event of an air raid, were a relative rarity in Britain, the A.R.P. Unauthorized use and/or duplication of any material on this site without expressand written permission from the author and/or owner is strictly prohibited. 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. [19], 220,000 people fled from the city. No significant cut was made in necessary social services, and public and private premises, except when irreparably damaged, were repaired as speedily as possible. 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. Around 20,000 people were employed on the site with 35,000 further along in the shipyard.