As more and more people began sleeping on the platforms, however, the government relented and provided bunk beds and bathrooms for the underground communities. [4], The Government of Northern Ireland lacked the will, energy and capacity to cope with a major crisis when it came. They remained for three days, until they were sent back by the Northern Ireland government. 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). The Belfast Blitz was a series of devastating Luftwaffe air raids that took place in Northern Ireland during the Second World War. Fighter Commands efforts were greatly aided by the lack of any consistent plan of action on the part of the Germans. Poor visibility on the night meant that the accuracy of the bombers was hampered and the explosives were dropped on densely populated areas of Belfast. Many in Northern Ireland thought that Belfast was outside the range of the Luftwaffe. In the mistaken belief that they might damage RAF fighters, the anti-aircraft batteries ceased firing. "But there is no such equivalent in Belfast. Several accounts point out that Belfast, standing at the end of the long inlet of Belfast Lough, would be easily located. 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. Other Belfast factories manufactured gun mountings. The attacks were authorized by Germany's chancellor, Adolf Hitler, after the British carried out a nighttime air raid on Berlin. On Nov. 30, 1940, a lone Luftwaffe plane flew across the Ards Peninsula unobserved and reported back to Berlin. NI WW2 veterans honoured by France. 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. The devastation was so great that the Germans coined a new verb, to coventrate, to describe it. The crypt under the sanctuary and the cellar under the working sacristy had been fitted out and opened to the public as an air-raid shelter. Over 20 hospitals were hit, among them the London (many times), St. Thomass, St. Bartholomews, and the childrens hospital in Great Ormond st., as well as Chelsea hospital, the home for the aged and invalid soldiers, built by Wren. Belfast Blitz: Facts In total there were four attacks on the County Antrim city. The Belfast blitz devastated a city that up until 1941 had remained unscathed during World War Two. He was replaced by 54-year-old Sir Basil Brooke on 1 May. Weighing 46,328 tonnes, Titanic was to be the largest manmade moveable object the world had ever seen. 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). [citation needed], Casualties were lower than at Easter, partly because the sirens had sounded at 11.45pm while the Luftwaffe attacked more cautiously from a greater height. [27] One widespread criticism was that the Germans located Belfast by heading for Dublin and following the railway lines north. Heinkel He 111 and Dornier Do 17 planes fitted with Zeiss cameras captured high-quality aerial imagery. However that attack was not an error. During the whole period, although the citys operation was disrupted in ways that were sometimes serious, no essential service was more than temporarily impaired. The firm had produced Handley Page Hereford bombers since 1936. 6. But the raid of 15-16 April - the Easter Tuesday Raid - was on another scale. On May 11, 1941, Hitler called off the Blitz as he shifted his forces eastward against the Soviet Union. 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." Half of the city's housing was damaged over the course of all the raids. 50,000 houses, more than half the houses in the city, were damaged. 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. Very early in the German bombing campaign, it became clear that the preparationshowever extensive they seemed to have beenwere inadequate. The Blitz began at around 4 pm on September 7, 1940, when German bomber planes first appeared over London. Harland and Wolff: The troubled history of Belfast's shipyard Government ministers in Northern Ireland began to realise the Luftwaffe may launch an attack, but it was too little, too late. Many bodies and body parts could not be identified. Subs offer. This view was probably influenced by the decision of the IRA Army Council to support Germany. 19.99. 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." It became a city by royal charter in 1888. Despite the military and industrial importance of the city, the Luftwaffe described the defences asweak, scanty, insufficient. By the end of the attacks, between 900 and 1,000 people were dead and thousands more were injured, homeless and displaced. Still, many in Northern Ireland believed no Luftwaffe attack would come. Death had to a certain extent been made decent. 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". About 1,000 people were killed and bombs hit half of the houses in the city, leaving 100,000. Given Belfast's geographic position, it was considered to be at the fringe of the operational range of German bombers and hence there was no provision for night-fighter aerial cover. Read about our approach to external linking. sprang into action, and Londoners, while maintaining the work, business, and efficiency of their city, displayed remarkable fortitude. 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. Get a Britannica Premium subscription and gain access to exclusive content. The Belfast Blitz - Inside the Deadly 1941 Luftwaffe Raids on Northern Video, 00:03:09Mapping the lives lost in the Belfast Blitz, Belfast City Hall in darkness as the Blitz is marked, Street fighting in Bakhmut but Russia not in control, Russian minister laughed at for Ukraine war claims. The Titanic was built in Belfast. The initial human cost of the Blitz was lower than the government had expected, but the level of destruction exceeded the governments dire predictions. The first was on the night of 7-8 April 1941, a small attack which probably took place only to test Belfast's defences. On September 1, 1939, the day World War II began with Germanys invasion of Poland, the British government implemented a massive evacuation plan. Again the Irish emergency services crossed the border, this time without waiting for an invitation. Other targets included Sheffield, Manchester, Coventry, and Southampton. 7. MacDermott would be proved right. Davies also set up medical stations and persuaded off-duty medical personnel to treat the sick and wounded. The famous places damaged include the palace of Westminster and Westminster hall, the County hall, the Public Record office, the Law Courts, the Temple and the Inner Temple library; Somerset house, Burlington house, the tower of London, Greenwich observatory, Hogarths house; the Carlton, Reform, American, Savage, Arts and Orleans clubs; the Royal College of Surgeons, University college and its library, Stationers hall, the Y.M.C.A. Instead of pressing his advantage, however, Hitler abruptly changed his strategy. Thank you. Around 20,000 people were employed on the site with 35,000 further along in the shipyard. 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 House of Commons, Westminster Abbey, and the British Museum were severely damaged, and The Temple was almost completely destroyed. After his optician business was destroyed by a bomb, Mickey Davies led an effort to organize the Spitalfield Shelter. 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. Nearby were the citys main power station, gasworks, telephone house and the Sirocco Engineering works. But these people all had families and friends and they had to deal with their loss for the rest of their lives.". Emma Duffin, a nurse at the Queen's University Hospital, (who previously served during the Great War), who kept a diary; No significant cut was made in necessary social services, and public and private premises, except when irreparably damaged, were repaired as speedily as possible. "Liverpool, Clydebank and Portsmouth all have a memorial to their victims of the Blitz. About 1,000 people were killed and bombs hit half of the houses in the city, leaving 100,000 people homeless. 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. When the Blitz began, the government enforced a blackout in an attempt to make targeting more difficult for German night bombers. Three nights later (April 1920) London was again subjected to a seven-hour raid, and the loss of life was considerable, especially among firefighters and the A.R.P. Video, 00:00:26, Living through the London Blitz. Strand Public Elementary school, York Road railway station, the adjacent Midland Hotel on York Road, and Salisbury Avenue tram depot were all hit. 14 Breathtaking Facts about Belfast - Fact City Video, 00:00:46, Hong Kong skyscraper fire seen on city's skyline, Watch: Matt Hancock message row in 83 seconds. Another attacked Bangor, killing five. 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. Many people who were dug out of the rubble alive had taken shelter underneath their stairs and were fortunate that their homes had not received a direct hit or caught fire. 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. The Germans, however, saw Belfast as a legitimate target due to the shipyards in the city that were contributing to Britain's war efforts. Over 500 received care from the Irish Red Cross in Dublin. Wherever Churchill is hiding his war material we will go Belfast is as worthy a target as Coventry, Birmingham, Bristol or Glasgow." There were still 80,000 more in Belfast. Neighbouring residential areas were also hit. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. There was no opposition. 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. 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. Train after train and bus after bus were filled with those next in line.
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