Tragically 35 were crushed to death when the mill wall collapsed. You can see the difference in those letters - post-Blitz is very much a grieving tone. These balloons, the largest of which were some 60 feet (18 metres) long, were essentially an airspace denial tool. In 1995, on the 50th anniversary of the ending of the Second World War, an invitation was received by the Dublin Fire Brigade for any survivors of that time to attend a function at Hillsborough Castle and meet Prince Charles. In the eight months of attacks, some 43,000 civilians were killed. Only four were known still to be alive. 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. 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. As the UK was preparing for the conflict, the factories and shipyards of Belfast were gearing up. 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. His reply was: "We here today are in a state of war and we are prepared with the rest of the United Kingdom and Empire to face all the responsibilities that imposes on the Ulster people. Apart from one or two false alarms in the early days of the war, no sirens wailed in London until June 25. Emma Duffin, a nurse at the Queen's University Hospital, (who previously served during the Great War), who kept a diary; Also, on Queens Island, stood the Short and Harland Ltd. Aircraft Factory. 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. It targeted the docks. The area included the Harland and Wolff Ltd. Shipyard, the Short and Harland Ltd. Aircraft Factory, and the airfield at RAF Sydenham. Video, 00:01:03One-minute World News, Isabel Oakeshott: Why I leaked Hancock's messages. The Belfast blitz is remembered. I was definitely one of the first over the target and as I flew in there was no great defence because there were not a great many aircraft over the target at that point, recalled Becker. Northern Ireland is a part of the United Kingdom . Even the children of soldiers had not been evacuated, with calamitous results when the married quarters of Victoria Barracks received a direct hit. the Blitz, (September 7, 1940May 11, 1941), intense bombing campaign undertaken by Nazi Germany against the United Kingdom during World War II. The government announced that 77 people had died, but for years local residents insisted the toll was much higher. 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. Under the leadership of amon de Valera it had declared its neutrality during the Second World War. 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 Royal Air Force announced that Squadron Leader J.W.C. 1. This type of shelteressentially a low steel cage large enough to contain two adults and two small childrenwas designed to be set up indoors and could serve as a refuge if the building began to collapse. He gave an interview saying: "the people of Belfast are Irish people too". When the Blitz began, the government enforced a blackout in an attempt to make targeting more difficult for German night bombers. 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. Davies also set up medical stations and persuaded off-duty medical personnel to treat the sick and wounded. 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. He was succeeded by J. M. Andrews, then 69 years old, who was no more capable of dealing with the situation than his predecessor. Read about our approach to external linking. There is no slacking in our loyalty. Has it taken bursting bombs to remind the people of this little country that they have common tradition, a common genius and a common home? For eight months the Luftwaffe dropped bombs on London and other strategic cities across Britain. Compared to other cities, Belfast was virtually undefended. 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. Liverpool, for example, protected by 100 guns. Added to this was the repair and refitting of 22,000 more vessels. Since most casualties were caused by falling masonry rather than by blast, they provided effective shelter for those who had them. 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. Around 1am, Luftwaffe bombers flew over the city, concentrating their attack on the Harbour Estate and Queen's Island. 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). In clear weather, targets were easily identifiable. His report concluded with: "a second Belfast would be too horrible to contemplate". What's the least amount of exercise we can get away with? Government ministers in Northern Ireland began to realise the Luftwaffe may launch an attack, but it was too little, too late. Yesterday the hand of good-fellowship was reached across the Border. 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. 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. [4], The Government of Northern Ireland lacked the will, energy and capacity to cope with a major crisis when it came. The next took. Later, guided by the raging fires caused by the first attack, a second group of planes began another assault that lasted until 4:30 the following morning. The raids hurt Britains war production, but they also killed many civilians and left many others homeless. 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. [25] He followed up with his "they are our people" speech, made in Castlebar, County Mayo, on Sunday 20 April 1941 (Quoted in the Dundalk Democrat dated Saturday 26 April 1941): In the past, and probably in the present, too, a number of them did not see eye to eye with us politically, but they are our people we are one and the same people and their sorrows in the present instance are also our sorrows; and I want to say to them that any help we can give to them in the present time we will give to them whole-heartedly, believing that were the circumstances reversed they would also give us their help whole-heartedly Frank Aiken, the Irish Minister for the Co-ordination of Defensive Measures was in Boston, Massachusetts at the time. Other Belfast factories manufactured gun mountings. There was no smokescreen ability, however there were some barrage balloons positioned strategically for protection. 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." 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. Several theatres and many cinemas were open, and there were even a few sporting events. But the Luftwaffe was ready. On September 10, 1940, the school was flattened by a German bomb, and people huddled in the basement were killed or trapped in the rubble. By 4 am the entire city seemed to be in flames. No searchlights were set up in the city at the time, and these only arrived on 10 April. Video, 00:01:09The Spitfire turns 80, The German bombing of Coventry. One of every six Londoners was made homeless at some point during the Blitz, and at least 1.1 million houses and flats were damaged or destroyed. Simpson shot down one of the Heinkels over Downpatrick. 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. sprang into action, and Londoners, while maintaining the work, business, and efficiency of their city, displayed remarkable fortitude. Burke Street which ran between Annadale and Dawson streets in the New Lodge area, was completely wiped off the map with all its 20 houses flattened and all of the occupants killed.[16]. IWM C 5424 1. The World's Most-Famous Ship, The Titanic, was constructed here. (Great War casualties) had died in hospital beds, their eyes had been reverently closed, their hands crossed to their breasts. These figures are based on newspaper reports of the time, personal recollections and other primary sources, such as:- The city covers a total area of 132.5 square kilometers (51 square miles). Belfast is the capital and largest city of Northern Ireland. The attacks were authorized by Germanys chancellor, Adolf Hitler, after the British carried out a nighttime air raid on Berlin. The "Hiram Plan" initiated by Dawson Bates, the Home Affairs Minister, had failed to materialise. For more than six months, German planes had flown reconnaissance flights over Belfast. Similar initiatives bearing the same name were ordered in the past decade by former mayors Libby . Our editors will review what youve submitted and determine whether to revise the article. It would appear that Adolf Hitler, in view of de Valera's negative reaction, was concerned that de Valera and Irish American politicians might encourage the United States to enter the war. 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. High explosives were dropped. These private air-raid shelters were Anderson shelters, constructed of sheets of corrugated galvanised iron covered in earth. During the first year of the war, behind-the-lines conditions prevailed in London. Many of the surface shelters built by local authorities were flimsy and provided little protection from bombs, falling debris, and fire. It was solemn, tragic, dignified, but here it was grotesque, repulsive, horrible. Over 500 received care from the Irish Red Cross in Dublin. Fewer than 4,000 women and children were evacuated. 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. along with England, Scotland, and Wales. Can Nigeria's election result be overturned? . The district of Belfast has an area of 44 square miles (115 square km). The M.V. The first was on the night of 78 April 1941, a small attack which probably took place only to test Belfast's defences. They all say the same thing, that the government is no good. Train after train and bus after bus were filled with those next in line. Fighter Commands efforts were greatly aided by the lack of any consistent plan of action on the part of the Germans. Indeed, on the night of the first raid, no Royal Air Force (RAF) aircraft took to the air to intercept German planes. During what was known as the "Belfast Blitz," 1,000 people were killed by bombs dropped by the Nazis in 1941 during the Second World War. 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. 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. He was asked, in the N.I. Wave after wave of bombers dropped their incendiaries, high explosives and land-mines. The period of the next moon from say the 7th to the 16th of April may well bring our turn." Air power alone had failed to knock the United Kingdom out of the war. Roads out of town are still one stream of cars, with mattresses and bedding tied on top. On Nov. 30, 1940, a lone Luftwaffe plane flew across the Ards Peninsula unobserved and reported back to Berlin. Belfast confetti," said one archive news report. Dissatisfaction with public shelters also led to another notable development in the East EndMickeys Shelter. Death should be dignified, peaceful; Hitler had made even death grotesque. The British thus fought with the advantage of superior equipment and undivided aim against an enemy with inconsistent objectives. By mid-September 1940 the RAF had won the Battle of Britain, and the invasion was postponed indefinitely. 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. The period of the next moon from say the 7th to the 16th of April may well bring our turn.. So had Clydeside until recently. When the bombing began, 76-year-old William and 72-year-old Harriette took refuge under the stairs along with Dorothy, Dot and Isa. A Luftwaffe pilot gave this description "We were in exceptional good humour knowing that we were going for a new target, one of England's last hiding places. 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). 6. Richard Dawson Bates was the Home Affairs Minister. THE BELFAST BLITZ was a series of four air raids over Northern Ireland during the spring of 1941. In the first days of the Blitz, a tragic incident in the East End stoked public anger over the governments shelter policy. 8. [1][2], The third raid on Belfast took place over the evening and morning of 45 May 1941; 150 were killed. to households. Please refer to the appropriate style manual or other sources if you have any questions. A charitable relief fund for the people of London was opened September 10. John Clarke MacDermott, the Minister of Public Security, after the first bombing, initiated the "Hiram Plan" to evacuate the city and to return Belfast to 'normality' as quickly as possible. 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. Beginning in September 1940, the Blitz was an aerial bombing campaign conducted by the Luftwaffe against British cities. The "pothole blitz" is a common short-term initiative to combat storm weather damage. With tangled hair, staring eyes, clutching hands, contorted limbs, their grey-green faces covered with dust, they lay, bundled into the coffins, half-shrouded in rugs or blankets, or an occasional sheet, still wearing their dirty, torn twisted garments.

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