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. [citation needed], There was a second massive air raid on Belfast on Sunday 45 May 1941, three weeks after that of Easter Tuesday. Thank you. 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. 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. The use of the Tube system as a shelter saved thousands of lives, and images of Londoners huddled in Underground stations would become an indelible image of British life during World War II. The raids on London primarily targeted the Docklands area of the East End. (Great War casualties) had died in hospital beds, their eyes had been reverently closed, their hands crossed to their breasts. Northern Ireland is a part of the United Kingdom . Mr Freeburn set out to find out more about those who died, their personal stories and the tales of those left behind. Belfast is the capital and largest city of Northern Ireland. All were exhausted. Guided by Davies, the people of the shelter created an ad hoc government and established a set of rules. . 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 first (April 7 -8), a small attack, was most likely carried out to test the city's defenses. Up to now, we have escaped an attack, said John MacDermott, the Minister for Security, Belfast, on March 24, 1941. 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. 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 is as worthy a target as Coventry, Birmingham, Bristol or Glasgow.. By Jonathan Bardon. Islington parish church, the rebuilt Our Lady of Victories (Kensington), the French church by Leicester square, St. Annes, Soho (famous for its music), All Souls, Langham place, and Christ Church in Westminster Bridge road (whose towerfortunately savedcommemorates President Lincolns abolition of slavery), were among a large number of others. The period of the next moon from say the 7th to the 16th of April may well bring our turn.. Unlike N Ireland, the Irish Free State was no longer part of the UK. Outside of London, with some 900 dead, this was the greatest loss of life in a night raid during the Blitz. The A.R.P. There were few bomb shelters. He was asked, in the N.I. Anna and Billy were buried up their necks in sewage but were rescued and survived. These figures are based on newspaper reports of the time, personal recollections and other primary sources, such as:- 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. The World's Most-Famous Ship, The Titanic, was constructed here. Find out how it began, what the Germans hoped to achieve and how it severe it was, plus we visit nine places affected by the attacks. 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. Belfast is located on the island of Ireland. Video, 00:00:46, Hong Kong skyscraper fire seen on city's skyline, Watch: Matt Hancock message row in 83 seconds. But the authorities were afraid that bombs might not be the. 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. Hundreds of incendiary and many high-explosive bombs were dropped, doing little material damage but causing many casualties. That night almost 300 people, many from the Protestant Shankill area, took refuge in the Clonard Monastery in the Catholic Falls Road. Some are a total loss; others are already under repair with little outward sign of the damage sustained: Besides Buckingham palace, the chapel of which was wrecked, and Guildhall (the six-centuries old centre of London civic ceremonies and of great architectural beauty), which was destroyed by fire, Kensington palace (the London home of the earl of Athlone, governor general of Canada, and the birthplace of Queen Mary and Queen Victoria), the banqueting hall of Eltham palace (dating from King Johns time and long a royal residence), Lambeth palace (the archbishop of Canterbury), and Holland house (famous for its 17th century domestic architecture, its political associations, and its art treasures), suffered, the latter severely. The Blitz began at about 4:00 in the afternoon on September 7, 1940, when German planes appeared over London. Video, 00:02:54Living through the London Blitz, At least 17 dead in Jakarta fuel storage depot fire. The Luftwaffe had lost more than 600 aircraft, and, although the RAF had lost fewer than half that many, the battle was claiming British fighters and experienced pilots at too great a rate. Video, 00:03:09, Mapping the lives lost in the Belfast Blitz, Russian minister laughed at for Ukraine war claims. Rescue workers search through the rubble of Eglington Street in Belfast, Northern Ireland, after a German Luftwaffe air raid, 7 May 1941, Anna (left) and her husband Billy (back right) survived while Harriette, Dorothy and Billy were killed along with Dot and Isa, Dot and Isa, with Dorothy when she was a toddler, Royal Welch Fusiliers assist in clearing bomb damage in Belfast, Northern Ireland, 7 May 1941, Mapping the lives lost in the Belfast Blitz. 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. "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. After his optician business was destroyed by a bomb, Mickey Davies led an effort to organize the Spitalfield Shelter. Wave after wave of bombers dropped their incendiaries, high explosives and land-mines. With the surrender of France in June 1940, Germanys sole remaining enemy lay across the English Channel. It targeted the docks. Tragically 35 were crushed to death when the mill wall collapsed. 55,000 houses were damaged leaving 100,000 temporarily homeless. London was bombed for 57 consecutive nights from 7 September 1940 People are leaving from all parts of town and not only from the bombed areas. Weighing 46,328 tonnes, Titanic was to be the largest manmade moveable object the world had ever seen. Very early in the German bombing campaign, it became clear that the preparationshowever extensive they seemed to have beenwere inadequate. A victory for the Luftwaffe in the Battle of Britain would indeed have exposed Great Britain to invasion and occupation. Beginning on Black Saturday, London was attacked on 57 straight nights. Over a period of nine months, over 43,500 civilians were killed in the raids, which focused on major cities and industrial centres. Sir Basil Brooke, the Minister of Agriculture, was the only active minister. 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. 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. Apart from those on London, this was the greatest loss of life in any night raid during the Blitz. The most heavily bombed cities outside London were Liverpool and Birmingham. 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). Belfast Blitz: Facts In total there were four attacks on the County Antrim city. They all say the same thing, that the government is no good. [26], Initial German radio broadcasts celebrated the raid. 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. But the raid of 15-16 April - the Easter Tuesday Raid - was on another scale. "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.". Video, 00:00:51Australia's 'biggest drug bust' nets $700m of cocaine, Thanks, but no big speech, in Ken Bruce's sign off. As more and more people began sleeping on the platforms, however, the government relented and provided bunk beds and bathrooms for the underground communities. Other Belfast factories manufactured gun mountings. The mass relocation, called Operation Pied Piper, was the largest internal migration in British history. 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. High explosives were dropped. 255 corpses were laid out in St George's Market. The Belfast blitz is remembered. Prayers were said and hymns sung by the mainly Protestant women and children during the bombing. NI WW2 veterans honoured by France. Targets identified included: the Short and Harland Ltd. Aircraft Factory; the Belfast power station and waterworks; Other maps uncovered following the Second World War also showed the parliament and city hall, Belfast gasworks, a rope factory and the Royal Belfast Academical Institution. The government was blamed by some for inadequate precautions. 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. In another building, the York Street Mill, one of its massive sidewalls collapsed on to Sussex and Vere Streets, killing all those who remained in their homes. The database Mr Freeburn has compiled is, he believes, the most accurate list of those killed and includes 222 children aged 16 or under. Incendiary bombs predominated in this raid. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Added to this was the repair and refitting of 22,000 more vessels. 13 died, including a soldier killed when an anti-aircraft gun, at the Balmoral show-grounds, misfired. Belfast was Ireland's industrial home, famous for tobacco, rope-making, linen, and ship-building, which made it the powerhouse it was. Many in Northern Ireland thought that Belfast was outside the range of the Luftwaffe. There is no slacking in our loyalty. That contrasts with the figure that is often given of more than 900 killed on Easter Tuesday alone. Sixty years after the Germans bombed Belfast in World War II BBC News Online looks back and remembers the anniversary of the blitz. The most heavily bombed area was that which lay between York Street and the Antrim Road, north of the city centre. Video, 00:01:15The Belfast blitz, Up Next. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Unauthorized use and/or duplication of any material on this site without expressand written permission from the author and/or owner is strictly prohibited. While Anderson shelters offered good protection from bomb fragments and debris, they were cold and damp and generally ill-suited for prolonged occupancy. By the end of the attacks, between 900 and 1,000 people were dead and thousands more were injured, homeless and displaced. Video, 00:00:26The German bombing of Coventry, Living through the London Blitz. In the first days of the Blitz, a tragic incident in the East End stoked public anger over the governments shelter policy. Protection of the city fell to seven anti-aircraft batteries of 16 heavy guns and six light guns. Video, 00:01:41, The German bombing of Coventry. Another large-scale attack followed on March 19, when hundreds of houses and shops, many churches, six hospitals, and other public buildings were destroyed or seriously damaged. 150 corpses remained in the Falls Road baths for three days before they were buried in a mass grave, with 123 still unidentified. Yesterday for once the people of Ireland were united under the shadow of a national blow. In late August the Germans dropped some bombs, apparently by accident, on civilian areas in London. 6. They prevented low-flying aircraft from approaching their targets at optimal altitudes and angles of attack. KS3 History (Environment and society) The Belfast Blitz learning resources for adults, children, parents and teachers. Read about our approach to external linking. 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. From papers recovered after the war, we know of a Luftwaffe reconnaissance flight over Belfast on 30 November 1940. Video, 00:01:38At least 17 dead in Jakarta fuel storage depot fire, Australia's 'biggest drug bust' nets $700m of cocaine. 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. Video, 00:01:03One-minute World News, Isabel Oakeshott: Why I leaked Hancock's messages. Subs offer. [citation needed]. Clydeside got its blitz during the period of the last moon. Most of the objectives laid out by the reconnaissance crews were of either military or industrial importance. Neighbouring residential areas were also hit. 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. devised the Morrison shelter (named for Home Secretary Herbert Stanley Morrison) as an alternative to the Anderson shelter. 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. In the New Lodge area people had taken refuge in a mill. "Through cross-referencing a number of different sources I have been able to get the most accurate number of people who died in the Blitz," he says. Strand Public Elementary school, York Road railway station, the adjacent Midland Hotel on York Road, and Salisbury Avenue tram depot were all hit. 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. On May 11, 1941, Hitler called off the Blitz as he shifted his forces eastward against the Soviet Union. Many of the surface shelters built by local authorities were flimsy and provided little protection from bombs, falling debris, and fire. The creeping TikTok bans, Hong Kong skyscraper fire seen on city's skyline. By 1941, production of the Short Stirling Bomber and the Short Sunderland Flying Boat was underway. That evening over 150 bombers left their bases in northern France and the Netherlands and headed for Belfast. Video, 00:00:36Tears of relief after man found in Amazon jungle. ", Mapping the lives lost in the Belfast Blitz. The 2017 film Zoo depicts an air raid during the Belfast Blitz. There were Heinkel He 111s, Junkers Ju 88s and Dornier Do 17s. The youngest victim was just six-weeks-old. The first was on the night of 78 April 1941, a small attack which probably took place only to test Belfast's defences. MacDermott would be proved right. The offensive came to be called the Blitz after the German word blitzkrieg (lightning war). By 4 am the entire city seemed to be in flames. Please refer to the appropriate style manual or other sources if you have any questions. It was not the first time the alarm had sounded to signify the presence of Luftwaffe bombers over the city. Video, 00:00:46Hong Kong skyscraper fire seen on city's skyline, Watch: Matt Hancock message row in 83 seconds. The sense of relative calm was abruptly shattered in the first week of September 1940, when the war came to London in earnest. Raids between February and May pounded Plymouth, Portsmouth, Bristol, Newcastle upon Tyne, and Hull in England; Swansea in Wales; Belfast in Northern Ireland; and Clydeside in Scotland. Death had to a certain extent been made decent. A modern bomb census has attempted to pinpoint the location of every bomb dropped on London during the Blitz, and the visualization of that data makes clear how thoroughly the Luftwaffe saturated the city.