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Belfast Blitz

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The Belfast Blitz was an event that occurred on the night of Easter Tuesday, 15 April 1941. Two hundred bombers of the German Air Force (Luftwaffe) attacked the city of Belfast in Northern Ireland. Nearly one thousand people died as a result of the bombing and even more were injured. In terms of property damage, half of the houses in Belfast were damaged. Outside of the city of London, this was the greatest loss of life in a night raid during the blitz.[1][2] Roughly 100,000 people of a total population of 425,000 were left homeless.

Background

Éire (know known as the Republic of Ireland) had declared its neutrality during the Second World War. While it arrested German spies, its police and military intelligence services caught on its territory, the country never broke off diplomatic relations with Axis nations, and the German Legation in Dublin was kept open throughout the war, its ambassador and staff having been accredited by the Court of St James prior to the war. However, Northern Ireland was still British territory, and its inhabitants British subjects, and could therefore be targeted.

Belfast had an enviable engineering tradition. As the United Kingdom was preparing for the conflict, the factories and shipyards of Belfast were gearing up. Belfast made a considerable contribution towards the Allied war effort.

Government

The Government of Northern Ireland lacked the will, energy and capacity to cope with a major crisis when it came. James Craig, Lord Craigavon, who was Prime Minister of Northern Ireland since its inception in 1921, until his death on November 24, 1940, had become senile. Richard Dawson Bates, was the Home Affairs Minister. According to Sir Wilfred Spender, the cabinet secretary was "incapable of giving his responsible officers coherent directions on policy"–actually, he was drunk for most of each day. It appears that Sir Basil Brooke, the Minister of Agriculture, was the only active minister. He successfully busied himself with the task of making Northern Ireland a major supplier of food to Britain in her time of need.[3]

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. It was MacDermott who sent the telegram to de Valera seeking assistance. There was unease with the complacent attitude of the government, which led to resignations:

  • John Edmond Warnock, the parliamentary secretary at the Ministry of Home Affairs, resigned from the Northern Ireland government on May 25, 1940. He said "I have heard speeches about Ulster pulling her weight but they have never carried conviction." and "the government has been slack, dilatory and apathetic."
  • Lt. Col. Alexander Robert Gisborne Gordon, Parliamentary and Financial Secretary at the Ministry of Finance (ie Chief Whip), resigned on June 13, 1940, explaining to the Commons that the government was "quite unfitted to sustain the people in the ordeal we have to face."

Lord Craigavon died on Sunday, November 24, 1940. He was succeeded by John Miller Andrews, then 70 years old, who was no more capable of dealing with the situation than his predecessor. The minutes of his cabinet meetings show more discussion on protecting the bronze statue of Carson than the provision of air-raid shelters.

On April 28, 1943, six members of the Government threatened to resign, forcing him from office. He resigned on May 1.

Manufacturing facilities

War materials and food were sent by sea from Belfast to Britain, some under the protection of the neutral Irish tricolour. The M.V. Munster, operated by the 'Belfast SteamShip Company' plied between Belfast and Liverpool under the tricolour, until she hit a mine and was sunk outside Liverpool.[5] Another example was the Kerrymore, which was registered as belonging to R McGowan of Tralee, but was actually owned by Kelly Colliers of Belfast. Most of the crew had addresses in loyalist areas of Belfast. For six years they sailed under the tricolour.[6]

Preparation

Sir James Craig,
former Prime Minister of Northern Ireland. HMSO image

Government preparation

There was little preparation for the conflict with Germany.[7] However at the time James Craig, 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." He was asked, in the N.I. parliament: "if the government realized 'that these fast bombers can come to Northern Ireland in two and three quarter hours". 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. There is no slacking in our loyalty.”

Richard Dawson Bates, the Home Affairs Minister, simply refused to reply to army correspondence and when the Ministry of Home Affairs was informed by imperial defence experts that Belfast was a certain Luftwaffe target, nothing was done.[8]

Air-raid shelters

Belfast, the city with the highest population density had the lowest proportion of air-raid shelters. Prior to the "Belfast Blitz" there were only 200 public shelters, although 4,000 households had built their own shelters. No searchlights were set up, as they only arrived on April 10. There were no night-fighters. On the night of the raid, no RAF aircraft took to the air. There were only 22 anti-aircraft guns, six light, and sixteen heavy. On the night, only seven were operated for a short time. There was no smokescreen ability. There were some barrage balloons.

These air-raid shelters were Anderson shelters. They were just sheets of corrugated galvanised iron. Since most casualties were caused by falling masonry rather than by blast, these structures provided effective shelter for those who had them.

Children

Unlike other British cities, children had not been evacuated. There had been the "Hiram Plan" initiated by Richard Dawson Bates, the Home Affairs Minister, but it failed to materialise. Fewer than 4,000 women and children were evacuated. There were still 80,000 children in Belfast. Even the children of soldiers had not been evacuated, with calamitous results when the married quarters of Victoria barracks received a direct hit.

German Preparation

From papers recovered after the war, we know of a Luftwaffe reconnaissance flight over Belfast on November 30, 1940. The Germans established that Belfast, was defended by only seven anti-aircraft batteries, which made it the most poorly defended city in the United Kingdom. From their photographs, they identified suitable targets:

  • Die Werft Harland and Wolff Ltd
  • Die Tankstelle Conns Water
  • Das Flugzeugwerk Short and Harland
  • Das Kraftwerk Belfast
  • Die Grossmühle Rank & Co
  • Das Wasserwerk Belfast
  • Die Kasernenlagen Victoria Barracks

Earlier raids

John Miller Andrews
Prime Minister of Northern Ireland. HMSO image

There had been a number of small bombings, probably by planes that missed their targets over the Clyde or the cities of the north-west of England.

On March 24, 1941, John McDermott, Minister for Security, wrote to the Prime Minister, John Andrews expressing his concerns that Belfast was so poorly protected. "Up to now we have escaped attack. So had Clydeside until recently. Clydeside got its blitz during the period of the last moon. There [is] ground for thinking that the ... enemy could not easily reach Belfast in force except during a period of moonlight. The period of the next moon from say the 7th to the 16th of April may well bring our turn." Unfortunately, McDermott was proved right.

The first deliberate raid took place on the night of April 7. (Some authors count this as the second raid of four). It targeted the docks. Neighbouring residential areas were also hit. Six Heinkel He 111 bombers, from Kampfgruppe 26, flying at 7,000 feet, dropped incendiaries, high explosive and parachute-bombs. By British blitz experience, casualties were light. Thirteen lost their lives, including a soldier killed when an anti-aircraft battery, at the Balmoral show-grounds, misfired. The most significant loss was a 4½ acre factory floor for manufacturing the fuselages of Short Stirling bombers. The Royal Air Force announced that Squadron Leader J. W.C. Simpson shot down one of the Heinkels over Downpatrick.

The Luftwaffe crews returned to their base in Northern France and reported that Belfast's defences were, "inferior in quality, scanty and insufficient".

The "Easter Tuesday" Blitz

William Joyce (known as "Lord Haw-Haw") announced in radio broadcasts from Hamburg that there will be “Easter eggs for Belfast”.

Junkers Ju-88

On Easter Tuesday, April 15, 1941, spectators watching a football match at Windsor Park noticed a lone Luftwaffe Junkers Ju-88 aircraft circling overhead.[9] There was no military response. Distillery F.C. defeated Linfield F.C. by 3 goals to 1.

That evening up to 200 bombers left their bases in Northern France and the Low Countries and headed for Belfast. There were Heinkel He 111s, Junkers Ju 88s and Dorniers.

At 10:40PM the air raid sirens sounded. Accounts differ as to when flares were dropped to light up the city. The first attack was against the city's waterworks, which had been attacked in the previous raid. High explosives were dropped. 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. However that attack was not an error. When incendiaries were dropped and the city burned, the water pressure was too low for firefighting.

Wave after wave of bombers dropped their incendiaries, high explosives and land-mines. Altogether 203 metric tons of high explosive bombs, 80 landmines attached to parachutes, and 800 firebomb canisters containing 96,000 incendiary bombs were dropped on the city. [citation needed]

There was no opposition. In the mistaken belief that they might damage RAF fighters, the 7 anti-aircraft batteries, ceased firing. But the RAF had not responded. The bombs continued to fall until 5AM. 56,000 houses (more than half of the city's housing stock) were damaged leaving 100,000 temporarily homeless. Outside of London, this was the greatest loss of life in a night raid during the Blitz[10] A stray bomber attacked Derry killing 15. Another attacked Bangor killing 5.

By 4AM the entire city seemed to be in flames. At 4:15AM John MacDermot, the Minister of Security managed to contact Basil Brooke (then Agriculture Minister), seeking permission to seek help from the Éire Government. Brooke noted in his diary "I gave him authority as it is obviously a question of expediency". Since 1:45AM all telephones had been cut. Fortunately, the railway telegram from Belfast to Dublin was still operational. The telegram was sent at 4:35AM, asking the Irish Premier, de Valera for assistance.

Human cost

Over 900 lives were lost, 1,500 were injured, 400 of them seriously.50,000 houses, more than half the houses in the city, were damaged. 11 churches, 2 hospitals and 2 schools were destroyed. These figures are based on newspaper reports of the time, personal recollections and other primary sources, such as:-
Jimmy Doherty, an air raid warden (who later served in London during the V1 and V2 blitz), who wrote a book on the blitz;
Emma Duffin, a nurse at the Queen’s University Hospital, (who previously served during the Great War), who kept a diary;
and Major Seán O'Sullivan, who produced a detailed report for the Dublin government. There are other diarists and narratives. Dr. Brian Barton of Queen's University, Belfast has written most on this topic.

Instructions

When the bombs fell, the population did not know what to do. There were few bomb shelters. An air raid shelter on the Hallidays Road received a direct hit killing all those taking shelter within it. Many people who were dug out of the rubble alive had taken shelter underneath their stairs and were fortunate enough that their homes had not received a direct hit or had even caught on fire. The population did not know whether to run, hide or stay in their beds.

In the New Lodge area people had taken refuge in a Mill, which presumably appeared to them to be a sturdy building. Tragically 35 were crushed to death when the mill wall collapsed. In another mill, the York Street Mill, one of its massive sidewalls collapsed on to Sussex and Vere Streets killing all those who still remained in their homes.

Major O'Sullivan reported "In the heavily ‘blitzed’ areas people ran panic-stricken into the streets and made for the open country. As many were caught in the open by blast and secondary missiles, the enormous number of casualties can be readily accounted for. It is perhaps true that many saved their lives running but I am afraid a much greater number lost them or became casualties."

That night almost 300 people, many from the Protestant Shankill, took refuge in the Clonard Monastery in the Catholic Falls Road area. The crypt under the sanctuary and the cellar under the working sacristy, had been fitted out and opened to the people, as an air-raid shelter. Prayers were said and hymns sung by the mainly Protestant women and children during the bombing.

Mortuary

The mortuary services had emergency plans to deal with only 200 bodies. In the event, the public baths on the Falls Road and on Peter's Hill, and the large fruit market, Saint George's market, were used as mortuaries. 150 corpses remained in the Falls Road baths for three days. Then they were buried in a mass grave, with 123 still unidentified. 255 corpses were laid out in St George's Market. Many bodies and parts of bodies could not be identified.[11] Mass graves for the unclaimed bodies were dug in the Milltown and City Cemeteries.

Nurse Emma Duffin

Nurse Emma Duffin, who had served in the Great War, contrasted death in that conflict with what she saw:

“ (Great War casualties) had died in hospital beds, their eyes had been reverently closed, their hands crossed to their breasts. Death had to a certain extent been ... made decent. It was solemn, tragic, dignified, but here it was grotesque, repulsive, horrible. No attendant nurse had soothed the last moments of these victims; no gentle reverent hand had closed their eyes or crossed their hands. 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. Death should be dignified, peaceful; Hitler had made even death grotesque. I felt outraged, I should have felt sympathy, grief, but instead feelings of revulsion and disgust assailed me.”

Major Seán O'Sullivan

Major Seán 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.” The most heavily-bombed area was that which lay between York Street and the Antrim Road.

O'Sullivan felt that the whole civil defence sector was utterly overwhelmed. Heavy jacks were unavailable. He described some distressing consequences, such as how “in one case the leg and arm of a child had to be amputated before it could be extricated.”

In his opinion, the greatest want was the lack of hospital facilities. He went to the Mater Hospital at 2PM in the afternoon, 9 hours after the raid ended, to find the street with a traffic jam of ambulances waiting to admit their casualties. 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." 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”. His report concluded with: "a second Belfast would be too horrible to contemplate".

Gasworks vacuum

To a Dún Laoghaire (Dublin area) fireman the most haunting sight were not the horribly wounded dead, but those without a blemish. When the city’s gasworks exploded, there was a temporary vacuum.[citation needed][clarification needed] This smothered all fires and all life. Windows, slates, and all loose material were sucked from the houses. Those inside, mostly still lying in their beds, were lifeless, their eyes wide open with fright, and their mouths wide open seeking a breath.[citation needed]

Refugees

220,000 fled from the city. Many “arrived in Fermanagh having nothing with them only night shirts”. 10,000 “officially” crossed the border. Over 500 received care from the Irish Red Cross in Dublin. The town of Dromara saw its population increase from 500 to 2,500. In Newtownards, Bangor, Larne, Carrickfergus, Lisburn and Antrim many thousands of Belfast citizens took refuge either with friends or strangers.

O'Sullivan reported on a

“continuous trek to railway stations. The refugees looked dazed and horror stricken and many had neglected to bring more than a few belongings” … “Any and every means of exit from the city was availed of and the final destination appeared to be a matter of indifference.

Train after train and bus after bus were filled with those next in line. 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. 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.”

Moya Woodside noted in her diary: “Evacuation is taking on panic proportions. Roads out of town are still one stream of cars, with mattresses and bedding tied on top. Everything on wheels is being pressed into service. People are leaving from all parts of town and not only from the bombed areas. Where they are going, what they will find to eat when they get there, nobody knows.”

Cabinet Minister Richard Dawson Bates informed the cabinet of rack-renting of barns, and over thirty people per house in some areas.[12]

Newspaper reaction

The Irish Times editorial on April 17:

“Humanity knows no borders, no politics, no differences of religious belief. Yesterday for once the people of Ireland were united under the shadow of a national blow. 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? Yesterday the hand of good-fellowship was reached across the Border. Men from the South worked with men from the North in the universal cause of the relief of suffering.

Aftermath

Southern reaction

By 6AM; within two hours of the request for assistance, 71 firemen with 13 fire tenders from Dundalk, Drogheda, Dublin, and Dún Laoghaire were on their way to cross the Irish border to assist their Belfast colleagues. In each station volunteers were asked for, as it was beyond their normal duties. In every instance, all volunteered. They remained for three days, until they were sent back by the Northern Ireland government. By then 250 fire men from Clydeside had arrived.[13]

Taoiseach Eamon De Valera formally protested to Berlin. He followed up with his "they are our people" speech.

“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. He gave an interview to the press there, saying: “the people of Belfast are Irish people too”.

German response

Initial German radio broadcasts celebrated the raid. 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. Wherever Churchill is hiding his war material we will go ... Belfast is as worthy a target as Coventry, Birmingham, Bristol or Glasgow." William Joyce "Lord Haw-Haw" announced that "The Führer will give you time to bury your dead before the next attack ... Tuesday was only a sample."

However Belfast was not mentioned again by the Nazis. After the war, instructions from Joseph Goebbels were discovered ordering it not to be mentioned. 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. [citation needed]

Eduard Hempel, the German ambassador called to the Irish Ministry for External Affairs, to offer sympathy and attempt an explanation. J.P. Walshe, assistant secretary, recorded that the German was "clearly distressed by the news of the severe raid on Belfast and especially of the number of civilian casualties." 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. 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".

Recriminations

Among the people of Northern Ireland, reactions tended to blame their government for inadequate precautions. Tommy Henderson, an Independent Unionist MP in the House of Commons of Northern Ireland, summed up their feelings 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. They are sleeping in the same sheugh (ditch), below the same tree or in the same barn. They all say the same thing, that the government is no good."

One widespread criticism was that the Germans located Belfast by heading for Dublin, which was not observing a blackout and following the railway lines north. In The Blitz: Belfast in the war years, Dr Brian Barton wrote: "Government Ministers felt with justification, that the Germans were able to use the unblacked out lights in the south to guide them to their targets in the North." Barton insisted that Belfast was "too far north" to use radio guidance.

Other writers, such as Tony Gray's The Lost Years state that the Germans did follow their radio guidance beams. It seems strange that the railway line, and the railway telegraph wire which was used to call Dublin for help, remained intact if they were following it. Several accounts point out that Belfast, standing at the end of the long inlet of Belfast Lough, would be easily located.

Another claim was that the Catholic population in general and the IRA in particular guided the bombers. Dr 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.

This view was probably influenced by the decision of the IRA Army Council to support Germany. However they were not in a position to communicate with the Germans. Information recovered from Germany after the war showed that the planning of the blitz was based entirely on their own aerial reconnaissance.

Firemen return south

After three days, sometime after 6pm the fire crews from south of the border began making up their hose and ladders to head for home. By then most of the major fires were under control and the firemen from Clydeside and other British cities were arriving. Some had received food, others were famished. All were exhausted. Two of the crews received refreshments in Banbridge; others were entertained in the Ancient Order of Hibernians hall in Newry.

Belatedly in 1995 on the fiftieth anniversary of the ending of the Second World War an invitation was received by the Dublin Fire Brigade, addressed to any survivors of those historic days, to attend a function at Hillsborough Castle and meet Prince Charles. Only four of those who were there were still known to be alive at that time, one Tom Coleman, traveled north to receive some recognition for his colleagues' solidarity at such a critical time.

Later raids

There was a later raid on Belfast on May 4; it was confined to the docks and shipyards. Again the Irish emergency services crossed the border, this time without waiting for an invitation. On 31 May 1941 German bombers bombed neutral Dublin.

See also

Footnotes

^ Lady Londonderry confided to Sir Samuel Hoare, the Home Secretary, that Craigavon had become "ga-ga". Source: The Belfast Blitz, 1941, Jonathan Bardon, Lecturer of History, Queens University, Belfast.

References

  1. ^ BBC (2001-04-11). "The Belfast blitz is remembered". BBC News. Retrieved 2008-02-21. On 16 April 1941 Belfast was devastated as it bore the worst air raid of any city outside London [...] It was one of the largest German strike forces used to date in the war and the Luftwaffe was heading for a city later described as the most undefended in the United Kingdom.
  2. ^ Belfast Central Library (2005-12-12). "Memories of the Belfast Blitz". BBC Online. Retrieved 2008-02-21. No city, save London, suffered more loss of life in one night's raid on the United Kingdom [...] In Belfast on that one night many people died and thousands more were injured. It was the highest number of people killed in one air raid outside London.
  3. ^ Jonathan Bardon. Lecturer of History, Queens University, Belfast. "Extracts from an article on The Belfast Blitz, 1941". BELFAST BLITZ. Retrieved 2009-06-22.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  4. ^ http://navalhistory.flixco.info/H/63949/8330/a0.htm
  5. ^ "Munster". Commemorative Brochure. Maritime Institute of Ireland. Retrieved 24 August 2010.
  6. ^ Forde, (1981). The Long Watch, page 23: "Their home addresses, listed in the Articles of Agreement, show that they came from districts where respect for the Irish Free State was minimal if not hostile".
  7. ^ Barton, Brian (1989). The Blitz. Belfast: Blackstaff Press. p. 27. ISBN 0856404267. Preparing for war ... ... Progress in Northern Ireland was minimal {{cite book}}: Check |isbn= value: checksum (help)
  8. ^ Barton, Brian The Blitz: Belfast in the War Years Belfast, 1989
  9. ^ Peter Hughes. "The most unprotected city in the UK". BBC. Retrieved 2008-10-13.
  10. ^ Wills, (2007). That Neutral Island, page 213.
  11. ^ Barton, (1995). Northern Ireland in the Second World War, page 46.
  12. ^ Barton, (1995). Northern Ireland in the Second World War, page 49.
  13. ^ Clydeside's Ordeal by Fire by M. Chadwick
  • Barton, Brian (1989). The Blitz: Belfast in the war years. The Universities Press Ltd. ISBN 085640426-8.
  • Barton, Brian (1995). Northern Ireland in the Second World War. Ulster Historical Foundation. ISBN 9780901905697.
  • Tony Gray, The Lost Years: The Emergency in Ireland 1939-1945. ISBN 0-7515-2333-X
  • R. Fisk, In Time of War: Ireland, Ulster and the price of neutrality 1939-45 (Dublin 1983).
  • R.S. Davison, ‘The Belfast Blitz’, The Irish Sword, Vol. XVI, No.63 (1985)
  • Wills, Clair (2007). That Neutral Island. Faber and Faber. ISBN 9780571221059.
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