The Belfast Blitz
April and May
1941
Learning Intentions
The Belfast Blitz
In this presentation you will find out:
1.What does the word Blitz mean?
2.When did the attacks on Belfast take place?
3.Why was Belfast attacked?
4.What were the results of the Belfast Blitz?
Thinking Skills
and
personal capabilities
• Managing information
• Thinking
• Problem solving
• Decision making
Key Words
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Blitz
Blitzkrieg
Anti-aircraft guns
Search Lights
Barrage Balloons
Night Fighters
ARP Wardens
Public/Private shelters
Gasmasks
Evacuation
Setting the Scene
• Hitler’s Blitzkrieg sweeps through Europe
1939-1940
Why did Belfast Ignore the threat
of attack?
• The N.I Government believed Belfast was too far away for
attack.
“An attack on N. Ireland would involve a flight of over 1,000
miles. For Aeroplanes of the bombing type, loaded, this si
a very big undertaking and the enemy airplanes must
twice pass through the active gun, searchlight and
aeroplane defences of Great Britain and it is possible we
might escape attack.”
(Edmund Warnock, Parliamentary Secretary at the Ministry
of Home Affairs)
Why was Belfast an important target
for the Germans?
• Harland & Wolff – Tonnage of shipping built,
largest of any in the world
• Warships – Aircraft Carriers, Corvettes,
Merchant ships and ship repairs
• 500 Churchills
• Short & Harland – Stirling bombers,
Sunderland Flying Boats
• Mackies & Ropeworks
In what way was Belfast badly
prepared defensively?
• By 1941 Belfast had still not been affected by
the war even though it had begun 20 months
earlier (September 1939)
• The reaction in N. Ireland did not compare
well to the comprehensive evacuation and air
raid protection schemes implemented in
Britain
• As a result Belfast was the least prepared city
in the UK
Facts
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Anti-aircraft Guns
Searchlights
Barrage Balloons
Night Fighters
ARP Wardens
Public/Private Shelters
Gasmasks
Evacuation
The Belfast Blitz
The First Attack!
The Dockside Raid
7th – 8th April 1941
The Dockside raid
• Moon half full, winds light and visibility good
• The raid began after midnight and lasted three
and a half hours
• The first raid was an exploratory raid and was
used to test Belfast’s Defences and unnerve
the population
The Luftwaffe
• The Luftwaffe had been tried and tested across
Europe (From Spain in 1936 to France in 1940)
and up until the Battle of Britain was regarded as
the best in the world
• They took off from Northern France and flew
along the coast of Ireland until reaching their
target, Belfast
• They could not believe the scant defences
around the city
Attack!
• The Luftwaffe simply disregarded local anti-aircraft
guns and attacked just above the barrage balloons
• The defence was that weak that the German planes
even kept their navigation lights on
• In East Belfast, the Newtownards Road, Templemore
Avenue and Alberbridge Road were badly damaged
• It is said that in this area “incendiary bombs rained
down like hailstones and flames spouting up
everywhere”
The Belfast Blitz
What was happening in Belfast on
Easter Tuesday 1941?
Easter Tuesday 1941
• Families visit the Zoo
• Bangor and back for a “bob”
• Big match at Windsor: Linfield vs Distillery
• Dancing at the Floral Hall
The Second Raid
Easter Tuesday Night – Mild, Bright, ¾ Moon
• 180 German bombers took off from airfields in
Northern France
• At 10.40 pm local time sirens went off around the
city
• People ran for cover wherever they could get it
• Trams stopped running
• 10.45 pm Parachute flares light the streets of
Belfast
The Impact of the second raid
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The raid lasted for 5 hours
30,000 incendiaries dropped
700 high explosive bombs
200 tons of explosives & parachute land mines
Houss collapsed like packs of cards
The hardest hit was North and West Belfast
Contd…
The Impact of the second raid
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Cavehill, Crumlin and Antrim Road devastated
Victoria Barracks destroyed
York St Mill severely damaged
Air raid shelter in Percy St collapses killing 30
40 workers in Harland & Wolff killed
Telephone exchange at Oxford St. destroyed
Contd…
The Impact of the second raid
• Communications damage leads to Anti-aircraft
operation ceasing
• Lines to Great Britain destroyed
• Message sent to Dublin leads to 13 fire
appliances and 70 crew helping Belfast
• 4.55 am the all clear siren was sounded
• The number of dead listed at the time was
858 people killed
Evacuation
• Over the next few days people fled the city
• By the end of the month 100,000 had left
Belfast
• The people frightened of the Luftwaffe
returning moved to the hills of Castlereagh,
Gilnahirk, Glenglrmley and Cavehill
The Aftermath
• The 858 killed was the highest number of
fatalities in any single raid outside of London
• The dead were collected in ambulances, coal
lorries, furniture vans
• Temporary mortuaries were established at the
Falls Road and St Peter’s Hill baths
• Unclaimed bodies were taken to St George’s
Market and onto to common graves in Milltown
and City Cemeteries
• Thousands of mourners lined the route
Sunday 4th May 1941
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Cloudless Night – Full Moon
12.47 am – 204 enemy aircraft attack Belfast
Accurate bombing began
96,000 incendiaries and 237 tons of explosives
dropped
• ARP wardens report widespread panic
Continued Devastation
• “Huge crowds of panic-stricken people rushing
from damaged terraces, often leaving
relations, friends or neighbours buried,
wounded or dead lying in the debris.”
• The residential area of East Belfast,
Ballymacarret to Syndenham suffered the
most
• At least half of the houses here were
destroyed
Continued Devastation
• Damage caused to water mains led to fire
spreading unchecked
• City centre heavily damaged
• High explosives and incendiaries rained down on
Shaftesbury Square, The City Hall, Bedford St.,
Chicester St., Donegall Place, Castle Place, Castle
St., High St., Victoria St.
• Some of Belfast’s finest streets were reduced to
smouldering ashes – Rosemary, High, Waring,
North and Bridge Streets
Continued Devastation
• During the raid a number of Belfast’s most
attractive buildings were destroyed or
severely damaged – Rosemary St Presbyterian
Church, The Banqueting Hall in the City Hall
and the Belfast water commissioners office
• York St Mill was hit again with “Flames coming
from every window”
• The fires in Belfast could be seen from Bangor,
Lisburn and the Glenshane Pass
Aftermath
• The all clear was sounded at 5.15 am
• That morning, without trams or trolley buses,
people walked to work, crowding the footpaths
• The condition of Belfast was such that people
who had lived there all their lives lost their way.
They passed smoking ruins of barely recognisable
buildings. May citizens were crying when they
saw the devastation
• In this raid 191 people were killed, half of them
women and children
Aftermath
• East Belfast and City centre destroyed
• 2 out of 3 workshops in Harland & Wolff
destroyed
• Short & Harland aircraft factory hit,
widespread damage
• 3 months of production was lost
The Final Raid 5/6th May 1941
• On this night at 12.45 am a small raid of about
3 aircraft dropped incendiary bombs and high
explosives on East Belfast
• At 2 am, 2 public shelters were destroyed,
killing 14 people and injuring 40
• 300 people from Ravenscroft Avenue were
made homeless
Stray Aircraft
• It is almost certain that this raid was carried
out by ‘stray aircraft’ taking part in a raid on
Glasgow and possibly attracted by the fires
still burning in Belfast from the night before
Aftermath
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The raids in April and May were terrible
56,000 houses were damaged or destroyed
Half the city’s housing was affected
100,000 people were made homeless
Belfast’s industrial infrastructure suffered
extensively, delaying production for six
months
• The total killed was in excess of 1,100 civilians
Irish Times headlines
The gravestone erected at Milltown Cemetery, Belfast, in
memory of the unidentified victims of the 15-16 April raid in
1941
(Ulster Museum)