I grew up on the Antrim Road and our house had black out shutters - to protect those who lived there during the Belfast Blitz. Many casualties of the Belfast Blitz are buried or remembered in Milltown Cemetry.
The Blitz of Belfast 1941
Belfast suffered a series of bombing raids in the spring of 1941, which became known as the ‘Blitz of Belfast’.
Belfast was home to some very important industries that were vital to the war effort. Harland and Wolff shipyards were based in the city. These employed 35,000 people and destroyers, aircraft carriers and mine sweepers were built here. The aircraft manufacturer Short and Harland employed 20,000 people and was also based in Belfast.
The Luftwaffe concluded that Belfast “was the most poorly defended city in the UK”. Their conclusion was very accurate. The government of Northern Ireland had long held the view that Belfast was simply too far away for the Luftwaffe to reach. Only 200 air raid shelters had been built for a population of 500,000. The government in London told politicians in Stormont to concentrate on building air bases as opposed to bomb shelters.
The ‘Easter Raid’ took place on April 15th/16th 1941. Prior to the raid, many hundreds of people had walked to the hills that surround Belfast. Between 150 and 160 Luftwaffe bombers attacked Belfast and dropped around 200 tons of high explosive and incendiary bombs. Around 56,000 homes were damaged or destroyed. The Luftwaffe first targeted the city’s waterworks. Some thought that the reflection off the reservoir had fooled the pilots into thinking that they were near the docks. In fact, the waterworks had been deliberately targeted. The damage to the city was so great that the government in Stormont asked the Republic of Ireland for help. They sent thirteen fire appliances manned by 71 volunteers. They stayed for three days to help.
Over 250 aircraft attacked Belfast. The sirens started at 24.00 and the first bombs were dropped at 01.00. Over 230 tons of high explosive bombs were dropped and 100,000 incendiary bombs. The main target was the docks. The damage was such that two-thirds of Harland and Wolff shipyards were destroyed and Short and Harland aircraft factories were out of commission for three months. The city centre was also hit. The historic Royal Avenue area suffered major damage. More than 200 were killed in this raid. The Memel Street shelter took a direct hit. It took dockworkers a week of digging to find the first of the thirteen corpses at the site of the shelter.
The part played by the people of Belfast was recognized by Prime Minister Winston Churchill at the end of the war in Europe when he wrote to Stormont:
"But for the loyalty of Northern Ireland and its devotion to what has now become the cause of thirty governments or nations, we should have been confronted with slavery and death, and the light which now shines so strongly throughout the world would have been quenched.”
Only London suffered more damage and casualties from a one-off raid, such was the intensity of the Easter Raid on Belfast. Congratulations UlsterLatinos for the FTF.