Oliver asks: I would like to know why Belfast was the most poorly defended city in the UK. And due to the inadequate preparation for the Blitz, could the blame be laid on the Government for the vast numbers that met their death?

Dr Brian Barton: The NI Minister, responsible for blitz preparation described Belfast as "less well protected" than any other major city or port in the UK. The reasons for the lack of preparation was the assumption that Belfast would never be bombed.

It was remote, from the theatre of war and from the govt at Westminster. It was thought that German bombers would cross Britain to strike targets in the city coming from Germany.

The fact that Eire's neutrality encouraged the view that the city would not be attacked as did the fact that it avoided any bombing until April 1941.

By then, 30,000 had died in air raids in Britain. A further cause of the lack of preparation was the poor quality of govt leadership locally.

NI Ministers were old, they thought that NI's defence was a British responsibility and they lacked money to make adequate preparations.

Keith asks: What type of defences did Belfast possess?

Dr Brian Barton: Northern Ireland's defences consisted of 22 anti aircraft guns, one squadron of fighters based at Aldergrove, which was not equipped for night fighting. And a balloon barrage.

When the first raids occurred it had no search lights, and no smoke screen. In addition it had shelters which would have held a quarter of Belfast population, if fully occupied.

In April 41, roughly 4000 women and children had evacuated from the city. Govt evacuation schemes failed because the public did not expect Belfast to be attacked and therefore did not respond to them. There were then, in April 41, roughly 80,000 children still living in Belfast.

Richard asks: Why there is no monument to the massive number of people who died and the incredible number of people who lost their homes?

Dr Brian Barton: It is surprising that there is no memorial to the casualties of the German air raids. During 10 hours of raids, roughly 1000 civilians lost their lives.

The only memorial is at the Milltown and City Cemeteries where the unclaimed bodies of those who died on the Easter Tuesday raid are buried. The headstones there indicate that this is where the victims of the raid lie.

Dee asks: How important a target did the Germans regard Belfast?

Dr Brian Barton: By 1941, Belfast had become a significant munitions producer - Harland and Wolff, Short and Harlands, the Ropeworks, etc. in addition, it was an important port for the import of armanents etc from the US and a base for shipping used to defend the merchant ships which crossed the Atlantic.

The German Minister in Dublin, defended the attack on Belfast, on the grounds that it had become in German opinion vital to the British war effort. It was especially vulnerable to attack because it was so easy to locate.

Standing on the Lough, it was easy to find and German aircraft travelling from airfields in France could use the Irish coast and unconcealed lights, south of the border, where there was no blackout, to locate the city easily.

The bombers delivered their bombs by sight. They did not use navigational beams as Belfast was too far north.

Rachel asks: Why were there so many casualties on the Easter Tuesday raid?

Dr Brian Barton: Roughly 900 civilians died in the Easter Tuesday raid, when Belfast was attacked by 180 german bombers for 5 and a half hours dropping on average 2 bombs per minute.

The death rate was higher, than for any city outside of London during the war, it was
Dr Brian Barton so high because of the lack of shelters and their not being utilised. Also so few people had evacuated from the city.

It was virtually undefended, bomb damage to the telephone exchange early in the raid, caused the AA guns to fall silent as well housing was poor, few houses were built inter-wars and many of the bombs fell on populated areas.

This may be because the Germans mistook the water works for the docks, north belfast suffered especially badly. The docks largely escaped, partly because of a smoke screen there. Also because cloud cover increased obscuring the area, and causing 50 aircraft to divert to other targets.

Also fires in the docks were quickly put out so later waves of aircraft dropped their bombs elsewhere, where the fires were still alight.

Ernie asks: How long did the raids last on each occasion and on how many more occasions would the citizens have been alarmed and alerted by sirens?

Dr Brian Barton: The first raid on Belfast was on the 7 - 8 April, and lasted for 3 and a half hours from 12 midnight. The Easter Tuesday raid 15/16th April, lasted 5 and a half hours, starting at 11.30.

The last big raid was on Sunday night, 4/5 May, it lasted 3 and a half hours and involved 200 aircraft. The following night, two or three aircraft appeared over the city, dropping bombs in East Belfast, causing the death of 14 civilians.

In all, the raids lasted about 10 hours. Belfast comes 12th in a list of UK cities bombed - this is assessed by the weight of bombs dropped. The sirens first went off in 25 October 1940 in Belfast.

They sounded 22 more times before the first bombs fell on the city on the 7/8th April. From the summer of 1941, warnings became very infrequent.

From October 1940, the sirens were activated by the sight of German Reconnaisance aircraft who were then building up information about targets in the city which were later given to Luftwaffe pilots when they blitzed the city.

Anne asks: Did the Germans get any help in pinpointing their targets?

Dr Brian Barton: Certainly there were suspicions that the Germans were assisted in identifying targets, held by the Unionist population. It is true that the bulk of the damage caused by the raids was in Protestant areas.

East Belfast particularly suffered, though this may be explained by the concentration of significant heavy industry in that part of the city. The police, at the time reported seeing lights shining from the hills surrounding the city and thought it suspicious.

Govt 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. In any case, the bombing techniques themselves were crude.

The bombers delivered their bombs by sight. In the first wave of the attack, the elite Pathfinder squadrons were involved. They tried to find the targets and bomb them and set them alight. The subsequent waves of aircraft attacked where the fires were lit.

Davy asks: Were any bombers brought down over Belfast?

Dr Brian Barton: I think that two German bombers were shot down during the raids on the North by the squadron based at Aldergrove. The anti aircraft guns were totally ineffective.

Ellen asks: What effect did the strikes have on the sectarian attitudes/geography of the city?

Dr Brian Barton: Arguably, the blitz did bring the two communities more closely together. For example, in the 4th of May raid, many Protestants from the Shankill sheltered in the vaults at Clonard Monastry.

They also served together in civil defence and evacuated enmasse from the city in panic. However, those who evacuated almost always stayed with co-religionists. At the time of the public funeral of unclaimed bodies, Protestants and Catholics were buried in separate graveyards.

The Protestants in the City Cemetery and Catholics at Milltown. The war exposed different attitudes within the population, for example, the Catholic population was much more strongly opposed to conscription, was inclined to sympathise with Germany, and was hostile generally to the presence of US troops another cause of friction was the belief in Protestant circles that Catholics were exploiting the enlistment of Protestant men, in Crown forces by taking their jobs at home.



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