HISTORY
THE HIDDEN HEROES OF THE BELFAST BLITZ IN APRIL AND MAY 1941, BELFAST WAS BOMBED BY THE GERMAN LUFTWAFFE, RESULTING IN HEAVY LOSS OF LIFE, MANY INJURIES AND MAJOR DAMAGE TO PROPERTY. IN RESPONSE TO A REQUEST FOR HELP, FIRE BRIGADE CREWS FROM DUBLIN, DUN LAOGHAIRE, DROGHEDA AND DUNDALK, WENT NORTH TO PROVIDE ASSISTANCE TO THE PEOPLE OF BELFAST. THIS IS THE TALE OF THAT NIGHT AND HOW IRELAND RISKED IT’S NEUTRALITY BY SENDING IT’S FIREFIGHTERS TO HELP. Up to April 1941, nobody ever expected Belfast to be targeted by the Luftwaffe, mainly because it was believed the city was beyond the range of their bombers - all that changed with the fall of France. Belfast was bombed for the first time on April 7 with the shipyard badly damaged but it also demonstrated to the Nazi war strategists that Belfast was virtually unprotected. The city was practically a sitting duck for their next, more serious assault on April 15/16 - though followed by the bombardment in early May - which was by far the worst of the three. It is believed the objective was to knock out two key industries; Shorts factory which manufactured planes, and the Harland & Wolff shipyard, which supplied warships to the British government. The Nazi bombardment left parts of Belfast virtually unrecognisable and the city's emergency services completely overstretched. Much of the city centre and the northern areas were devastated. Stretches of well-known streets such as the Antrim Road, York Street, the New Lodge Road and Duncairn Gardens were destroyed. As dawn broke the full extent of the damage from the attack was realised.
RESCUE WORKERS SEARCHING THROUGH RUBBLE AFTER AN AIR RAID ON BELFAST (EGLINTON STREET, 1941)
The immediate problem for Belfast was fire, of which there were approximately 200. Adding to the problem, the waterworks on the Antrim Road has been hit during the bombing and many water mains had been damaged. There was also a shortage of equipment to pump water from the River Lagan. It was becoming apparent that Belfast’s fire service could not cope and a call for emergency assistance was sent first to London, and then to Dublin. A team of 200 firemen from Liverpool and Glasgow was quickly organised and dispatched by the British government. As welcome as this was, it would take 24 hours for these teams to reach the city from Britain. It was clear, Belfast needed more immediate help. Although there’s a lack of official accounts about what happened next, it’s believed that John McDermott, the Minister of Public Security in Northern Ireland, sent an urgent plea for help to the Dublin Government. The response to Stormont’s plea for help by Éamon de Valera’s government was remarkable, given the historically tense relations between the two jurisdictions and the state’s policy of neutrality, and possible repercussions from Germany.
Upon receiving the request for assistance, volunteers were sought from brigades in Dublin, Dun Laoghaire, Drogheda and Dundalk. Poor record keeping has made compiling a list, or providing an accurate figure of volunteers, nigh on impossible. Whatever their numbers, following assurances were given that their families would be looked after, should the need arise, volunteers along with approximately 13 appliances and ambulances were soon headed north. In the early hours of April 16 1941, a line of fire brigades quietly crossed the border at Killeen, from where they were escorted to the smoking ruins of a devastated Belfast by the RUC. Fighting fires on this scale was all new to the firefighters from the South and many were shocked by what they found. As noted in Sean Redmond’s book Belfast is Burning, one of the men, John Kelly described “Human bodies and dead animals lying all over the place.” Aside from witnessing the horrors of war first hand, firefighters were struck by the overall lack of oxygen, due to the extent of the fires and the intense heat generated. The men were warmly welcomed to the city, The Belfast Telegraph wrote, on April 17: FireServicesJournal 23
