Belfast Blitz: Timeline of The Docks Raid

When Luftwaffe Bombers arrived over Northern Ireland on the night of 7th-8th April 1941, they found ideal bombing conditions. Records show 13 distinct radar and wireless plots of Bombers over the Co. Down coast during the raid. There are no clear records of the number of planes involved in The Docks Raid but a Royal Navy report to The Admiralty detailed 7 distinct attacks on the city by Heinkel HE111s with no more than 8 planes overhead at a time.

The leading group flew north over the Co. Down coast between Ardglass and Bangor. They then followed Belfast Lough in a westerly direction towards the city. By this time, German planes were beyond the 250-mile effective range of their navigation system. However, Belfast was not difficult to find. Well lit by the moon at the head of Belfast Lough, the Bombers were able even to follow the coastal lighthouses that remained operating despite the blackout.

Bombers over Belfast

Among this leading group was at least one plane from the elite Pathfinder Squadron Kampfgruppe 26. Crew records show they arrived over Belfast at 2250hrs and remained part of the attack until 0324hrs. During this time, they dropped a single 500kg high explosive bomb and 432 incendiary bombs, attacking from a height of 1,200 – 3,500 metres (3,937 – 11,482 feet).

These heights noted by the KG26 crew are consistent with other contemporary records of the time. Accounts agree that the Luftwaffe Bombers showed little respect for Belfast’s defences. Most Bombers attacked from a height of around 7,000 feet but at times swooped in approaching their targets from around 3,500 feet. This was still much higher than the city’s Barrage Ballon cover, which extended to 2,000 feet. Anti-Aircraft Guns around Belfast could fire to 12,000 feet but on 7th-8th April 1941, they remained ineffective as a line of defence.

As the raid progressed, the German crews grew in confidence and attacked from lesser heights. Records submitted by Admiralty Officials suggest that at least 2 Heinkel HE111s left their navigation lights on.

There was a sense of shock and disbelief throughout the city of Belfast as the first bombs fell. There had been no Red Alert before the raid began. Witnesses including Sir Wilfred Spender, Moya Woodside, Doreen Bates, and J.C. Beckett agree that the sounds of bombs and guns came before the sound of sirens.

Constable Donald Fleck of the York Road Royal Ulster Constabulary Barracks was on duty as the raid began. As he manoeuvred his Ford Patrol Car down Shore Road, he became aware of the hum of approaching planes. Near Fortwilliam Park, he flagged down a vehicle traveling at speed with headlights blazing. The driver, a British Army Officer home on leave, was certain the noise overhead was the approaching enemy. Soon after, the first Magnesium Flares lit up the sky as they descended on parachutes.

The first known casualty of The Docks Raid came not from Luftwaffe Bombing but from shrapnel from Anti-Aircraft fire. An Air Raid Precautions Warden on the way to his post sustained injuries before receiving treatment at the Mersey Street First Aid Post.

The Harbour Estate, Docks, and Shipyard bore the brunt of the 7th April 1941 raid. The entire area, despite its strategic importance, was easy to identify for the Luftwaffe crews. It was also poorly defended. As bombs fell in the area, fires quickly took hold, aided by the vast quantities of flammable materials. Stores around the Harbour Estate contained timber, tar, coal, and grain, all of which began to burn as the first Bombers started around a dozen fires.

A major fire broke out at the McCue, Dick, and Co. Ltd. Timber Yard on Duncrue Street, Belfast. By 0015hrs, the premises was a blazing inferno and firefighters would not arrive for a further hour and a quarter. By this time, the fire was out of control, and firefighters such as F.E. Watson gave up the task as hopeless.

In the same area, fires also burned at soap and chemical firms, and the nearby railway goods stores. Along Northern Road, 5 incendiary bombs landed within a 30-yard stretch igniting grass and bracken. These fast-spreading fires not only caused great damage but also lit the way for further attacks as Bombers approached in waves.

A further hindrance to firefighters across the city was the damage caused to water mains by the bombing. As fires raged across Belfast, the water pressure continued to fall. In some cases, little or no water was available to combat the blazes caused by Incendiary Bombs.

First Fatalities of The Docks Raid

Parachute Mines caused great devastation during The Docks Raid. Adapted sea mines of 9 feet long floated down on green silk parachutes. They contained up to 1,000kg of explosives which caused severe blast damage as the bombs lightly touched down and detonated. Wooden structures and buildings with shoddy brickwork did not stand a chance. Just off Duncrue Street, a Parachute Mine caused the first pair of fatalities of the Belfast Blitz.

Firefighter Jimmy Mackey, under instruction from Station Master Paddy Donnelly of Cork, Éire had left the Chichester Street Fire Station to attend the scene on Duncrue Street. Along with his crew, he battled fires as heavier bombs began to fall. In the near distance, a parachute fell and some firefighters ran towards it with cries of “get the bastard”. The slowly descending silken chute was not a member of a Luftwaffe crew, but rather a devastating mine. At the last moment, a colleague of Mackey shouted out a warning but it came too late for 2 volunteer members of the Auxiliary Fire Service. Archibald McDonald of Percy Street, Belfast, and Brice Harkness of Cookstown, Co. Tyrone became the first fatalities of the Belfast Blitz. A First Aid party later recovered the firefighters’ bodies and brought them to a First Aid Point at a local school.

While The Docks Raid focussed on industrial and commercial targets, civilian housing nearby also sustained damage. In North Belfast and East Belfast, rows of red-brick terraced housing in working-class areas suffered. Houses lost their roofs, had their windows shattered, and blasts from High Explosive Bombs pulled apart walls. Fortunately, the number of civilian casualties was low. During lulls in the bombing, Air Raid Precautions Wardens led some of the population towards shelters. During the night, they sang songs such as ‘Rose of Tralee’ and ‘There Will Always Be An England’, pausing in shocked silence on occasion when bombs exploded nearby.

In North Belfast, High Explosive Bombs and Incendiary Bombs fell on Shore Road and York Road. Off York Road, an Anti-Aircraft Gun Emplacement stood on the south side of Grove Park. More than half a dozen small bombs detonated in the area, churning up the ground, destroying a bowling green, and leaving the park closed for the following 2 weeks. Not all the bombs that fell in the area exploded including one near Grove Public Elementary School. The school building sustained blast damage but the unexploded device ensured the First Aid Post based there quickly relocated half a mile away to Mountcollyer Public Elementary School.

Opposite Grove Park, a High Explosive Bomb landed on a row of houses on York Road between Fife Street and Arosa Parade. The almost demolished houses caught fire but soon resident emerged, shaken but unhurt, where they received a heroes welcome. Just across the road at Alexandra Park Avenue, a bomb opened a 15 feet wide and 2 feet deep crater. By some fluke, nearby houses suffered no damage at all, not even a shattered pane of glass.

Another unexploded bomb in the area saw around 200 people evacuated to safety, while a less fortunate individual a few streets away had his bathtime interrupted. A large blast blew the man, still in his bath, into the middle of the street. While these areas around York Road and Shore Road suffered damage, other areas of North Belfast including Antrim Road escaped relatively unscathed.

When the All-Clear sounded across Belfast, those residents who had taken shelter emerged to survey the damage. In some areas, they found streets barely recognisable, piled knee-high with debris, rubble, slate, and broken glass.

The Docks Raid was part of one of the largest and most extensive air raids of the Second World War. Under the moonlight, every Civil Defence Region in the United Kingdom experienced the wrath of the Luftwaffe. Most areas remained on ‘Red Alert’ throughout the night. By the time, the Luftwaffe returned to Germany, they had recorded heavy and well-positioned flak over Glasgow and Liverpool. Belfast’s defences, on the other hand, were “inferior in quality, scanty, and insufficient”.