Memorial Proposal Recalls Blitz Anniversary

A solemn monument to commemorate victims of the Belfast Blitz that began 70 years ago today will be located in a park beside St Anne's Cathedral.

Depending on a feasibility study, Belfast City Council is to back a proposal for the first civic Blitz memorial in the city.

That location saw some of the worst bombing but although St Anne's Cathedral was in the middle of the danger zone, it managed to escape any direct hits.

Almost 1,000 were killed and thousands more injured in two raids around Easter - with the first taking place seven decades ago today, on 7 April 1941 - and the second, much bigger raid bringing the greatest loss of life outside of the city of London.

Dublin was also bombed by the Germans later that same year, but the biggest raid was on Easter Tuesday, 15 April 1941 and saw 200 Luftwaffe bombers attacking Belfast, leaving around 100,000 people - of a total population of 425,000 - homeless.

Fifty-thousand houses, more than half the houses in the city, were damaged.

Eleven churches, two hospitals and two schools were destroyed.

Dublin Fire Brigade sent appliances across the border to assist in the rescue operation, succ was the extent of the carnage.

However, the first raid took place 70 years ago - on the night of April 7 - and targeted the docks, but neighbouring residential areas were also hit.

Seventy years ago today, six Heinkel He111 bombers, from Kampfgruppe 26, flying at 7,000 feet, dropped incendiaries, high explosive and parachute-bombs.

Thirteen people lost their lives and a large factory floor for manufacturing the fuselages of Stirling bombers at Shorts in east Belfast was destroyed.

See: Home Front Blitz Anniversary Looms

(BMcC/GK)