Air Raids, Belfast, Northern Ireland, 1941, by Andy Ritchie

From MemoryArchive

Who: Andy Ritchie
What: Air raids
When: Easter 1941
Where: Belfast, Northern Ireland

It was a lovely Easter Season 1941 and the Second World War was 19 months old when Belfast, Northern Ireland, experienced two horrific Air Raids by the German Air Force.

The first occured on Easter Sunday night and the second was 48 hours later (Easter Tuesday night). I was 7 years old at the time and have vivid memories of being wakeded when the Air Raid sirens went off and my younger brother and I were quicklt=y dressed in "siren suits" (the name is selt-explanatory) and my mum rushed us with the neighbours to what was cxalled "the plots". This was an area in every district where the community grew their own vegetables to help with the war effort. The men of the district were Air Raid Wardens whose responsibility was the look after the aged to make sure they were as safe as possible.

The big hobby of the men at that time - and still is - raising pigeons and the three of us found shelter (if you could call it that) by lying under the pigeon house. From this vantage point we could see the planes overhead and heard the bombs explode. It was indeed most frightening and after the "All Clear" sounded we came out to see some of the district oblitered - all the houses sustained some damage. My wife who lived about 10 minutes away at the time experienced the same conditions. The Air Raid Shelters were built after the raids and, thankfully, were never used as there were no more raids.

Another vivid memory my wife and I share was carring our gas masks to school every day and periodically a Government van would drive up to the school yard and were told to put on our gas masks and instructed to walk through the van. It was all most exciting at our age. It was not until much later we found out the reason for this exercise was to test for leaks in the gas masks as when we walked through the van there was a small amount - not dangerous - gas released and if we came out with "watery"eyes that was an indication that there was a leak in the mask and it was replaced.