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Pilot's error blamed for bombs that brought second world war to Dublin
North Strand bombing 70 years ago tomorrow sparked rumours of a German attack on Irish neutrality, writes EOIN BURKE-KENNEDY
THE TREMOR from the final and most devastating blast in Dublin was felt as far away as Mullingar.
It was the last weekend in May, 70 years ago, the start of a sunny Whit Bank Holiday weekend, but it will forever be associated with the Republic’s worst wartime atrocity.
On May 31st, 1941, a single low-flying German aircraft dropped four bombs on Dublin, the last of which hit the city’s North Strand area, killing 29 people and injuring 90.
The evidence suggests the bombing was accidental, the action of a stray pilot most likely mistaking Dublin for a British city or responding to being fired upon by the Army’s anti-aircraft guns, according to military historian Lar Joye.
Rumours were rife at the time, however, that the raid was a deliberate attack on Ireland’s neutrality and the forerunner to an invasion by one of the warring parties, Joye said.
“One theory was that Ireland had been targeted by Germany for sending firefighters to Belfast to help tackle fires caused by German air raids six week previous.”
Another rumour which surfaced was that Britain had discovered a way of “bending” German radio beams and were directing enemy bombers off target, in this case to Ireland, said Joye, curator at the National Museum, Collins Barracks.
According to an Army report, the aircraft approached Dublin from a southerly direction after flying up the east coast, a route often taken by German aircraft on their way to Belfast or Liverpool in the days before radar.
On reaching the city, it flew around menacingly for up to an hour, jinking to avoid searchlight beams and drawing anti-aircraft fire from batteries in Stillorgan, Ballyfermot, Clontarf and finally Collinstown.
At approximately 1.28am, the first bomb was sent whistling through the night sky, exploding in the Ballybough area, demolishing two houses on Summerhill Parade.
This was followed by two more blasts, one of which left a crater on the North Circular Road, and another that landed in the Phoenix Park, shattering the windows in Áras an Uachtaráin and prompting a stampede of bison in the zoo.
The fourth and most deadly bomb, a 500lb landmine believed to have been dropped by parachute, landed in the middle of the road outside Corcoran’s shop on the North Strand shortly after 2am.
The bomb left a trail of devastation in its wake, destroying or damaging up to 300 houses and leaving dozens trapped under the debris. Four of the wrecked houses were tenements occupied by up to 80 people.
Many of the other buildings were small labourers’ cottages, and were flattened by the force of the blast.
Under the headline “Bombs In Dublin This Morning: Many Killed”, The Irish Times report from later that day, described a terrifying scene, “with people trapped in the debris crying for assistance, of little children shouting for their mothers, and of mothers who did not know the fate of their families”.
The report stated: “On the footpaths people in their night clothes, covered in blood, lay moaning, and stretchers with the injured or dead passed to and fro from the scene of destruction.”
In 1999, a German living in Canada, calling himself Heinrich, claimed in a radio interview that he was one of the Luftwaffe pilots involved in the Dublin bombing. He said his squadron had been tasked with bombing Belfast but had approached Dublin by mistake.
On June 19th, 1941, de Valera’s government announced that Berlin, after previously denying the attack, had expressed regret for the bombing and had promised reparation.
Compensation of £327,000 was eventually paid by West Germany in 1958.
The lord mayor of Dublin, Gerry Breen, and the German ambassador to Ireland will unveil a commemorative plaque in the North Strand area tomorrow.
Survivor’s account ‘it was utter devastation’
NOEL FITZGERALD, who was 21 at the time of the bombing, recalls standing in the doorwell of his family home on 43 Summerhill Parade when the first bomb hit.
“My mother and I were up late watching the anti-aircraft fire when suddenly there was a loud whistling noise, presumably the bomb dropping, and then a big flash.
“The house collapsed inwards and the two of us were blown out on to the street.
“The next thing I knew, we were frantically searching in the rubble for the rest of the family, with the help of the ARP wardens who had been quick to get there.
“My sister, my grandmother, my aunt and my young cousin had been in bed at the time of the blast and were buried in the debris.
“Miraculously, they all came out alive.
“While we were trying to rescue the others, the big bomb in North Strand went off.
“When all the family and neighbours were accounted for, I remember going down to the North Strand. It was utter devastation. There were people injured and dead lying on the street.
“I was never taken in by the conspiracy theories. I always believed the planes which bombed the South had merely shed bombs to lighten their load before returning to Germany.
“Although I do remember some people thinking that the anti-aircraft fire had provoked the bombing on the North Strand.
“ Most people thought if they [Germany] wanted to hit Ireland, to bring the country into the war, they would have done so on a bigger scale.
“After the bomb, my grandmother was taken to the Mater hospital where she died of pneumonia two weeks later.”
The family was later rehoused in Cabra.
“We got £20 worth of compensation from the Dublin Corporation, part of which I used to buy a suit.”
http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/...298056896.html
North Strand bombing 70 years ago tomorrow sparked rumours of a German attack on Irish neutrality, writes EOIN BURKE-KENNEDY
THE TREMOR from the final and most devastating blast in Dublin was felt as far away as Mullingar.
It was the last weekend in May, 70 years ago, the start of a sunny Whit Bank Holiday weekend, but it will forever be associated with the Republic’s worst wartime atrocity.
On May 31st, 1941, a single low-flying German aircraft dropped four bombs on Dublin, the last of which hit the city’s North Strand area, killing 29 people and injuring 90.
The evidence suggests the bombing was accidental, the action of a stray pilot most likely mistaking Dublin for a British city or responding to being fired upon by the Army’s anti-aircraft guns, according to military historian Lar Joye.
Rumours were rife at the time, however, that the raid was a deliberate attack on Ireland’s neutrality and the forerunner to an invasion by one of the warring parties, Joye said.
“One theory was that Ireland had been targeted by Germany for sending firefighters to Belfast to help tackle fires caused by German air raids six week previous.”
Another rumour which surfaced was that Britain had discovered a way of “bending” German radio beams and were directing enemy bombers off target, in this case to Ireland, said Joye, curator at the National Museum, Collins Barracks.
According to an Army report, the aircraft approached Dublin from a southerly direction after flying up the east coast, a route often taken by German aircraft on their way to Belfast or Liverpool in the days before radar.
On reaching the city, it flew around menacingly for up to an hour, jinking to avoid searchlight beams and drawing anti-aircraft fire from batteries in Stillorgan, Ballyfermot, Clontarf and finally Collinstown.
At approximately 1.28am, the first bomb was sent whistling through the night sky, exploding in the Ballybough area, demolishing two houses on Summerhill Parade.
This was followed by two more blasts, one of which left a crater on the North Circular Road, and another that landed in the Phoenix Park, shattering the windows in Áras an Uachtaráin and prompting a stampede of bison in the zoo.
The fourth and most deadly bomb, a 500lb landmine believed to have been dropped by parachute, landed in the middle of the road outside Corcoran’s shop on the North Strand shortly after 2am.
The bomb left a trail of devastation in its wake, destroying or damaging up to 300 houses and leaving dozens trapped under the debris. Four of the wrecked houses were tenements occupied by up to 80 people.
Many of the other buildings were small labourers’ cottages, and were flattened by the force of the blast.
Under the headline “Bombs In Dublin This Morning: Many Killed”, The Irish Times report from later that day, described a terrifying scene, “with people trapped in the debris crying for assistance, of little children shouting for their mothers, and of mothers who did not know the fate of their families”.
The report stated: “On the footpaths people in their night clothes, covered in blood, lay moaning, and stretchers with the injured or dead passed to and fro from the scene of destruction.”
In 1999, a German living in Canada, calling himself Heinrich, claimed in a radio interview that he was one of the Luftwaffe pilots involved in the Dublin bombing. He said his squadron had been tasked with bombing Belfast but had approached Dublin by mistake.
On June 19th, 1941, de Valera’s government announced that Berlin, after previously denying the attack, had expressed regret for the bombing and had promised reparation.
Compensation of £327,000 was eventually paid by West Germany in 1958.
The lord mayor of Dublin, Gerry Breen, and the German ambassador to Ireland will unveil a commemorative plaque in the North Strand area tomorrow.
Survivor’s account ‘it was utter devastation’
NOEL FITZGERALD, who was 21 at the time of the bombing, recalls standing in the doorwell of his family home on 43 Summerhill Parade when the first bomb hit.
“My mother and I were up late watching the anti-aircraft fire when suddenly there was a loud whistling noise, presumably the bomb dropping, and then a big flash.
“The house collapsed inwards and the two of us were blown out on to the street.
“The next thing I knew, we were frantically searching in the rubble for the rest of the family, with the help of the ARP wardens who had been quick to get there.
“My sister, my grandmother, my aunt and my young cousin had been in bed at the time of the blast and were buried in the debris.
“Miraculously, they all came out alive.
“While we were trying to rescue the others, the big bomb in North Strand went off.
“When all the family and neighbours were accounted for, I remember going down to the North Strand. It was utter devastation. There were people injured and dead lying on the street.
“I was never taken in by the conspiracy theories. I always believed the planes which bombed the South had merely shed bombs to lighten their load before returning to Germany.
“Although I do remember some people thinking that the anti-aircraft fire had provoked the bombing on the North Strand.
“ Most people thought if they [Germany] wanted to hit Ireland, to bring the country into the war, they would have done so on a bigger scale.
“After the bomb, my grandmother was taken to the Mater hospital where she died of pneumonia two weeks later.”
The family was later rehoused in Cabra.
“We got £20 worth of compensation from the Dublin Corporation, part of which I used to buy a suit.”
http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/...298056896.html
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