156 The Bombing of Dublin, After the Battle, After the Battle(1)
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//-->IS PARIS BURNING?THE BOMBING OF DUBLINA NIGHT AT THE ACROPOLISNo. 156£4.25NUMBER 156© CopyrightAfter the Battle2012Editor: Karel MargryEditor-in-Chief: Winston G. RamseyPublished byBattle of Britain International Ltd.,The Mews, Hobbs Cross House,Hobbs Cross, Old Harlow,Essex CM17 0NN, EnglandTelephone: 01279 41 8833Fax: 01279 41 9386E-mail: hq@afterthebattle.comWebsite:www.afterthebattle.comPrinted in Great Britain byWarners Group Publications PLC,Bourne, Lincolnshire PE10 9PH.After the Battleis published on the 15thof February, May, August and November.LONDON STOCKIST for theAfter the Battlerange:Foyles Limited, 113-119 Charing Cross Road,London WC2H 0EB. Telephone: 020 7437 5660.Fax: 020 7434 1574. E-mail: orders@foyles.co.uk.Web site: www.foyles.co.ukUnited Kingdom Newsagent Distribution:Warners Group Publications PLC,Bourne, Lincolnshire PE10 9PHAustralian Subscriptions and Back Issues:Renniks Publications Pty LimitedUnit 3, 37-39 Green Street, Banksmeadow NSW 2019Telephone: 61 2 9695 7055. Fax: 61 2 9695 7355E-mail: info@renniks.com. Website:www.renniks.comCanadian Distribution and Subscriptions:Vanwell Publishing Ltd.,622 Welland Avenue, St. Catharines, OntarioTelephone: (905) 937 3100. Fax: (905) 937 1760Toll Free: 1-800-661-6136E-mail: sales@vanwell.comNew Zealand Distribution:Dal McGuirk’s “MILITARY ARCHIVE”, PO Box 24486,Royal Oak, Auckland 1345, New ZealandTelephone: 021 627 870. Fax: 9-6252817E-mail: milrchiv@mist.co.nzUnited States Distribution and Subscriptions:RZM Imports Inc, 184 North Ave., Stamford, CT 06901Telephone: 1-203-324-5100. Fax: 1-203-324-5106E-mail: info@rzm.com Website:www.rzm.comItalian Distribution:Tuttostoria, PO Box 395, 1-43100 ParmaTelephone: ++390521 29 27 33. Fax: ++390521 29 03 87E-mail: info@tuttostoria.it Website:www.tuttostoria.itDutch Language Edition:SI Publicaties/Quo Vadis, Postbus 188,6860 AD OosterbeekTelephone: 026-4462834. E-mail: si@sipublicaties.nlAbove and below:Rescue workers, Local Defence Force wardens and members of theSt John’s Ambulance searching the ruins for survivors in North Strand Road after theWhit Saturday raid.CONTENTSTHE BOMBING OF DUBLINWAR FILMIs Paris Burning?PERSONALITYLyndon B. Johnson’s Silver StarGREECEA Night at the Acropolis2123649Front Cover:The liberation of Paris in August1944 recreated for the war movieIs ParisBurning?,which was shot in the French capitalin 1965. This scene shows the attack by tanksand soldiers of the 2ème Division Blindée,helped by FFI resistance fighters, on theGerman headquarters in the Hotel Meurice onRue de Rivoli — then and now. (Karel Margry)Back Cover:The Greek flag flying over theAcropilis in Athens. It was here, on amoonlit night in May 1941, that two youngGreeks — Manolis Glezos and ApostolosSantas – tore down the swastika flag in afamous act of defiance against the Nazioccupier. Today, a bronze plaque at the footof the mast records their deed. (Sailko)Acknowledgements:For help with the Dublinstory, the Editor thanks Jos Liefkens andWilliam Lee, and for the feature on the filmIsParis Burning?,he is indebted to EgbertBarten, Thijs Ockerse, Adriaan Bijl andparticularly Gilles Primout, webmaster ofwww.liberation-de-paris.gilles-primout.fr.Photo Credits:BA — Bundesarchiv; IWM —Imperial War Museum, London; LBJ Library— Lyndon B. Johnson Library and Museum,Austin, Texas; NIOD — Nederlands Instituutvoor Oorlogsdocumentatie, Amsterdam.2On the night of May 30/31, 1941, four Luftwaffe bombers, ontheir way to attack Liverpool, drifted off track and by mistakebombed the city of Dublin, the capital of the neutral state ofIreland. Their bombs hit a mostly working-class area of the city,including the areas of North Richmond Street, Rutland Place,Phoenix Park, and most especially hard hit, the North Strand.The raid claimed the lives of over 40 people, injured more than100, destroyed or damaged 300 houses, and left almost 2,000 per-sons homeless. The calamity — which occurred during the Whitbank holiday weekend — was a cataclysmic event in Dublin’s his-tory and one that shocked all of Ireland. This is North StrandRoad, the site that suffered the greatest havoc and destruction.THE BOMBING OF DUBLINThe neutral state of Ireland was bombedby the Luftwaffe a number of times duringthe Second World War. By far the worst inci-dent was the bombing of Dublin’s NorthStrand area early on the morning of May 31,1941. The Irish Department of Defencedescribed it as an ‘incident which had all thefeatures of a major air raid’; theEveningHeraldcalled it the city’s ‘Night of Horror’.‘THE EMERGENCY’Following the outbreak of hostilities inEurope in September 1939, Ireland’sTaoiseach (Prime Minister) Éamon deValera reaffirmed his country’s neutralityamid what he termed ‘The Emergency’. Reit-erating his position that ‘government policyis to keep this country out of the war, andnobody, either here or elsewhere, has anyright to assume anything else’, Germany’s1940 invasion of the neutral Low Countriescame as a bitter blow. Addressing the largelyapathetic public about the dangers of com-placency, a troubled de Valera remindedthem that for the first time in 700 years Ire-land was on her own and no longer underBritain’s protection. Hopelessly incapable ofrepelling an invader, preparations were nev-ertheless taken to protect the populace fromthe dangers of aerial attack. A series of look-out posts (LOPs) were established to providesurveillance of airspace and seawardapproaches. Those clustered around Carn-sore Point, the south-eastern tip of theisland, were particularly busy during theBlitz when Luftwaffe bombers flew over theIrish Sea on their way to targets in Wales, theClyde Valley and the Mersey towns, in par-ticular Liverpool. Dublin’s defences includedLOPs, sound locators and 14 anti-aircraftguns. A lack of ammunition, however,severely curtailed practice shoots and it wasBy David Mitchelhill-Greenonly at the end of 1940 that British PrimeMinister Winston Churchill relaxed an armsembargo to Éire.The same view today, looking in a southerly direction from a point just south of theNewcomen Bridge. The latter crosses the Royal Canal and divides North Strand Roadinto a southern and northern part.3WILLIAM LEEDUBLINLIVERPOOLBRISTOLSCILLY ISLESThe four German bombers belonged to a group of some 90 air-craft from Luftflotte 3 detailed to attack Bristol and Liverpool,but why they accidentally bombed Dublin has never beenestablished with certainty. Most likely it was just a case of afew crews losing their way. By May 1941 the night defencesover mainland Britain had improved significantly and thisresulted in Luftflotte 3 aircraft bound for Liverpool, Birkenhead,Glasgow and Belfast regularly routing via the Scillies and thenup the length of the St George’s Channel towards Anglesey. Onthe night in question there was a strong easterly wind, muchstronger than forecast, with extensive cloud over the BritishIsles and the aircraft responsible probably simply drifted offCivil defence measures involved the distri-bution of gas masks, the installation of airraid sirens and the erection of (mostlyempty) concrete water tanks to aid fire-fight-ing. Nine large trenches capable of shelteringcitizens were dug in public areas in additionto a handful of shallow underground sheltersexcavated in parks and public squares. Aswell as 47 nominated basement shelters, 64flimsy above-ground concrete air raid shel-ters were hurriedly constructed throughoutthe city. Derided by locals as ‘hen houses’ or‘hat boxes’, the shelters, if open, quickly sawpublic service as latrines or refuges for court-ing couples. Pamphlets hurriedly issued bythe Department of Defence, such asProtectYour Home against Air Raids,advised citi-zens to tape their windows and to have buck-ets of sand and water available to extinguishfires. Even though Germany’s envoy in Ire-land, Dr Eduard Hempel, assured de Valerathat Irish neutrality would be respected solong as strict non-intervention was upheld,German bombs fell on Éire at least five timesbetween August 1940 and February 1941.THE BOMBING OF NEUTRAL IRELANDThe first ‘incident’ in which German air-craft disregarded Irish neutrality took placein broad daylight on the afternoon of August26, 1940. Flying at low level, a HeinkelHe 111 bomber dropped several bombs on aturnip field at Duncormack, County Wex-ford, narrowly missing the nearby railwaystation. The neighbouring village of Campilewas not so fortunate. Three women werekilled when a bomb from another Heinkelstruck a creamery, a tragic incident for whichGermany later paid £9,000 in compensation.While some held that the British wereresponsible, even having dropped captured4track to the west. Cloud would have prevented visual contactwith the ground or sea, and with No. 80 Wing radio counter-measures in full operation, accurate DR navigation would havebeen very difficult. The crews probably assumed they were overLiverpool when the glow of fires was seen through the cloud.But that glow was actually caused by the streetlights of Dublin,and not by fires started in Liverpool by the Pathfinders or otherpreceding aircraft. From a typical operating height of around13,000 feet, the lights were probably seen as no more than afaint glow through the dense cloud, and if that glow came intosight roughly on the estimated time of arrival over the target,as it most likely did, the bombing becomes understandable.lives were lost. In a separate incident, nearly40 incendiary and high-explosive bombswere jettisoned over open countryside inCounty Kildare and three in County Wex-ford in separate incidents the following day.Shortly before 4 a.m. on January 3, anotherbomb fell with a ‘terrific thud’ in Dublin’sSouth Circular Road area, destroying twohomes and causing significant damage to theDonore Presbyterian Church and the SouthCircular Road Synagogue, again without lossof life.Despite the fact that bombs had now fallenon their city, Dubliners, on the whole, foundthe incursions more a nuisance than a causefor concern. The Minister for Supplies, SéanLemass, reprimanded those who acted as ifthe ‘war was being fought on another planet’and were supposedly ‘immune’ from it.Across the Atlantic, news of the Germanbombings provoked a far more impassionedresponse.Lifeon January 13 reported that‘German bombs [had] plucked shamrocksfrom the Emerald Isle’ leaving ‘scores ofIrishmen’ dead or wounded. Speculating asto the reason for the attacks, the magazinesurmised that the ‘bombs served to warnÉire against opening its ports to British war-ships or convoys bringing US aid to Britain.Possibly too the Nazis had put Éire on guardagainst invasion just to see what precautionsthe Irish would or would not take’. Shocked,the US Irish community lodged a formalprotest against the ‘unwarranted invasion ofIreland’. Berlin retorted that the ‘bombs areEnglish or they are imaginary. Our fliershave not been over Ireland, and have notbeen sent there, so someone else will have toexplain these bombs’. Éire’s northerly neigh-bour — Northern Ireland with its capitalBelfast — was however a legitimate target.German bombs, theIrish Independentfeltthat the ‘tragic occurrence was due to anerror on the part of German airmen’. Sucherrors, however, were to be repeated. Errantbombs fell on open countryside in CountyWicklow on October 25 and Carrickmacross,County Monaghan, Sandycove Railway Sta-tion and Dun Laoghaire on December 20.While these first incursions were little morethan German aircraft jettisoning their payloadbefore returning home, on December 29, aJunkers Ju 88 flew a reconnaissance missionover Dublin, purportedly photographing Bal-donnel airfield and approaches. AlthoughHitler had postponed his cross-Channel inva-sion — Fall Grün (Plan Green), whichincluded the invasion of Ireland — in Decem-ber 1941 he had ordered a study into the feasi-bility of occupying Ireland, but ‘only if Irelandrequests help’. On the pre-condition that deValera desired support, an optimistic assess-ment that the occupation of Ireland ‘mightlead to the end of the war’ aroused only luke-warm support at a senior level and quicklybecame redundant after Germany invadedRussia in June the following year.The German ‘raids’ on Éire continued intothe New Year as an unfortunate consequenceof the ongoing Blitz against Britain. TheMeath villages of Duleek and Julianstownwere struck by eight small bombs on January1, 1941, though fortunately without casual-ties. That same day disaster struck the moun-tainous district of Knockroe when eight morebombs were dropped near a remote farm-house, killing three female members of theShannon family.Dublin was hit for the first time shortlyafter 6 a.m. on the morning of January 2when four bombs struck the Terenure area.Several houses were destroyed though no1243Ordnance Survey Ireland Permit No. 8819 © Ordnance Survey Ireland/Government of IrelandIn all, just four bombs were dropped. Three of them landed inthe North Strand area and one — the third one to be releasedTHE BOMBING OF BELFASTThe port of Belfast had been singled outfor attention by Adolf Hitler in his DirectiveNo. 9, dated November 29, 1939. Nearly 18months later on the night of April 15/16,1941, the city described as the ‘most unpro-tected in the United Kingdom’, was attackedby 180 aircraft from Luftflotten 2 and 3. Aswell as the lowest number of air raid sheltersper head of any British city, Belfast alsolacked searchlights and night fighter protec-tion. With only 24 heavy and 12 light anti-air-craft guns available to defend the entireprovince, the vulnerable city was rocked by203 tonnes of high explosives and 20,091incendiaries. Tragically, over 800 civilianswere killed, more than 1,500 injured and20,000 made homeless; the city ablaze. Tohelp battle the raging conflagration, theBelfast Commissioner of the Royal UlsterConstabulary called upon the Irish WarRoom to provide urgent assistance. An hourafter de Valera was notified, 71 firemen and13 tenders were racing north. Within 24hours, however, the exhausted men returnedback across the border as de Valera could illafford casualties should the Luftwaffe returnthe following night.News of the mercy dash — summed up bytheIrish Times:‘when all is said and done,the people of the Six Counties are own folk;and blood is stronger than the highest explo-sive’ — made news not only in Ireland, butacross Britain and the continent. Even Ger-man envoy Hempel stated afterwards that he‘understood the emotional and political rea-sons behind the act’. The attack was followedby an influx of several thousand refugeesfrom the north in search of shelter andasylum; a second compassionate act thatcould well be viewed as a further violation ofneutrality. In response, the English voice of— exploding in Phoenix Park near the Dublin Zoo some threemiles further west.THE BOMBING OF NORTH STRANDThe weekend of May 30 began with a clearmoonlight evening, the streets filled with rev-ellers celebrating the beginning of Whitsun, athree-day weekend. Shortly after midnight(May 30/31) the familiar drone of foreignintruders grew louder and the city’s search-lights began probing the skies for the ‘largenumbers of aircraft proceeding northwardsand southwards’ along the country’s eastcoast. Especially puzzling was the route ofthe bombers towards the south. Where werethey headed? On the ground Captain AidanA. Quigley estimated that ‘as far as could beascertained from Air Defence Command,there were 20 planes, some grouped in fives’.Some witnesses guessed more, up to twicethis number, though it proved difficult tocount individual bombers as several ‘keptcircling’. The order was given at 00.18 a.m. tofire three tri-colour flares, signalling theincursion over neutral Irish territory. Severalred flares followed, a warning to the aircraftthat they would be fired upon. Fifteen min-utes later, the prescribed waiting period, the3.7-inch heavy battery at Clontarf openedup, firing four rounds.Many Dubliners now stood by their win-dows or ventured outside to watch the spec-tacle. An ominous sound, described after-wards as ‘a peculiar whistle’, preceded thefirst bomb. Falling near the intersection ofNorth Circular Road and North RichmondStreet at 1.28 a.m., the detonation ‘lit up thesky’. Several homes collapsed and a smallfire was started. A second bomb explodednearby in Summerhill Parade a minute later,also destroying several homes and shops. Athird bomb at 1.31 a.m. left a large crater inPhoenix Park, shattering nearby windowsand causing panic among the animals cagedinside the park’s zoo. Although the distinc-5German propaganda, William Joyce —known as ‘Lord Haw Haw’ (seeAfter theBattleNo. 136) — broadcast a threat to bombAmiens Street (now Connolly Street) rail-way station, disembarkation point for therefugees arriving from the north.A significant increase in enemy air activitywas noted in May with nearly 2,700 Germanbombers recorded above or close to Dublinon their way to targets in the south or west ofBritain. TheIrish Timeswarned ‘spectators’of the risk of falling metal splinters fromwarning shots — ‘there is no need for pan-icky rush to shelter, but “rubber-necking”may well lead to unnecessary danger’. Theaircraft passing overhead on the night ofMay 4/5 again struck Belfast. Although thecity was better prepared, assistance from theSouth was again requested, though de Valeraspecified that the 53 men, six tenders andseven ambulances sent north were solely for‘rescue activities to private homes ratherthan military objectives’.New air raid precautions were introducedin Dublin as the danger of attack escalated.Under the Emergency Powers Order,Dublin’s city manager P. J. Hernon announ-ced new black-out laws banning all illumi-nated signs, advertisements and shop-frontlighting with interior lighting permitted onlyduring business hours. Exterior lighting wasalso prohibited outside public venues such astheatres and cinemas, however no restric-tions were applied to residential homes. Thecity’s most-realistic air raid drill to date wasconducted on May 25 using houses ear-marked for demolition, ironically, in theNorth Strand area. Intended to prepare itscitizens ‘to the terrors of an enemy air raid’,the exercise was deemed a success; the ARPwardens confident that Dublin could effec-tively respond to an actual attack.
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