Why was Belfast an important target for enemy bombing in 1941?
Belfast first became a target for enemy bombing on April 7th 1941 and was raided on 4 different occasions. There were many reasons for the Germans to attack Belfast and these can be put into 3 categories.
The first reasons were military. Aside from being part of the United Kingdom, Belfast was a major city situated in Northern Ireland which was used as a base for north Atlantic convoys due to its location between Britain and America. Its position also meant that if America entered the war Northern Ireland would be the first stop between for US ships to mainland Britain. When the Germans overran most of Europe Britain had to depend heavily on supplies from American which arrived through Belfast and Derry. Being the capital of Northern Ireland meant that Belfast became the headquarters of an ocean-going escort force with the task of preventing possible invasion and protecting the west Atlantic shipping routes. Any disruption to the city would have had devastating effect on the normal operations of the fleets and convoys. The city was also the industrial centre of Northern Ireland with shipyards, arms factories, rope works and thread mills. The Harland and Wolff shipyard was one of the largest in the world and had the largest dry docks in Europe. It could build larger ships than other yards and during the war it launched 170 new warships and converted over 3,000 vessels. The ordnance factory built thirteen million aircraft parts and Short and Harland was regarded as one of the best seaplane manufacturing bases in the British Isles. The Sydenham aerodrome assembled the aircrafts at the factory ready to be taken to the airport. Together they provided the planes needed to fight the war. James Mackie and Sons and Sirocco were two engineering works which produced large quantities of munitions such as shells, grenades and bombs. The linen mills produced large amounts of fabric parachutes, uniforms and tents and the rope works supplied a third of the cordage and rope required by the War Office. These were vital military supplies for Britain during the war.
