The Harbour Burns

The skies were clear and the moon was full when over 200 German bombers approached the coast of County Down during the last hour of Sunday the 4 May 1941.

They carried thousands of incendiaries and high explosives. Their target was the barely defended city of Belfast. Her harbour, aircraft factory and shipyards were rich prizes.

A war correspondent, Ernst von Kuhren, flew with one squadron. He broadcast his impressions on German radio when he got back: “I could not believe my eyes … we stared silently into a sea of flames such as no one had seen before. Here are the large shipbuilding yards. Here was the last hideout for unloading materials from the United States. Here the English had concentrated an important part of the war industries because they felt themselves safe, far up in the north, safe from the blows of the German air force. This has come to an end.”