The USS North Carolina (BB-55) My all-time favorite warship. As an elementary school student in North Carolina, I donated nickels and dimes to save this ship back in the early sixties.

Thursday, November 8, 2012

The Bombing of Belfast, Northern Ireland: "Things Like That You Never Forget"

From the March 21, 2011, BBC News.

The German Blitz came to Belfast on the night of April 15, 1941 when bombers attacked the city, killing 1,000 and destroying or damaging half the homes and left 100,000 homeless.

The city was a legitimate target because of its ahipyard and aircraft factory.  The sirens went on at 10:45 PM and the attack continued for six hours.  Hundreds of tons of high explosive bombs and incendiaries were dropped around the docks where many worker homes were located.

The dead were stacked in the emptied pool of the Falls Church public baths.  Many of them were unidentified and there were many body parts.  If they had a rosary, they were determined to be Catholic.

One survivor remembers seeing a  big dog running down the street with a dead baby in its mouth: "I took off my metal helmet and threw it on the ground.  The rattle scared the dog and he dropped the baby.  I remember wrapping the baby's body in some old  net curtains from one of the bombed houses.  I left the baby with some soldiers, having attached a note to say that the body was found on York Street.  Things like that you never forget."Today, there are two monuments at mass graves of the unidentified.

A Sad Aspect of the War.  --GreGen

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