0:00:02 > 0:00:06Towards the end of the 1941 Easter Tuesday Blitz,
0:00:06 > 0:00:09a Luftwaffe pilot described, on German radio,
0:00:09 > 0:00:12his impressions of Belfast.
0:00:12 > 0:00:13He spoke of...
0:00:13 > 0:00:17Whole blocks of building set on fire, and pouring out smoke.
0:00:17 > 0:00:20Flashes of lightning from exploding bombs, coming up towards us,
0:00:20 > 0:00:22some hundreds of metres into the air.
0:00:22 > 0:00:25Belfast wasn't the only place in Northern Ireland
0:00:25 > 0:00:31to feel the impact of 203 metric tons of bombs and parachute mines,
0:00:31 > 0:00:37and 800 firebomb canisters, cast down by 180 German aircraft.
0:00:38 > 0:00:41In an attempt to block the Foyle River at Londonderry,
0:00:41 > 0:00:45a single German plane dropped two large parachute mines
0:00:45 > 0:00:48on Messines Park, off the Buncrana road.
0:00:48 > 0:00:53One totally demolished five houses and killed 15 people.
0:00:53 > 0:00:56In County Down, bombs fell on Scrabo Hill,
0:00:56 > 0:01:00and on the Green Road and Comber Road in Newtownards.
0:01:00 > 0:01:03The aerodrome at Newtownards was deliberately targeted
0:01:03 > 0:01:06and ten guards were killed.
0:01:06 > 0:01:0814 bombs fell in Bangor,
0:01:08 > 0:01:13most destructively in Ashley Gardens, killing five people.
0:01:13 > 0:01:16At dawn on Wednesday the 16th of April,
0:01:16 > 0:01:19a thick, yellow pall covered Belfast.
0:01:19 > 0:01:23Exhausted air raid wardens, firemen and ambulance men
0:01:23 > 0:01:25tore at the smouldering rubble
0:01:25 > 0:01:29to bring the trapped, dead and injured to the surface.
0:01:29 > 0:01:32The writer Sam Hanna Bell remembered...
0:01:32 > 0:01:37We wrestled with street doors blown halfway down hallways.
0:01:37 > 0:01:40From under the stairs of a house, we extracted an old woman,
0:01:40 > 0:01:43still clutching a miniature Union Jack.
0:01:43 > 0:01:45On the Crumlin Road,
0:01:45 > 0:01:49army lorries were piled high with corpses and severed limbs.
0:01:49 > 0:01:53Many of the dead were brought into the Falls Road public baths.
0:01:53 > 0:01:54As more arrived,
0:01:54 > 0:02:00the pool had to be emptied in order to lay out over 150 corpses.
0:02:00 > 0:02:04One of the attendants, Joseph McCann, recalled...
0:02:04 > 0:02:08One coffin contained a young mother with her two dead children -
0:02:08 > 0:02:10one in each arm.
0:02:11 > 0:02:14One lovely girl of 16 lay in a coffin,
0:02:14 > 0:02:16in her white confirmation robe,
0:02:16 > 0:02:19with blue silk ribbon and black hair.
0:02:20 > 0:02:24255 corpses were laid out in St George's Market.
0:02:26 > 0:02:28On Monday, the great number of unclaimed dead
0:02:28 > 0:02:31were buried in mass graves -
0:02:31 > 0:02:33Protestants at the City Cemetery,
0:02:33 > 0:02:36and Catholics, identified by rosaries and emblems,
0:02:36 > 0:02:38in the Milltown Cemetery close by.
0:02:41 > 0:02:45Meanwhile, widespread looting and panic reigned.
0:02:45 > 0:02:49Around 6,000 terrified people arrived in Dublin from Belfast,
0:02:49 > 0:02:52including an air raid warden still wearing his helmet.
0:02:54 > 0:02:58Tens of thousands were now pouring out of the city for the countryside.