The papers reported that despite the raid of the 7/8 April, it was business as usual.[1] The Lord Mayor, Craford McCullagh called for fire watchers and volunteers.[2]
Moya Woodside, Belfast housewife and Mass Observation Reporter, noted that:
‘‘Air raid still monopolises conversation. Everyone has, or claims to have, a different ‘inside’ story…Other damaged was apparently incidental. The result goes to prove, in many people’s opinion, that the blackout, at least on a moonlit night, is just a waste of time…Local newspaper reports said, almost as it if occurred in Timbuktu, ‘some damage to houses’….Having myself access to ‘inside’ information via the hospital and with relatives of two men working in the ‘military objectives’, I am able to assess something of the inadequacy of the official press reports. It makes one wonder just how much isn’t being told all over England and Scotland when for once we know the truth ourselves. I suppose it is ‘keeping up morale’ for the general public to be lulled in ignorance and for them not to know about the men with both legs blown off, backs broken, half their faces gone – or worse…’[3]
ABOUT
Between 7th April and 6th May 1941, four aerial bombing raids on Belfast killed over 900 people, injured 1,500 and damaged about half of the city’s homes. Thousands were made homeless and over 100,000 residents fled to the country. This period in Belfast’s history has become known as the Belfast Blitz. To mark the 81st anniversary, key events each day over the Blitz period are being retold here on this website and also on Twitter (@drtomstours).
[1] Northern Whig, 9 April 1941, p.3
[2] Northern Whig, 9 April 1941.
[3] Cited in Stephen Douds, The Belfast Blitz, The People’s Story (Belfast: Blackstaff Press, 2011), pp.25-26.