{"id":1378,"date":"2022-02-23T16:56:14","date_gmt":"2022-02-23T16:56:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/drtomstours.com\/?page_id=1378"},"modified":"2023-01-31T16:46:56","modified_gmt":"2023-01-31T16:46:56","slug":"blitz","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/drtomstours.com\/index.php\/blitz\/","title":{"rendered":"Belfast Blitz"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

This one-and-a-half hour Belfast history walking tour gives a broad overview of the city\u2019s experience of the Belfast Blitz of Easter and Spring of 1941.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

One of the unhappiest elements of modern Belfast history is that almost everyone forgets that the city suffered dreadfully during the Second World War.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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\n\"\"Notice in St Patrick's Church, Donegall St to the number of people killed in the church during the 1941 Belfast Blitz.<\/span><\/a>\n\"\"Notice outside the Belfast Telegraph offices in Royal Avenue marking where the building was damaged in 1941 by German bombs.<\/span><\/a>\n\"\"WWII bomb crater, Stormont Estate, east Belfast, made during the 1941 Luftwaffe air raid.<\/span><\/a>\n\"\"Memorials to the lives lost during the Belfast Blitz of 1941 in Trinity Street Church and Unity Street. <\/span><\/a>\n\"\"<\/a>\n\"\"<\/a>\n <\/div>\n \n <\/div>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n

Between 7-8 April to 5-6 May 1941, the German air force launched four aerial bombing raids against Belfast to attack its war factories and shipbuilding facilities. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

As a result of the raids, over 900 lives were lost, 1,500 people were injured, 400 of them seriously. Fifty thousand houses, more than half the homes in the city, were damaged. Eleven churches, two hospitals and two schools were destroyed. (The image below is a bomb crater on the Stormont Estate from one of those raids.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Belfast endured some of the most damaging bombing experienced by any city in the UK. Over 100,000 Belfast residents were left homeless and the city\u2019s industrial contribution to the war effort was temporarily crippled.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On the tour you will hear the personal stories of those who suffered, lost love ones and lived through the bombings. You will also learn why the city was such a key German target and why it had been left so badly defended. Finally, we shall consider the legacy of the aerial bombardment that affected both the Catholic nationalist and Protestant unionist communities across the city and brought them, briefly, closer together.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Book this tour via email at contact@drtomstours.com<\/a>. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

DETAILS<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n