{"id":1596,"date":"2022-04-09T09:00:00","date_gmt":"2022-04-09T09:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/drtomstours.com\/?p=1596"},"modified":"2022-12-15T15:40:00","modified_gmt":"2022-12-15T15:40:00","slug":"9-april-1941-wednesday-belfast-1941-blitz-diary","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/drtomstours.com\/index.php\/2022\/04\/09\/9-april-1941-wednesday-belfast-1941-blitz-diary\/","title":{"rendered":"9 April 1941 (Wednesday) \u2013 Belfast 1941 Blitz Diary"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The papers reported that despite the raid of the 7\/8 April, it was business as usual.<a id=\"_ftnref1\" href=\"#_ftn1\">[1]<\/a> The Lord Mayor, Craford McCullagh called for fire watchers and volunteers.<a id=\"_ftnref2\" href=\"#_ftn2\">[2]<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<div id=\"section-g86e5ab\" class=\"wp-block-gutentor-e6 section-g86e5ab gutentor-element gutentor-element-image\"><div class=\"gutentor-element-image-box\"><div class=\"gutentor-image-thumb\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"normal-image\" src=\"https:\/\/drtomstours.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/03\/NW-9.4.41.jpg\" \/><\/div><\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Moya Woodside, Belfast housewife and Mass Observation Reporter, noted that:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u2018\u2018Air raid still monopolises conversation. Everyone has, or claims to have, a different \u2018inside\u2019 story\u2026Other damaged was apparently incidental. The result goes to prove, in many people\u2019s opinion, that the blackout, at least on a moonlit night, is just a waste of time\u2026Local newspaper reports said, almost as it if occurred in Timbuktu, \u2018some damage to houses\u2019\u2026.Having myself access to \u2018inside\u2019 information via the hospital and with relatives of two men working in the \u2018military objectives\u2019, I am able to assess something of the inadequacy of the official press reports. It makes one wonder just how much isn\u2019t being told all over England and Scotland when for once we know the truth ourselves. I suppose it is \u2018keeping up morale\u2019 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 \u2013 or worse\u2026\u2019<a href=\"#_ftn3\" id=\"_ftnref3\">[3]<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">ABOUT<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Between 7<sup>th<\/sup> April and 6<sup>th<\/sup> May 1941, four aerial bombing raids on Belfast killed over 900 people, injured 1,500 and damaged about half of the city\u2019s homes. Thousands were made homeless and over 100,000 residents fled to the country. This period in Belfast\u2019s history has become known as the Belfast Blitz. To mark the 81<sup>st<\/sup> anniversary, key events each day over the Blitz period are being retold here on this website and also on Twitter (@drtomstours).<\/p>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator\"\/>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><a href=\"#_ftnref1\" id=\"_ftn1\">[1]<\/a> <em>Northern Whig<\/em>, 9 April 1941, p.3<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><a href=\"#_ftnref2\" id=\"_ftn2\">[2]<\/a> <em>Northern Whig<\/em>, 9 April 1941.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><a href=\"#_ftnref3\" id=\"_ftn3\">[3]<\/a> Cited in Stephen Douds, <em>The Belfast Blitz, The People\u2019s Story<\/em> (Belfast: Blackstaff Press, 2011), pp.25-26.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>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: \u2018\u2018Air raid still monopolises conversation. Everyone has, or claims to have, a different \u2018inside\u2019 story\u2026Other damaged was apparently [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_crdt_document":"","episode_type":"","audio_file":"","podmotor_file_id":"","podmotor_episode_id":"","cover_image":"","cover_image_id":"","duration":"","filesize":"","filesize_raw":"","date_recorded":"","explicit":"","block":"","itunes_episode_number":"","itunes_title":"","itunes_season_number":"","itunes_episode_type":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[34],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1596","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-34"],"blocksy_meta":[],"gutentor_comment":0,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/drtomstours.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1596","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/drtomstours.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/drtomstours.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/drtomstours.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/drtomstours.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1596"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/drtomstours.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1596\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/drtomstours.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1596"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/drtomstours.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1596"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/drtomstours.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1596"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}