{"id":1610,"date":"2022-04-12T08:00:00","date_gmt":"2022-04-12T08:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/drtomstours.com\/?p=1610"},"modified":"2022-12-15T15:38:34","modified_gmt":"2022-12-15T15:38:34","slug":"12-april-1941-saturday-belfast-1941-blitz-diary","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/drtomstours.com\/index.php\/2022\/04\/12\/12-april-1941-saturday-belfast-1941-blitz-diary\/","title":{"rendered":"12 April 1941 (Saturday) \u2013 Belfast 1941 Blitz Diary"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The Northern Whig stated that there was a \u2018big holiday\u2019 exodus for the Easter break. It reported that \u2018seaside hotels and boarding-house keepers report a boom in business. People leaving the city were urged to leave their keys at the nearest warden\u2019s post. It noted that in London banks were open on Good Friday.<a id=\"_ftnref1\" href=\"#_ftn1\">[1]<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<div id=\"section-g6fb59f\" class=\"wp-block-gutentor-e6 section-g6fb59f 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-12.4.1941-p.4.jpg\" \/><\/div><\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Tax collector Doreen Bates was having a bleak and depressing Easter. She vowed to get a train to Newcastle on Monday (14 April). She said that the Saturday was \u2018damp and\u2026I felt more depressed than I have been for some days \u2013 the holiday perhaps. Also, the scarcity of work makes it seem so pointless to be here at all. And I had difficulty shopping. Nothing but stewing steak, no stamps at the Sydenham shop and everywhere packed\u2026\u2019<a href=\"#_ftn2\" id=\"_ftnref2\">[2]<\/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> Northern Whig, 12 April 1941, p.4.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><a href=\"#_ftnref2\" id=\"_ftn2\">[2]<\/a> Doreen Bates,<em> Diary of a Wartime Affair, The true story of a surprisingly modern romance <\/em>(London: Penguin Random House, 2017), p.263.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Northern Whig stated that there was a \u2018big holiday\u2019 exodus for the Easter break. It reported that \u2018seaside hotels and boarding-house keepers report a boom in business. People leaving the city were urged to leave their keys at the nearest warden\u2019s post. It noted that in London banks were open on Good Friday.[1] Tax [&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-1610","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\/1610","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=1610"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/drtomstours.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1610\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/drtomstours.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1610"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/drtomstours.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1610"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/drtomstours.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1610"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}