{"id":1665,"date":"2022-04-18T08:18:00","date_gmt":"2022-04-18T08:18:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/drtomstours.com\/?p=1665"},"modified":"2022-12-15T15:35:26","modified_gmt":"2022-12-15T15:35:26","slug":"18-april-1941-friday-belfast-1941-blitz-diary","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/drtomstours.com\/index.php\/2022\/04\/18\/18-april-1941-friday-belfast-1941-blitz-diary\/","title":{"rendered":"18 April 1941 (Friday) \u2013 Belfast 1941 Blitz Diary"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

The city continued to come to terms with the attack. The newspapers gave details of how people could get food, support and water.[1]<\/a> <\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/div><\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n

The Northern Whig set out how people could unidentified dead at St Georges\u2019 market in order to find missing loved ones of family.[2]<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/div><\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n

Advice from the Belfast City Medical Officer for citizens to avoid typhoid from drinking contaminated water polluted by the damage to the sewage system.[3]<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/div><\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n

The papers also told of how evacuees were getting a \u2018cheerful country welcome\u2019 in the areas surrounding Belfast.[4]<\/a> However, the positive story outlined by the papers was not always the reality. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/div><\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n

Moya Woodside, a diarist for the Mass Observation study, went to her mother\u2019s home in Ballymena where a number of refugees were being housed. Woodside recorded that:<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2018The whole town is horrified by the fifth of these evacuees and by their dirty habits and their take-it-for-granted attitude. Belfast slum dwellers are pretty far down and to those not used to seeing poverty and misery at close quarters the effect if over-whelming. \u2018The smell is terrible\u2019, says my sister-in-law. They don\u2019t even use the lavatory they just do it on the floor, gown-ups and children\u2026More are \u2018scared out\u2019 than \u2018bombed out\u2019, too. I believe it is the same all over the country side. At least it may do good in one way, if it makes people thinking about housing and homes in the slums. Complacency and\/or ignorance has been rudely shattered in these last few days. \u2018We can see now why you\u2019re so keen on your birth-control clinic, my sister-in-law remarked. I felt quite cheered\u2019.[5]<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n\n\n\n

[1]<\/a> Northern Whig, 18 April 1941, p.8.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

[2]<\/a> Brian Barton, Belfast in the War Years, Belfast in the War Years<\/em> (Belfast: Blackstaff Press, 1989), p.147. Northern Whig, 18 April 1941, p.4.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

[3]<\/a> Northern Whig, 18 April 1941.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

[4]<\/a> Northern Whig, 18 April 1941, p.4.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

[5]<\/a> Cited in Stephen Douds, The Belfast Blitz, The People\u2019s Story<\/em> (Belfast: Blackstaff Press, 2011), p.104.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The city continued to come to terms with the attack. The newspapers gave details of how people could get food, support and water.[1] The Northern Whig set out how people could unidentified dead at St Georges\u2019 market in order to find missing loved ones of family.[2] Advice from the Belfast City Medical Officer for citizens […]<\/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-1665","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\/1665","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=1665"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/drtomstours.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1665\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/drtomstours.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1665"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/drtomstours.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1665"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/drtomstours.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1665"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}