大象传媒

I was born in 1938 in Co Down, N. Ireland. My memory of the war years is limited, but I do remember this.
Behind our house, separated from the yard by a stone ditch(loose stone wall) was a field called the brae, which was the side of the hill. Sitting and lying along this ditch, I remember seeing for the first time, black men - in uniform. We were told they were American soldiers. My younger brother and I would talk to them and they gave us chewing gum. We were not afraid of them and our parents did not appear to be concerned. I would have been four or five years old at the time and my brother 18 months younger. I don't know which year it was or how long they were there, but it must have been Summer or Autumn.

White men in civilian clothes would get eggs, sugar and other groceries from our parents, these men were officers but we were told not to talk about it as they could get into trouble. But these supplies were not for the black soldiers - our friends - who gave us chewing gum. As children this was hard to understand.

Above the house, on the hill, the army did manoevres in tanks, the noise and size of these machines was quite frightening, as my father used horses around the farm. The ruts from the tanks were visible for many years. One Sunday morning there was a bit of activity on the hill, but we never heard anything except that a soldier had died up there.

How much longer they stayed I din't know, but I have often wondered what happened to them.

漏 Copyright of content contributed to this Archive rests with the author. Find out how you can use this.