大象传媒

CHILDHOOD MEMORIES OF THE WAR YEARS IN WHITEABBEY

EDNA ADAMS

I was born in Carrickfergus on the shores of Belfast Lough, in Northern Ireland, but my family moved to Whiteabbey, five miles closer to the city when I was three years old. I was an only child, and I appreciated the company of my grandparents who lived with us. Most of my wartime memories are quite vague as I was just seven years old in 1939. One of the first is of carrying my gas mask everywhere with me, including of course school. Two friends and I had a fifteen minute walk to Whitehouse Primary School.

Mother and I went to the local Co-op every week for our rations, quite small amounts of the basic foods each week, but I never remember being hungry. Fruit and sweets were a real treat, and bananas were seldom if ever seen. Mum and my Grandmother baked a lot of bread 鈥� soda, wheaten, potato, pancakes etc., causing a lovely aroma as I came home from school. The wartime flour was very dark, but tasted fine.

My father was in the Merchant Navy at that time, working on the Belfast to Heysham ferry 鈥淒uke of Lancaster鈥�. She was converted to a hospital ship about 1943, and when the Normandy invasion took place in 1944 they lay off the beachhead to receive the injured servicemen, both Allied and German. My father did not talk much about his experiences at that time, but I remember him saying that most of the soldiers were very anxious for cigarettes - Dad got a very wicked looking German flick knife from a German soldier in exchange for about five Woodbine. Mother hated the look of it and it was hidden in a drawer for many years, I don鈥檛 know what happened to it in the end.

I remember a cousin鈥檚 son (the family lived in Canada) coming to visit us one evening when he was on leave. We had never met him before and I thought he was a very handsome young man in his uniform and was struck by his Canadian accent. He was a rear-gunner in the Air Force and unfortunately was killed soon after on a bombing raid. He is buried in Belgium.

I don鈥檛 remember much about the Blitz in 1941, except staying in the cupboard under the stairs quite a few nights when the raids were on. As there was very little space my grandfather sometimes stayed in the living room, leaving the cupboard for my mother, grandmother and me. The railway to Belfast was just at the end of our garden and we believed the bombers were trying to target the line. A house not far away from ours had a direct hit one night and was destroyed. Luckily the family had taken shelter somewhere else.

When the war ended I remember my mother was so thankful that my father had come through it unscathed and was able to return to his normal routine on the ferries.

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