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This story was submitted to the People’s War site by Bruce Logan of the CSV Media NI Team on behalf of Oliver Gibson and has been added to the site with his permission. The author fully understands the site's terms and conditions.
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I was born in Sixmilecross in Co Tyrone. I was 5 years old, coming 6 years, when the war broke out. And my first real memory was the fall of Singapore. All the family listened to the radio, or the wireless as it was called those days. A great part of the family affair was listening to the news broadcasts that told us what was happening in the rest of the world.
But in Sixmilecross we were very much alive to this war effort. Locals were joining the local regiments, the Inniskilling regiments. Daily you would have had people leaving to join the army, the navy and the air force. These were our neighbours.

But it was very practical to us, the war. The soldiers were started carrying out manoeuvres. In Seskanore, about 6 miles away, carrickmore, there were American Army camps. They were active on the roadsides, in the village trenches that had been built because war was taken very seriously by everyone.
But above all, to see the soldiers’ maneuvres. This was REAL cowboys and Indians stuff! This was real! But also we knew through the radio what was happening to those people.

I can remember the great concern in the countryside because lo-flying Spitfires were passing very very low overhead. The RAF were practising low-flying techniques for their future attacks in Europe. You can imagine in a small valley the snarl and the roar of the engine, these things just at treetop level. Flashing through the air, and the noise.

Of course, the farmers were concerned about the disturbance to cattle and other animals. But we as boys were far more concerned with the sensation of the speeding aircraft!

More of Oliver Gibson's reminiscences are available at:

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