大象传媒

Tom Chook,
This story is taken from an interview with Tom Chook, and has been added to the site with their permission. The author fully understands the site's terms and conditions. The interview was by Deirdre Donnelly, and transcription was by Bruce Logan.
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My father was a career army officer.
My mother鈥檚 family were in Mallen in County Donegal, so we lived with them or in Aldershot 鈥� one of those Army places.
We settled there in malin till a house in Crawford Square,Derry became available. The upper windows had a great view across the Foyle. At the back of house was a Barrage balloon on a big winch. We had great fun watching the crews winch it. There was an Electric storm, and it blew up.

Belfast got bombed but we didn鈥檛 hear an enemy planes in Derry but a year or so after the war started it started to hot up. There were 5 sisters, my mother was one of them. We went to live with them in the big house in Donegal, to live away from harm鈥檚 way I suppose
I went to boarding school in Kilkeel, Co Down. I went down by train to Warrenpoint on my own, every term. I remember having my gasmask with me and sitting on a crowded train which very often had services personnel on it.Coming back a Taxi was sent up from the village and met me at the station. Unless someone came to do shopping in Derry.

There was a palaver to cross the border. You had to get out of the car and they鈥檇 search you. At Muff, the border crossing. The driver had to go in and show the document to get the car across, and they鈥檇 stamp it.

Father was abroad. At Dunkirk, in the army. He was evacuated.. Towards the end he was at Bermuda. He knew Bermuda from the past, he was on the Governor鈥檚 staff there. I was born there in 1933, but came back when I was 2.

There was a lot of changes, but I never minded. Thank goodness, because when I joined the Navy I was always changing myself.

At Crawford Square we could see the ships coming up the Lough, into the sea. When we went down to the city we鈥檇 take a look at the ships on the quayside, destroyers packed in. And in Donegal itself we saw a sub come up in the bay. We were on the phone, there was an emergency number to report enemy activity. A couple of Fireflies came out from Eglinton and circled around. I鈥檓 not sure if they saw it again.

At the times of the convoys being sunk you would constantly see columns of smoke coming from ships, then wreckage and things landing on the shore. We were never encouraged to see the bodies washed up.
There are bodies buried at Malin churchyd, and Culdaff. In Inishowen. There are graves which say 鈥淯nknown鈥� 鈥� German sailors and British ones alike.

I was at school when the war ended. There was rejoicing and a letter from the King saying how grateful he was to all his citizens.At the end of the war the German submarines surrendered at Lisahally. Before they were scuttled you were allowed to visit themone which

My brother and I went into a sub in the Foyle. It was claustrophobic, going down into the place full of sailors. The periscope was magic we could see the Town Hall.
At school I told them we were up and down and dived in the sub. Schoolboys love to exaggerate.
We had to part curtains that I think were heavy plastic to get into the wardroom. I just wanted to see the instruments.

All my uncles were in the army, but my friends seemed to join the Navy crowd in Derry. Lord Mountbatten came out, and Lady Montgomery, the Field Marshal鈥檚 mother, who lived in Moville. She would come to lunch occasionally,. She was a formal old lady, everyone had to be on their best behaviour. You got quite blas茅 about important visitors. Tennis on the lawn and lots of Americans. There were visitors quite often. One had a boat in Culdaff. Not a warship. The Navy used to come and park their minesweepers in Culdaff Bay after sweeping the west coast after the war.
[interview 2 = Eddie Davis
Track 4 = 24 mins 21 secs,
Track 5 = 1 mins 05 secs,
Track 6 = x mins x Secs]
This story is taken from an interview with Eddie Davis, and has been added to the site with their permission. The author fully understands the site's terms and conditions. The interview was by Deirdre Donnelly, and transcription was by Bruce Logan.
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In 1939 I was playing professional football in England. I had been transferred from Wolverhampton Wanderers to Southend. But the Second World War came, and the football was disbanded. I had to come to my home town. Derry.
There was an Apprentice Manager in Harland and Wolff in Belfast when Harlands announced they were opening the shipyard in Derry. They called it a 鈥淩epair Dock鈥�. At that time the RN, instead of naming ships that were damaged they were called 鈥渓ame ducks鈥� and brought into this repair dock. However, this gent knew me through the football.
Apparently he went to a barber shop near the dockyard, and they discussed football. The barber said 鈥渋t鈥檚 unfortunate for Eddie coming back from England鈥�. He came up and asked me if I鈥檇 care to take a job in the office. I refused, after having an outdoor life.
I went down the following Monday, and talked about the football and the war. He said the war would only last 6 months, because the lads who had their careers interrupted had to be kept fit. Some in the Army, navy, air force. As well as doing jobs they had to keep their football skills.
The war didn鈥檛 last 6 months, it lasted 6 years.

I recommended the best I knew in the football line. But they had no trade. So we had to invent a category. They like to be electricians. It was the most natural for them.

Every weekend we had football matches. There was the RAF in Ballykelly, the soldiers in Ebrington, and different servicemen at Magilligan.
We got sides together to give these lads a lot of competition. As time went on it got more serious. The Germans came more near to Ireland, and there was a lot of activity around the Atlantic Ocean. We were so convenient to the northern strait. The subs became prominent and did a lot of damage to the fleet. The stream was between Ireland and USA, and they just lay out in the Atlantic and anything passing, like the US or UK navy 鈥� the Germans seemed to know what was happening, and did a lot of damage.

14 subs surrendered and came in to Lisahalley. A very ly-by base for the British ships, especially those torpedoed or mined or damaged in any way. In those days they never named the ships, that was secret. They were termed as 鈥渓ame ducks鈥�, and went into Lisahalley. When the Germans surrendered the 14 subs came into Lisahalley.
The boss himself as an expert at demolishing the electrical parts in these subs.

The young Germans were taken off, put into the compound. It was pretty secure and well-motivated. Sort of a prison. A place of security until such time as they were transferred to proper prisons. A young lad coming off handed me a small book, a diary. I looked at it and saw his name and rank number in German. Maybe he thought Ireland was neutral, and I would contact his parents and let them know he was safe and happy to be prisoner in Oreland.

To any German boy, it was more instructions. Everything was in it 鈥� US and UK bases. Even the Fuhrer鈥檚 speech. Everything was well detailed and marked off. It was more a map. A manual. I kept it as a souvenir. Security was too tight. There was no chance of me getting in touch with his family in Germany. I suppose the lad thought, me being in civilian clothes 鈥� I鈥檇 have loved to, but I never got the opportunity. I often wonder if that young lad鈥檚 still alive.

They were all dressed in the same outfits. They were so young-looking, you鈥檇 have never picked one from the other. That morning we didn鈥檛 have time, they were taken away so fast, we didn鈥檛 get speaking to them.
Any time I was visiting the subs they looked well-fed. They were kept fit. Safe and well.
It was only the occasional visit that we made afterwards. It was hard to say how long.
Lisahalley had very very tight security through the wall. VIPs and ships came there that couldn鈥檛 come up the Foyle. The water was deep enough there. It was a supply depot for the ships that came here. This was the main route for all communications. The US base in the Waterside was in direct touch with Washington throughout the war.

The Canadian Navy, the Dutch 鈥�

I wasn鈥檛 the type of person to go down into a sub. That was part and parcel of the tradesmen, electricians. I walked on board them, that was as far. The electrical dept, my boss was a qualified electrician. I looked down into them, that done me.

鈥淯nited Services Football League鈥� 鈥� we started a competition with the Army, RN and RAF. We were the civilians in the Admiralty. We called our team 鈥淗arlandic鈥�.

Before the shipyards had the lame ducks 鈥� The Americans were over a year prior to that. The US prepared the docks and security for a war zone.

Top players included Bobby Hewitt, a man called Leyton.
The football team disbanded 1944-5. All players started going back to their clubs. I didn鈥檛 go back to England. I鈥檇 been keeping company with my wife to be, Ailish Quigly, and got married.

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