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WHEN he first set foot in Kilkeel, Mike Sambrook knew he was at 'home.'
The young English soldier, like many of his day, spent the early years of World War II stationed in Kilkeel.
Mike was less than a month short of his 21st birthday when he and the other 624 soldiers of the 81st Field Regiment Royal Artillery descended upon the capital of the Kingdom of Mourne.
It was 21 June 1940 -- a day he remembers well -- and even as teenager he just knew there was just that 'something' about Kilkeel.
Now aged 82, Mike can look back on that day and not only recall his feelings, but how his love for the area and its people grew and developed very quickly.
"For some reason unknown to myself, I felt at home the minute I arrived in Kilkeel," he recalled as he relaxed in his Eleastan Park home.
"I don't know why," he explained, "but to me it was the place I was always going to come backl to -- the scenery, the sea, the mountains, the people and their hospitality.
"In my heart of hearts, I knew that in my life I would end my days here."
So began Mike Sambrook's life in Kilkeel -- a journey that found him love and marriage, a journey that witnessed action in the major battles of Europe, including the fall of Germany, and a journey that saw him become the youngest ever Lieutenant Quartermaster in the British Army.
Life in wartime Kilkeel was a world away from today, but there are still many in the town who can remember it well.
The onset of war and the virtual take-over of the town by the forces was a culture shock to both the troops and locals.
MEMORIES
But one soon got used to the other and it is evident that many, like Mike, now look back on the time with fond memories.
As part of the Quartermaster's department, Mike initially arrived in Kilkeel with his regiment's advance party in late May of 1940.
It was the party's job to find accommodation for 625 soldiers, and they requisitioned much of the town to house the new arrivals.
Although an Englishman, Mike was not attached to an English unit. His regiment was part of the 53rd Welsh Division -- an infantry division that had been a territorial unit until war was declared in 1939.
Being under strength, it was built up by intakes of all nationalities from the various camps that had been set up during 1939 to prepare an Army fit for war.

Most of these trainees were 21 -- which was the call-up age at the time -- but Mike volunteered a year early and was still only 20 when he joined it in Pembroke in November 1939.
When Mike came to Kilkeel, it was not his first experience of Northern Ireland as his regiment had spent the previous six weeks in Ballymoney.
During his first three nights in Kilkeel, Mike and the advance party were billeted in the courthouse (which no longer exists) in the Kilmorey Square.
"We then moved down to what is now the Post Office, the upper floor of which became our main Quartermaster's stores and also served as a billet for myself and the storemen," he explained.
At the time Mike was a Sergeant, but acting as Regimental Quartermaster Sergeant -- a position he had been earmarked for since the previous January. He was also at that time in charge of Regimental Police in the town.
Time had to be served in each rank, so it was not until his 21st birthday on 6 July 1940 that he, was made a Warrant Officer -- a promotion which saw him acquire his own room above what is now Hanna's Newsagents beside the Old Mill Restaurant on Knockchree Avenue.
EQUIPMENT
By that stage, most of the town's major buildings had been requisitioned to house the troops and their equipment.
Hillcrest, which now belongs to the well-known local Graham family, was regimental headquarters.
The regiment's commanding officers were housed there and the building was also used as an officers' mess, communications centre and had offices for the Quartermaster's Department.
Moving along down Greencastle Road towards the town, the Mourne 'Abbey was used as a billet for troops, as was the downstairs section of the Orange Hqll, the upstairs of which was the sergeants' mess.
An abattoir and buildings (where the library now is) belonging to Sloan's Butchers were taken over to be used for gun sheds, while the Masonic Hall-was used as a headquarters for one of the regiment's battery sub-units.
Below the Quartermaster's stores, where the Post Office now is, was used as a repair yard, housing an attachment of men from the Royal Electrical Mechanical Engineers.
Other major local buildings taken over included the former workhouse in Newry Street and the Victoria Hotel, which was sited at what are now the former Housing Executive offices at Bridge Street.
What is now Graham's Garage -- Speers' Garage in those days -- was a petrol dump, under constant armed guard.

An interesting story surrounds the requisitioning of the Victoria Hotel, which was owned by Mrs J.R. McCulla, who was later to become Mike's mother-in -law. Before the advance party arrived in Kilkeel, a captain in the regiment by the name of Peter England came to the town with his wife. According to Mike, he was very well known in the town because he was a potato importer, but he and his wife were denied access to the Victoria Hotel because Mrs McCulla wouldn't let him bring his dogs into the building.
"I don't know where he went, but within a week the place was requisitioned!" Mike said.
"Now whether it was because of the dogs incident or not, I don't know." Looking back, Mike recalls some initial "diffidence" between locals and the newly arrived soldiers. ..:
'HOSPITALITY'
"But this broke down very quickly, and very soon everyone had found friends who gave them some hospitality of various sorts," he explained.
"Now one of the things you didn't have in a billet -- and don't forget we slept on the floor -- were baths, so if you could make a friend who had a bathroom, that was a very valuable asset to any soldier," he pointed out.
The cinema in Newry Street was built in 1938, and the mass arrival of entertainment-seeking troops a couple of years later ensured it had been a good investment for the co-owners Jim McCulla and Willie McGonigle.
And it was the cinema which very soon became a central point in Mike's life. On a visit to the cinema during his first week in the town, he got talking to Jean McCulla, who was later to become his wife. She operated the pay box and on frequent visits to 'the pictures' Mike would spend the evening talking to Jean from behind the door of the kiosk where no one could see him!
As soldiers at that stage were still -- according to Mike -- an "unknown quantity" to many in the town, it was not the "done thing" for young ladies to let their families know if they were seeing a soldier. That was the case with Mike and Jean until fate intervened -- in the form of peritonitis. . . The couple were leaving a friend home one night in the McCulla family car when Jean passed out because of the condition. He immediately drove her to the local doctor, from where she was rushed to the Royal Victoria Hospital in Belfast.
"In the meantime," Mike explained, "her family turned up. First of all they asked who I was and that's how the ice was broken." Three years later -- on 8 July 1943 -- the couple were married. Mike, who was training in England at the time, was given leave to return to Northern Ireland for the ceremony.

The reception was held in the Great Northern Hotel, Rostrevor, and the honeymoon was spent in Dublin.
"There was really nowhere else we could go," Mike recalled. But the honeymoon didn't last long. After just three days Mike received an urgent call from the Army to return immediately to England -- accompanied by his new wife.
With less than a year to the D-Day landings, the regiment continued its preparation.
'TRAINING'
"It was training, training, training," said Mike. "All the time we were training ."
In April 1944 Jean returned to Northern Ireland and a few months later Mike was on his way to France.
After a week spent anchored at sea, his regiment arrived in Normandy on 17 June, less than two weeks after the D-Day landings. In the ensuing months, they provided battle support for the Allied push through France, Belgium, and Holland and into Germany. Although never in front line action, Mike played a key role in maintaining a steady stream of supplies to the troops in action. It meant little sleep and lots of travelling, but the constant supply of food and .ammunition played, a vital part in the success of the British troops and it was Mike's job to ensure the correct amounts were in the right place at the right time.
"We were on the move constantly," recalled Mike. "We had to go back to collect supplies and then bring them forward."
Although the threat of attack during battle was constant -- even against troops behind the front line -- Mike said that he always found exercises and training more strenuous, if a little less frightening.
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"The hardest night I ever had for lack of sleep was on exercise in the Gortin Mountains," he revealed.
"Training was harder than the actual war. Quite often it was nothing more than a humdrum supply job, but we had to make sure we got our facts and figures right every night."
BATTLES
Mike's regiment provided back up during some of the major battles of the war, including the Battle of Arnhem and the Battle of the Bulge.
Within a year of landing in Normandy, Mike's regiment crossed the River Rhine and saw the fall of Hamburg in May 1945. .
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A month later they were sent to Krefeld near Dusseldorf as occupation troops, and, following the surrender of the German forces, Mike took on new responsibilities disbanding units -- including his former 71st Anti-Tank Regiment.
Mike continued his role disbanding other units until July 1946 when he left for Bremen and then on to Hull in England for 'demob camp.'
Fittingly, he arrived back in Northern Ireland on his third wedding anniversary, having served six years, nine months and 24 days.
After 80 days end of war leave, Mike and Jean went to Birmingham, where Mike spent the next three years working as a travelling rep for a furniture factory where his father was general manager.
The couple returned to Kilkeel in August 1950 as they both agreed it was a better place to raise a family. ..;
They had two sons, Paul and Richard. Paul currently works for Michelin, while.Richard works..for the UN High Commission in Islamabad.
For the next 11 years Mike worked for his in-laws in their Ferguson Tractor and Austin Dealership, and was also a director, of Kilkeel Sand Company.
He then moved to work for Lucas Motorparts in Belfast, where he had posts as territory manager, depot manager and battery rep for Northern Ireland.
He retired in 1981 after working there for 20 years.
HISTORY
In his retirement, Mike has maintained a keen interest in military history and has a wealth of information on his days as a soldier, including an extraordinary in-depth account of the 53rd Welsh Division's involvement in Operation Overlord from June1944 until May 1945.
He is also a keen member of the Kilkeel branch of the Royal British Legion.
Throughout his recollection of the war and his days as a soldier in Kilkeel, Mike has always maintained that success was not down to anyone particular regiment or unit, but as a result of them all pulling together.
The title of the 53rd Welsh Division's battle record is Team Spirit and its opening verse is a fitting tribute to Mike and all the soldiers who served in World War Two ~
"It aint the guns or armament, or the money they can pay,
It's the close co-operation that makes them win the day;
It ain't the individual, nor the Army as a whole,
But the everlastin' teamwork of every bloomin' soul."

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