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I lived at Dyfred Street, Barry Island for the beginning of 1941 until 1947. The house overlooked the docks at Barry.
Most of the shipping in the channel was cargo ships heading for the ports at Cardiff, Bristol and Newport, bringing food etc.
At night we could hear ships being blown up as they sailed to these ports, by mines which had been dropped by enemy planes. Every ship lost meant flotsam and driftwood being washed up on the beach. Each morning people, mostly women as the men where in the services, went down to the beach to gather anything worth salvaging. You could always find wood for the fire but sometimes other things could be found as well. Once ‘Fyffes’ lost a ship in the channel and boxes of bananas were found washed up on the beach. We all lived well on bananas that week.
The unpleasant side of beachcombing was finding a bodies of a dead seaman washed up and having to go to the police station and report them.

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