大象传媒

Teenagers in Wartime Belfast

This story was submitted to the People鈥檚 War site by Eileen Parker of SEELB staff on behalf of Edith, Grace and Malcolm and has been added to the site with their permission. The authors fully understand the site鈥檚 terms and conditions.

Malcolm: I was born in 1928 so I was a schoolboy when war broke out. We were picnicking when we heard a plane go over, probably taking reconnaissance photos. Shandon Park Golf Club was bombed, possibly by mistake. The air raid warnings were scary: we would run to the window to see the barrage balloons covering the city. There would be searchlights crisscrossing the sky and we could hear the drone of enemy planes. There were bins scattered all over Belfast containing smoke screens which were let off to confuse the pilots. Afterwards we collected the tails of the bombs and bits of shrapnel; I found a bomb with no tail, it was made of shiny aluminium, I showed it to our teacher and he reckoned it was safe because it had no tail. We threw it at the feet of a girl pushing a pram and scared her out of her wits. Then we took it to a quarry and tossed it over the edge 鈥� it went off! Luckily we weren鈥檛 hurt and we had great fun telling our teacher what had happened. He apologised for his mistake.
The Home Guard marched around in uniform and practised in quarries. They were on duty in huts made of sandbags on street corners and at night would challenge anyone out late: 鈥淗alt! Who goes there?鈥�
There was a camp for prisoners of war at Cherryvalley, where the RUC station is now. Another camp at Holywood was for American servicemen who had misbehaved.
Edith
There were NAAFI houses where local ladies ran tea parties for servicemen. Everyone wanted to do their bit. After the Easter blitz people walked out of the city in the evenings and up into the hills and slept in barns or huts or wherever they could. There was one big raid on East Belfast and another on the Antrim Road. An aircraft carrier was in port for repairs and its guns helped defend Belfast.
People thought Belfast wouldn鈥檛 be attacked because it was so far away and when it was bombed, we were devastated.
Everyone got a gasmask but they weren鈥檛 always the right size:
mothers fitted a strap so the child could wear it round his or her neck.
My mother came from the Mournes and I was evacuated there for over 6 months. When Belfast was bombed my uncle said there was no-one left alive in the city and I was worried what I would do with my three young brothers as I knew my aunt was finding things tough enough.
Campbell College was turned into a military hospital with Nissen huts and my mother who was in the WVS took us to visit the sick soldiers.
Grace
Landmines didn鈥檛 make any noise 鈥� one landed in
Kensington Road and damaged the water mains so everyone had to go for inoculation against typhoid. We were driven by a commercial traveller to the Royal; a lot of streets were closed because of the damage and when we got to the hospital there were long, long queues.
My father had an aviary but after the war started he couldn鈥檛 get food for the birds so he gave them to the zoo and started a hen run in the garden. He ended up with 500 hens. My mother went round on her bike and collected scraps to feed them and gave 2 eggs in exchange. The fishmonger gave her fish heads but eventually the eggs were so fishy tasting, she had to cut down.
We made butter by shaking cream from the milk. Hospital patients had to bring in their ration cards and nurses likewise: we couldn鈥檛 leave them down or they would be stolen. Children bartered their ration coupons at school. There was a black market but farmers could be fined or even imprisoned for trading on it. Relatives in country areas could usually help out:
In Tyrone they crossed the border on bicycle when they knew the Customs men went for their tea. Nothing was wasted 鈥� clothes were made over. When I became a nurse in 1947 my mother bought parachutes and used the silk to make embroidered pyjamas for me. Army blankets were turned into dressing gowns and coats.

White buildings were painted black. Windows were crisscrossed with tape and sandbags banked up against the windows so it was often dark inside. There was a graph of the money collected for Spitfire Funds in front of the City Hall and behind it there were 2 large tanks of water for the fire fighters. When peace came people swam in these.

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