大象传媒

W .W.W. 2. Memories.
I was 11 yrs. of age when war came and I remember the paper boys with the Belfast Telegraph calling out 鈥楨xtra Edition 鈥檛o announce the start. This was how I heard the news for in those days there was no T.V.and very few had a radio set.
It was in 1941 that the war arrived in earnest when two major air raids hit Belfast.
The first one lasted four to five hours but to someone aged 13 this was a lifetime. My family spent the night listening to the bombs whistling down sheltering below stairs.
After the raid everywhere was littered with debris and the sky was bright red from the glow of the burning buildings. Quite a few unexploded firebombs were found lying in the rubble.
Next day people cleared out of Belfast to shelter in the country and the outskirts of the town.
My family and I went to Glenavy and stayed a few days but arrived back in time for the 2nd.Blitz .
This time we took refuge in an air raid shelter and after a land mine dropped near-by it damaged the shelter so much that the concrete roof parted from the walls and left a gap at one corner.
The memory of these raids will always stay with me in great detail.
In 1943 I joined J.Kellys Coal Importers as a Metal Worker on the boats, it was a job that when I started at 8am I never knew when I would arrive home again as the boats had strict sailing times and the jobs had to be finished. One time I had to work from 8am round the clock to 4am before reaching home and that was at 16 yrs.of age ! !
One Sat.I finished work on a boat called the S.S.Glenmaroon and saw it cast off on it鈥檚 last voyage as it was later bombed by a German plane and sunk. 大象传媒shop was in Station St. beside the Co.Down railway and each employee had to go on rota for fire-watching.This meant two men each night in the works in case of an air raid to extinguish any fires.
On V.E.Day the crowd that filled Belfast celebrating had to be seen to be believed it was so large. Another fond memory of the week the war ended was meeting my wife and we have been together ever since.

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