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Im Hannah Thompson aged ten — I talked to my family friend about ww2 — these are some memories.
What are your first memories of WAR TIME
I remember the Sunday War was declared. I was standing outside Church on 3rd September. Everyone was very serious when the news came through at 12 O’Clock.
The next day my father went to the shop to buy 1 stone of sugar (14 ibs) because food would soon be rationed.
What food was rationed?
Tea, Sugar, Butter, Margarine, Jam, Meat. We had B.U.’s or Bread Units and could only buy bread if we had enough coupons. Then we had ‘Points’ and all other foods in tins were bought with these.
We had clothing coupons and sweet coupons. We only had 8 oz’s sweets in a month.
Our school was given to the Army for a hospital and we went into Church Halls. Four classes would be in the large hail divided by curtains.
We always carried our Gas Masks. I had to do gas mask drill - learning to put the gas mask on quickly and then occasionally we had to go into a gas chamber in the market square to test us.

Did you hear any bombs going off?
YES! We always dreaded nights with a full moon. We could hear the drone of German Bombers and several bombs were dropped in Bangor. Some houses had a direct hit and the people were killed. A siren would go off to warn us and then the ‘ALL CLEAR’ would be sounded when the bombers had gone.
Every house had sand bags and buckets to put out fires. Our windows had black out blinds and we were not allowed to show any lights. Our bicycle lamps had hoods on them to direct light on to the road.
Was anyone belong to you in the WAR?
Yes, my Uncle Tom was in the Ulster Volunteer Force and was called up immediately. He was in the Army and was taken prisoner in Dunkirk. We didn’t know for a long time where he was. He tried to escape several times but was always recaptured. He was in one of the Stalag camps. We wrote letters to him and knitted caps and scarves. All letters were censored.
Did you see any boats in Bangor?
Yes, we always enjoyed when the Battleships, Cruisers and Air Craft Carriers came in. There were plenty of sailors about.
What happened when the War was over?
We had great celebrations and the street lights went on again.

By Hannah Thompson
CPE Primary School
Dungiven

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