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This story is taken from an interview with Major John Potter, and has been added to the site with his permission. The author fully understands the site's terms and conditions. The interview and transcription was by Bruce Logan.
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But then Campbell College was taken over as an American hospital, and we then moved out to Portstewart because Campbell [College] took over the Northern Counties hotel in Portrush. So I saw a large part of the war, the early years, out in Portstewart. Which was a lovely place to be, because nobody had any petrol so you could go and bathe on the strand and you’d be the only people there. It was also a rather exciting place to be, because you could see the convoys, and every now and then you’d see something going on and you never knew what it was. And then things would be washed up on the beach.

My father commanded the Ulster Home Guard in … near Portstewart, including Portstewart … Ballyrashane! He commanded the Ballyrashane company. So I suppose it was nepotism, but I got a job in it at 16 as a private soldier. Portstewart home guard, responsible for protecting the beach at Portstewart. Which of course was an enormous undertaking. But it was fun.

[bunker]
I never did an exercise on the beach, but we used to do exercises up above Castlerock … and I remember the very first night I spent in the Home Guard I slept on a gravestone in Agherton old church until some of the older soldiers took pity on me and led me to a cottage, and I fell asleep in front of a fire in an armchair.
Those are the days of the Americans, and there were a good many Americans in Portstewart. As there were right across the country. They used to use Portstewart strand sands as a, for doing live firing. They used to go across the Bann [to Castlerock], and then fire into the sand-dunes. And they were absolutely wild with their fire. We used to walk on the sand dunes, we could hear the bullets go overhead.
You would find bits of hand grenades, certainly. For years after the war, when the sand moved you picked up bits of hand-grenades.

[line of defence]
What I do remember is that both Portstewart strand and Benone, along the whole length, were posts and between the posts were wires. So if anyone tried to land gliders, the wings would have been chopped off. And until quite recently you could still see the bottom of the posts when the tide went out.
I came back, I first came back on holidays from school to Holywood in 1940, summer of 1940. And I was absolutely amazed about the way that all around Holywood had been turned into an armed camp. Barricades on the roads, it was hard to believe.

[concrete tower, coast-watch]
They used the Skerries, or just off the Skerries, as a bombing range. I can remember seeing a Spitfire land at the White Rocks. Canadian pilot who thought he’d run out of fuel. He hadn’t, in fact, he’d just forgotten to switch over tanks.
I was cycling past when it happened.

[landing space]
That wasn’t a problem at all. He landed perfectly safely. Although I did wonder what happened after — did he take off again or did they have to dismantle it? I suspect they had to dismantle it.

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