大象传媒

This story is taken from an interview with John Luke, and has been added to the site with his permission. The author fully understands the site's terms and conditions. The interviewer was Mark Jeffers, and the transcription was by Bruce Logan.
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Another instance comes to mind when an American Flying Fortress coming in from the Irish Sea crashed on Slievenanee Mountain in the dark. I knew the members of the rescue party who went up the mountain on the dark wet night in October 1942 to look for it. They got lost on the mountain and had to follow the bed of a small stream to find their way down again. They went back in daylight and found the plane. Two crew members were still alive but unfortunately they died on the way to hospital. Had they been found the previous night they might well have survived. Slievenanee was our training mountain and we regularly saw the remains of the plane as we manoeuvred on the mountain. The Americans came and took away the engines, guns and anything of value but the fuselage lay for a long time. I can assure you if you ever stand on top of a mountain in pitch darkness or in fog it鈥檚 an experience you want to forget. I should say that the Home Guard used part of the tail fuselage filled with sand bags for a grenade and mortar target.

Blackout regulations were rigidly enforced. Every window and every skylight had to be covered during darkness, mostly with a black cloth which could be bought for the purpose. Strips of oilcloth (linoleum) or light wood had to be put up along the sides of the windows so that no light could shine past the side of the dark blinds. Skylights were often painted as were glass roofs on business premises, railway stations etc. Quite a lot of churches held their evening services in the halls as it was virtually impossible to blackout church windows. R.U.C and U.S.C patrols ensured that these regulations were adhered to.

Air raid shelters were built at strategic places in town but fortunately they were never needed in Ballymena. Accidents occurred with cars running into shelters in the blackout as some shelters were built on the side of the street. They were originally built of brick with heavy concrete roofs and I am told that in Belfast during the air raids that the brick walls collapsed with the blast and the roof fell in on top of the people inside. Later shelters were completely constructed of concrete.

Vehicle head lamps had to be restricted so that they would not be seen from the air. Originally a scoop similar to the scoop of a policeman鈥檚 hat was fitted at the top of the headlamp. Later on a proper head lamp mask was fitted. The head lamp glass was removed to facilitate this. The mask was made of metal and had 3 slots across it which showed very little light. Side lights, which in those days were mostly fitted on the mudguards of vehicles, had to be restricted to 1鈥� diameter. This was done by fitting a piece of metal with a 1鈥� hole inside the glass of the lamp. It was an offence to shine a torch outside. There were no street lamps during the blackout and it was very difficult to get around on a very dark night. Moonlight was a blessing but added to the possibility of air raids. Some poles and lamp posts had a white stripe painted round them to help people see them in the dark.

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