大象传媒

This story is taken from an interview with Danny McGattigan and has been added to the site with their permission. The author fully understands the site's terms and conditions. The interview was by Deirdre Donnelly, and transcription was by Bruce Logan.
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[When did the war start?]
It started the night the Germans went into Poland.
3rd Sept 1939, and a wet dismal Sunday it was!

We lived beside the yanks at Ross Downey, between Ross Downey and Clooney. There were 2 USN communication stations at Ross Downey and Clooney.
When the alarm went, they all went to our place, the worst place they could go.
They had these Anderson shelters, put up on the table. Protection in your own house, like getting under the stairs. Protection from shrapnel.
There were Brick air raid shelters. When the raid came you removed bricks to get in. After the war they tried to destroy one with a big ball and chain, but they couldn鈥檛 get them down.

We used to run about with the USMC and the c-bees, the technicians. They were here before America entered the war building camps, the Lisahally jetty and other work. They came from Statten island.We went to Ballykelly with them. One of the biggest planes in the world, the Galaxy, came in there with supplies. You weren鈥檛 supposed to go but they didn鈥檛 mind taking us kids.
There were big trucks, Macks, which were chain-driven. Big sprockets in them.

[What did you get from the yanks?]
Ice cream and Hersheys chocolate.
Ice Cream with wee things all over them, for a treat. Even a banana was a treat. I remember when lemons came after the war, boys were sucking on them 鈥� never seen one before.
We had a small holding, a few things.
The Ministry came up as far as our back field. The USMC came on patrol every night. One fellow from Donegal, a marine named Pat O鈥橠onnell. His parents died, he was raised in Donegal, the only way he could return to USA was if he joined the USMC. We became friendly with him.

One morning, while we walked to school, we discovered a jeep lying down the road without a body in it, a woman鈥檚 gold watch was lying on the seat.

Then the base moved out to the mountains past Dungiven, I lost contact with them.

The clooney camp became known as Boystown, at the head of Nelson drive, was all US huts. The biggest was the Samson. Everything was done in the US style, even the mailbox was 鈥淯S mail鈥� and the postman had the US postal uniform. We called it 鈥淟ittle America鈥�.
They built some lovely houses. The first we seen with copper-felt roofs.

They had back-pedalling bikes without breaks, you had to pedal backwards to stop. Thick tyres, not like the bikes we had.

[What was there on the base?]
There was a shop. The Commisary.
The Samson Hall鈥檚 still standing, but the army took it over.
They were entirely self-sufficient. We supplied them with milk. When you came up, the Chief came up and examined everything to perfection. A sample had to be taken before they accepted it. It had to be homogenised milk 鈥� we put in a homogenising plant specially for them. The milk is compressed, so the cream doesn鈥檛 rise to the top.

They were very particular about everything. Can鈥檛 blame them. They were paying big money for it. Money鈥檚 no object to them.

Beach Hill was their base for recreation. They were boxing there and they had a bugle band.

When the US were leaving they had to destroy everything they had 鈥� wardrobes, everything. The UK Govt wouldn鈥檛 allow it to be used again. I don鈥檛 know why.
We had to destroy creamery cans, crates, everything belonging to them, we destroyed it. Nobody could say 鈥淚 bought that at an auction鈥� if it was destroyed.

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