大象传媒

THE WAR YEARS
by Anne Martin

My bedroom window looked down the countryside towards Lough Foyle and Donegal. In between was Aghanloo airfield - a very busy place with lots of aeroplanes coming and going. All was in darkness - it was wartime and we were in the blackout and not a chink of light was allowed.

I had been settled beneath the bedclothes but in the silence of the night I heard the engine of an aeroplane. It sounded different to what I had been used to. I had a feeling it could be a German one. I had to investigate. I lifted the curtain and blind to see if there happened to be any sign of a light that would give this plane any indication of an important part of our war effort - flying out planes to bomb the submarines in the Atlantic. All was in darkness and the drone, high up in the night sky, faded away. Each night my ears were tuned for any different sounds until I could fall asleep. That plane may have been the one that dropped its load on Londonderry - we heard afterwards that Londonderry had been hit.

My last thoughts each night was about what might happen. One night I watched a bright fire on the side of Benevenagh where a plane had crashed taking off from Aghanloo. We heard afterwards that three had crashed that same night. Some said it was because of iced up flaps and some because of inexperienced young men, not much older than myself, taking out planes they did not know enough about. There were lots of young lives lost in crashed planes - many of the young men were still in their teens.

Airmen were billeted all round the country as accommodation still had to be added to the new airfield. Lots of huts were finally put up with canteens and every sort of building to keep the squadrons close at hand - married ones found homes with anyone who had extra spare rooms.

Everyone was doing their part. Farmers had to plough seventy-five percent of their land for the war effort - "Dig for Victory". Everyone tried to grow vegetables. Most of the schools had garden plots where the senior boys and girls learned about plants and how to grow them.

Barricades were set up on the outskirts of all roads leading into Limavady. Many men of the countryside joined the Home Guard and did patrol duty at night, stopping any traffic - which was very little as petrol was rationed - and always inquiring what their business was for being out at all. Farmers had a ration of red petrol for tractor use and sometimes this was being used unlawfully on one's car. I remember my brother using it one night to go to a Young Farmer's interclub activity, as it was too distant to use his bicycle.

The Home Guard had a uniform supplied - great coat, boots and rifles. These rifles were all handed back when the units were disbanded. I always enjoy watching the television programme "Dad's Army" as it depicts so much of the happenings just like my uncle, who was a captain and had many tales to tell - schoolmasters were always given this promotion and responsibility. This uncle also took on the allocating of housing of evacuees - children from Belfast were sent out into the country. He was in a school outside Enniskillen. Limavady didn't get this as we had so much army and R. A. F. personnel around this area.

School children were issued gas masks to carry each day. Fortunately, they were never needed but still had to be taken along. They were in a cardboard box with a shoulder string attached. I got an oilskin cloth bag that fitted the cardboard box and kept it dry. When cycling to school I was often wet and managed to dry my socks and shoes at the radiator in the corridor before classes started. The wet coat and gas mask hung on the peg until home time. By that time my navy gaberdine seemed to have dried.

I walked with a school pal as far as the station at the bottom of the town and continued home on my bicycle. Cycling back the four miles, I usually had to walk up hills so it took me most of an hour. As I climbed higher I thought about the war and how so many were loosing their lives in sunken ships, submarines and the aeroplanes buzzing back and forth from our airfields.

As I got nearer home I could listen to the birds in the hedges. We had a piece of meadow ground below the house and when spring was in the air there was always sure to be skylarks spiralling into the heavens, singing as they climbed higher. This brought me back to reality and to realise that I was still a schoolgirl with only the worry of my studies to think about and that I was able to forget there was a war on.

Sometimes we were brought back to wartime situation when a platoon of soldiers, lorries and jeeps clogged our roads during manoeuvres. Some came to our door wanting to use a toilet - it was well seen they had been reared with flush toilets and didn't know to relieve themselves behind a hedge and wipe their backsides with a handful of grass or docken leaves like country people would have done. They would hardly find a toilet on the battlefield! They were having to sleep out and get a taste of what a soldier's live could be. This lot were on their way and preparing for the invasion of Europe.

One of my teachers started an R. A. F. Cadet unit and many teenagers took part in learning about aeroplanes. They looked very smart in their A. T. C. (Air Training Core) uniform that was the same colour as the R. A. F. He also started a savings club encouraging our families to "Save for Victory" and buy War Savings Bonds.

This is a few thoughts on my life during five years of war which I spent going to school and taking part in school activities. I did get to the Roe Valley Nurses invitation New Years dance when the Glen Miller Big Band played on the platform of the Town Hall and no one could move, as the hall was so crowded with people. The Yanks were on their way to England and Europe. I also cycled into town on V. E. night to take part in The Victory Celebrations - the beginnings of my first outings as a teenager and the end of five years of war.

(1128 words)

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