大象传媒

This story is taken from an interview with Michael Murray, 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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I was 15 years old. I remember when Mr Chamberlain the PM was going over to negotiate with Hitler. We were all very apprehensive. Chamberlain apologised about how he was unable to come to terms with Germany, and we were all already in a state of war.
We were naive. I thought the Germans were going to be over Derry in half an hour.
Then we started to see the air-raid shelters built in the street. They were solid concrete. An iron cage covered in concrete. They wouldn鈥檛 have survived a direct hit, but they would have withstood shrapnel and things like that. Some people used them, others didn鈥檛.

They set up the ARP [Air Raid Precautions], Auxiliary Fire Services, Home Guard.

I had my bicycle. We got paid so much a month for wear and tear on the bike. In case the phones broke down, they used us as Dispatch riders to take messages across time.
The ARP had sections. The Air Raid wardens, the Despatch Corps that I was in, and then there was first aid. We all had to chip in and do our part. There was posts allocated in different parts of the city. Mine, above my home, was post E2. These posts would have been manned with 7 personnel. I was the only young one there. The rest of them were over 60. They were old men! It was like 鈥淒ad鈥檚 Army鈥�.

Everybody come together for an exercise, to simulate what would happen at a real incident. In one exercise there was an old man, we had him upstairs in a derelict house. There was smouldering straw, and we had to rescue him. The Fire and Ambulance service had to rescue him. There was a delay, and he was crying for help!
The 2 blokes on the hose, they went to lift the hose. The man on the hydrant put it on full blast, and it lifted them off their feet. It was a pantomime. It would have been a great script for 鈥淒ad鈥檚 Army鈥�!

We demonstrated 鈥� we went round the door with gas masks, and demonstrated the people how to put on the gas mask. Each household member had a gas mask, even for children.

Children got evacuated. With little gas masks and their name on a label. They weren鈥檛 going very far.

In Derry before the war there was no work. There was 32 shirt factories 鈥� it was the women did the work. Even myself, bus work, was good steady work.
The war made Derry into a boom town. The French, Canadians, the RN, WAAF, Wrens and ATS. The Yanks were in the Cloony base. We didn鈥檛 realise, but it was the hotline to America. It was the main base for subs in the battle of the Atlantic. All these forces, when they got leave they would go into town and spend money. And there was no bother.
British Senior Service cigarettes, all various cigarettes. 2 shillings a packet.
Big massive tins of tobacco, a very cheap way of smoking.
You could have got anything, because there was a lot of black marketing going on. Shoes, everything they could smuggle off the ships. They were flogging everything. Even people working with me would take advantage of them.
鈥淵ou want a pair of shoes?鈥�

The joke 鈥� the shipyard, Brown鈥檚 Foundry made a lot of parts, and Craig鈥檚 Foundry. And a lot of shipyard workers did running maintenance on ships that come in. out come big tins of battleship grey paint, and a lot of Derry Houses were painted grey like HMS Courageous!

On Friday and Saturday night, the bus co depot had 22 single buses and 3 double-deckers full of troops for down the Limavady road. There was in inspector to see how many buses could be turned. It was a set fare 鈥� 1 and 9p return, no matter how far they were going.

The Americans couldn鈥檛 take the British, and so on. There was a scrap every night. Our buses couldn鈥檛 get glass. When the windows were broken they were put in with plywood. Even behind the driver.

One bus had a canvas roof. One night it was taking Yanks home to their base. It had been raining, and the driver took a bend too sharply. The roof tore, and there was 10 gallons of water on top. But they never heard another word about it.

There was Jontin cars from the Guildhall to the Shipyard 鈥� pony and trap.
The Americans would not pay. They smoked their own cigarettes, did their own drinking. 鈥渒eep the change!鈥�
They鈥檇 give a dollar bill, but refuse to accept British coins. The bus conductors made good money.

The conductors wore a Bicycle lamp around their neck, as the interior buses were dimmed to the minimum. The drivers weren鈥檛 allowed full headlights 鈥� had a big black disk inside.

The Carlisle Road parade 鈥� all innocence, never said the word 鈥渟ex鈥�. You just wanted to meet people, good innocent fun.

The blackout was an opportunity for crooks, but there was no serious crime or vandalism. But children were reared to respect people and property. It was a great area to live in.

One night on duty at Post E2.
Sam Orr, ex-Mayor, had a 2-storey house. He says 鈥渓ook men, the post鈥檚 near my house, do duty there.鈥�
He was well blacked-out.
Some people had expensive linen, others had thick paper.
He opened his larder 鈥� well-stocked with food.
鈥淕osh, this is great if the sirens go off鈥�
Yellow warning = imminent danger
Purple = germans close
Red = germans overhead!
Red alert 鈥� they grabbed tin hats and ran out.
He took the wrong door, and fell on his face.

There was an AA gun

One german plane flew over in daylight. A tiny dot in a beautiful blue sky. So high the RAF never bothered. Just a reconnaissance plane 鈥� photos, not bombs.

May 41, Belfast was plastered.
Bang! 5-6 mins later there was another bang.
1 hour later, phone rang. HQ asked for Volunteers to go to Messines Park. I went, because I had an Uncle Murray there.
I was told 鈥淭hey鈥檙e safe enough. Eddy鈥檚 out with a bucket of tea, going house to house.鈥�
13 people were killed.

The first mine came down on a green parachute. It wasn鈥檛 direct bombs coming down.
It came down in a great big parachute, drifting, into his back garden. The other come down where Pennyburn chapel is now.
That was a huge big sandpit. The second landmine blew a big crater 40ft wide. If it had landed on the concrete, the road, there鈥檇 have been no chapel. There was nobody hurt in that second explosion.

I went down at about 5am and saw people getting pulled out of the rubble. Heads and shoulders and things pulled out.
There was one fellow Collins, to the day he died he still had shrapnel in him.
He was disfigured and all. He went a bit mental at the time. There was people traumatised like that.

What we didn鈥檛 realise at the time was 鈥� Only Hitler attacked Russia. He was going to give Derry a touch!
At the quay, the warships were 4 abreast. For sailors to get to their own warship they had to cross the decks of 3 others.
There was another huge ship there, a supply ship called 鈥漷he stalker鈥�. It was massive, the supply ship for the subs. There were 3-4 subs beside that the Foyle was full of warships down to Lisahalley. It was a very very important base for the Atlantic.

The RAF would have taken off from the base at Eglinton. The one at Ballykelly and one at Analoo. They would have taken off in the big Liberators and Wellington bombers.
There was a hell of a lot of them crashed. The Donegal hills, they didn鈥檛 get past Inishowen.
Even to this day at Eglinton church, there鈥檚 a line of gravestones along the wall. 鈥淔lying Officer, Aged 19鈥�.
We were on a very main base, on the cards for a right plastering. It was miraculous how we escaped.

We鈥檙e in a unique situation 鈥� we鈥檙e on the border. Food wasn鈥檛 a problem. But the customs men would pull you up for a lb of butter. It was hard to smuggle 鈥� it would melt and run down their legs. They couldn鈥檛 conceal it.
The Customs would have taken off you a packet of cigarettes if it wasn鈥檛 opened.
People would have bought Free State cigarettes. They were smuggling everything. Customs were very very strict.
In the war the clocks were moved 2 hours back. They said the Buncrana train was fastest in Europe. You got on in Derry at 6pm, and got off at Buncrana at 6pm. But it worked the wrong way round coming back. There was an evening run at 6pm, and a late train back.

There was a time difference over the border. The Free State didn鈥檛 keep in line. There was a 1 hour difference. The idea was to keep as much day light as we could. It was clear at midnight.

We were always apprehensive on a very cloudless sky. A big bright moon and stars, the Germans might be coming. A moonlight night was deadly. We had several scares, the siren went off a lot. But when you heard them, you took notice.
The RAF wouldn鈥檛 have went over Germany on a cloudless night.

They say that single plane didn鈥檛 get past Portrush. He was supposed to have been shot down.
Wartime in Derry.

Eggs were scarce. I loved them. My mother made sandwiches with Dried eggs. Boy, they were beautiful.
The butter was more expensive than the margarine. My mother had a big baking bowl. She put the butter and margarine in, and stirred them all together with a little taste of milk. To make it last. Like the Flora nowadays.

The rationing of chocolate and cigarettes. I knew this girl who had a shop. We could have gone to her and she鈥檇 give us a bar of Cadbury鈥檚 chocolate. We still had coupons.

There was a cigarette called 鈥淧asha鈥�.
You may as well have been smoking auld army socks, or camel mature. I couldn鈥檛 describe it.

Old Mr McCarry, the Italian, he sold them. Once a boy bought them and lit one in the place.
鈥淣o smoke cigarettes. No smoke Pasha.鈥�
He鈥檇 sell them, but not smoke them. That 鈥淧asha鈥� would have poisoned you! I believe they were sweepings of the desert.

We could not get parts during the war. When glass was scarce we used Plywood or hardboard.

Londonderry Corporation Buses were like the old charabancs. Solid tyres and spoked wheels. The Stevensons. They took the workers into the Banagher water scheme, but also did city work. They didn鈥檛 do the hills. From Buncrana road over to Cloony. On the level.
But when Catherwood took over, Catherwood was the buses on the hills. He ventured up Shippy street into Rosemount. People thought 鈥� He was the first man to put an express bus from Belfast to Derry. The fare was 5 shillings return.

During the war, you wore your bicycle lights round your neck when working on the buses. I don鈥檛 know how the driver could see where he was going as the lights had a disc covering them 鈥� not much brighter than side lights nowadays.
Along the road, an old fellow would make the conductor use the ladder to get his bike onto the roof and tie it on. nobody worried about insurance. The charge was 陆 a single fare for the bike. 2-3 miles down the road you had to untie his bicycle and hand it down.

We had utility buses during the war. The Conductor could sit up beside the driver. They were small, 24-seaters.
The bus work was really tough them.
The buses had starting handles. You had to swing a big handle to start the engine. That was a dodgy job.
You had to keep you thumb and finger away from the thing, because if it backfired it would lift you in the air. You had to keep your hand right over it. You stood on that. There was a handle to hold on to.
Hail, rain, sleet or snow, you had to stand outside and change the destination.

We had to use an indelible pencil that a rubber wouldn鈥檛 erase. One of those a week, to write in all tickets.
We had the Bell-punch. You put the ticket in, and the bell rang to show the people you were issuing the ticket. The little pieces, they went into a cavity. We called it a 鈥減unch鈥�. When it got packed up, you couldn鈥檛 push down. You opened it with a penknife and you scraped all these out. We saved it in paper bags and gave it to the factory girls for weddings to use as confetti! It was ideal, because different prices of tickets 鈥� blue for tuppeny, white for penny, beige for hapenny, red for ... all different colours.

There was a great rapport between passengers and crew. Not like now. You see Xmas?
鈥�
So it was great fun.

Dance halls.
The men of the town, they were getting the shove-around. There was fights because they were jealous. The girls took to the Navy and the forces, and were ignoring their ... That caused a lot of rows.
The Crypt on Foyle Street, the Navy visited that. Corinthian up on Bishop Street, more down the Strand.
The way we would have danced, now ... the money we scarped up, we saved up for the country dances. The religious divide didn鈥檛 come into it. I remember going on a bus out to the Orange Hall in Donnemana. There was a girl from Broad St, a Protestant girl, and w e just courted the whole way out on the bus.
Then I left. I was with another guy, and we got a ticket for the Catholic hall across the street. So if the talent wasn鈥檛 what we thought, we got a pass-out ticket and went over to the Parochial Hall across the street. If the talent wasn鈥檛 what we expected, we鈥檇 go back. Nobody cared, nobody said anything.

The Americans would have went to the Corinthian Hall. The British went to the Crypt. There was a dance hall down the Strand.
Any dealings I would have had with the yanks, I鈥檇 have been taking them back to their base.

They couldn鈥檛 agree. They all fought. But it was a boom town! They flogged everything except the ship! You couldn鈥檛 have got that up the stairs.

There was these water tanks at the Diamond.
We had to demonstrate the use of stirrup pumps, in case incendiaries come down. Fire bombs to set places on fire. The pump was a long metal tube. A rubber tube at the bottom went into a bucket of water, and a nozzle at the top, when you pump the water comes out of that. So we had to demonstrate that to people. Every household didn鈥檛 have one, but in case it came round, but in case the Germans came there was the facility of using it. There were stirrups on the bottom, you put a foot in each to steady it, the tube in the bucket and you pumped the water onto the fire.

The tanks to fill the buckets were in various parts of the town. One down where these people lived, down the Bogside 鈥� Johnny, he was 11, he was a wee devil. And then the next thing, Mrs Ferris got the word 鈥淛ohnny鈥檚 in the tank.鈥�
He fell in on the 24th June 1942, and was drowned. On her birthday. She died 8 years ago. She never passed a birthday without tears. She had just lost a baby 10 months previous to that.

They were very deep and very big. It鈥檚 a wonder there wasn鈥檛 more casualties.
That鈥檚 what they were for, the fire-fighting.

They haven鈥檛 exploited them very much, but there is tunnels under the Diamond. Maybe it dates back to penal days. But there鈥檚 a tunnel runs from the Diamond to St Columb鈥檚 College. And one runs down Butcher St, underground.

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