- Contributed by听
- CSV Media NI
- People in story:听
- Daniel Wallace
- Location of story:听
- Belfast, Northern Ireland
- Background to story:听
- Civilian
- Article ID:听
- A4291580
- Contributed on:听
- 28 June 2005
This story has been collected and transcribed by Mark Jeffers with permission from the author. The author fully understands the site's terms and conditions.
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We lived in terraced houses and when we came down from the hills the lady next door was out in the street. An incendiary device had come through her roof, through her bedroom ceiling and into the electric box which was in the hall and buried itself about three feet in the ground. She invited us in and you were able to look right up and see the sky. Luckily enough it didn鈥檛 explode. That was our next door neighbour, about three feet from our own house.
We used to go looking for shrapnel as trophies, part of German bombs. You were a big man if you found something like that.
After the blitz you were able to see into peoples houses and their beds would nearly be falling out the open walls of the house.
One of my brothers refused to get out and no matter how much people shouted at him he refused to get out of bed.
The air raid shelters just sat on the top of the ground. If they got a direct hit they would have collapsed. The were used as urinals after the war and couples started using them but I was too young, I didn鈥檛 know what they were up to.
My house was fairly close to the shipyard and the aircraft factory, the places the Germans were trying to bomb!
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