大象传媒

My name is Eula Harrison (nee) Allen , I am from Jamaica,I attended the Mannings Hill Elementary School.I know very little of war or of its true hardships and dangers. Here I will try to give an account of what I can remember happening in our small Island during World War 2.
I was still at school when the war started.

I can still in my mind see our teacher sitting on her desk (not at) reading the news papers to us children the day that England declared war on Germany
3rd September 1939. We were told the reason England had to take that stand against Germany and how our Island as a British Colony could be affected by the war.

As the war progressed we older children were taught to knit also the women
of our District, we knitted scarves, gloves, mittens and rolled bandages for all of which were sent to the Red Cross our small contribution for the troops We were taught basic first aid especially we Girl Guides and Boy Scouts who already had some small knowledge of bandaging and life saving were invited to join in these activities.

Our parents who were mostly farmers were encouraged to plant more vegetables and other foodstuff the extra was to be sold to the Government agencies set up to buy food for the troops both local and for export .
Foreigners living on the Island who were thought to be a treat to our Island
or Britain were interned at the largest army camp on the Island.
We were by now experiencing some shortages in the shops especially those
foodstuff that were imported, and all these people had to be fed.

There were lots of rumours going around of U boats seen in the harbour, of
Ships being sunk of spies in our mist, what we had were very large grey
Camouflaged ships in the harbour that appear overnight stay a day or two and disappear as silently as they came taking hundreds of soldiers and
sailors, and also men for the Royal Air Force these were mostly volunteers hundreds of our young men joined up wanting to help defend their Motherland.

Life in the Island remained almost the same except for some shortages of imported goods especially rice and tinned products which at that time was
Imported and made up about 30% of our diet, because sugar is produced in Jamaica we were never reallcompletely short although most of what was producd was exported for the troops and also for refining at that time the factories were only producing the raw material called bulk we were rationed for sugar also petrol, most cars were off the road for the duration, travelling was by public transport or horse drawn carriages.
We had evacuees from Gibraltar, Malta and other places of which I am not sure from whence they came, there were lots of strange languages in our midst.
We had blackout wardens to insure windows and doors were properly blacked out at nights with no light showing anywhere.
Neighbours would knock on each others door if a chink of light showed we were told the light of a match or candle could be seen miles out at sea and us being an Island had to be very careful as our harbours were used by both British and American ships, there were many rumours of U boats at sea and spies in our midst.

I remember when my brother who was then 18 years of age had volunteered and was chosen for the RAF he being an Engineering student at a Technical High School at that time.
I can still remember how sad we all were when he came to say they would be confined to barracks at 10pm that night he only knew once in barrack they could be orderrd to embark within the hour many tears were shed as we wished him goodbye.

My brother Gladstone who had joined the R.A.F.age 18 he sailed away we knew not when or where we waited and wondered. About three or four months later a letter arrived mostly blacked out, he was safe somewhere in the United States we were very happy that he safe that was all that mattered. The War for us was only on radio and on the Newsreel at the Pictures

I like many others watched the pictures on the cinema screen and cried as we remember our brothers
and the dangers they were facibg.
The next letter the family received was to say he had arrived safely in England after a long and hazardious journey traveling in a convoy of many ships with mine sweepers before and behind and Frigates looking out for U.Boats.

My brother served until the end of the war he lived here in London married raised a family of three sadly he passed away in May 2003
.
I really wish I could remember more of the stories he told of the war of how they the troops fared in their new envoirement.
His very first encounter of raceism in one of the Southern State of the U.S.A.and how they from a British Colony not being used to those type of treatment delt with it.

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