The Second World War

At 11.15 on the morning of 3 September 1939 Neville Chamberlain, the British Prime Minister, announced over the radio that Britain was at war with Germany. Robert McConnell (D) remembered returning home from Sunday school to Fourmileburn to hear that the announcement had been made.

Sheila Herdman had also been at Sunday school in Whitehead that morning. She had taken Dorothy Jackson with her. Dorothy was the daughter of Jean Jackson, nee Workman, who had once been a neighbour of theirs in Whitehead, but who had emigrated to Canada. Jean was making a return visit to Whitehead and had brought her daughter with her. On their return from Sunday school Sheila and Dorothy found their mothers crying. They had just heard the news on the radio and were fearful that the Jacksons would not be able to return to Canada. Thankfully they were able to make it back.

Of all of those interviewed, only one had been on active service – William Andrew Turkington who had been born in Cogry Square in 1919. He joined the RAF not long after the war began, serving as a Ground Gunner with his role to defend airfields from enemy attack. The longest he was stationed anywhere in England was in Lincolnshire. He remembers trying to combat the threat of the Doodlebugs, the challenge being to bring down something travelling at 400mph: ‘There’s only one good thing about them – they couldnae fire back at you.’ Later he was transferred to the south of England, around London.

During his time in England William Andrew made many good friends, some of whom would take him home to meet their families. Later in the war he was sent abroad, serving in India, Burma and Java (where he was when the war ended). He lost many friends in the war, but for him personally he acknowledges, ‘I had a great war.’ William Andrew left the RAF after the war, though he regrets not staying on, especially not joining his regiment for its visit to Japan. He also regrets not accepting an offer to go on a driving course when he was in the RAF.

William Andrew’s brother-in-law was Sergeant William Bell of Doagh. He was a wireless operator/air gunner in 44 Squadron of the RAF. He was killed on the night of 6 September 1940 when his bomber was shot down returning from an operation over Germany. He was later buried in the Reichswald Forest War Cemetery in Germany.




Although, with the exception of William Andrew Turkington, those interviewed did not experience the war at first hand, that did not mean that it did not have major repercussions for their lives. For Roisin McLernon the war changed the course of her life. After leaving boarding school she worked as a teacher in Haywards Heath in the south of England for a year. She was then offered a place at a teacher training college in Cardiff, but following the outbreak of war and start of the air raids she returned home. However, for those who were children through the war or at least when it began there was a sense of excitement. As Robert McConnell recalled, ‘The war years were to us good crack.’

There was no conscription in Northern Ireland though at times there were concerns that it would be introduced. Isabell Cooper feared that her brother would be conscripted and thought that her father could hide him in the hayshed if he was. Many local men served in the Home Guard, however, including two of Wallace Fenton’s brothers. Greta Milliken’s husband Shaw was in the Islandmagee branch of the Home Guard.

Belfast Blitz

Memories of the Belfast Blitz remain strong among those interviewees old enough to understand what was going on. There were two major air raids in Belfast in the spring of 1941, the first on Easter Tuesday night in April and the second on the first Sunday of May. In all, over 1,100 people were killed and tens of thousands lost their homes.

Wilma McVittie’s father was in Belfast the day after one of the air raids and saw the bodies piled up. Sheila Herdman’s uncle, William Davison, a timber merchant who lived on the Lansdowne Road in Belfast, had a fortunate escape when shrapnel came through one of his windows into an airing cupboard. Cahal Boyd was at a ceilidh in the Ulster Hall on Easter Tuesday evening. He and his companions found it impossible to leave Belfast that night, but found shelter in St Mary’s Hall. The next morning the blue car they had travelled in was completely grey with dust. Every road they tried to travel home on was blocked, but eventually they made it back to Toome via Larne.

Both Doagh and Whitehead were close enough to Belfast for their residents to have been aware of what was going on. Eithne McKendry remembers her mother bringing her and her siblings down to a cupboard under the stairs for safety during the air raids, while Sarah McTrustry recalls hiding in the coal hole. Isabell Cooper recalls her family going up to the back of a field and her father taking with him the large trunk in which he kept important documents. Trevor Monteith remembers that during the night his father took him up to the ‘Bla Hole’: ‘I can clearly remember sitting up there and just watching the dockland ablaze’.

Brian McKenna’s father told him that he had seen Belfast on fire from the White Rocks at Whitehead. Paddy O’Donnell remembered that some of the older boys went to the top of Muldersleigh Hill, where Whitehead Golf Course is now, and watched the bombs exploding during the Blitz. In Doagh, James McAdam remembers the skies lit up during the air raids. Mary Moore still has vivid memories of the air raids: ‘It was rough now, you could have been ris’ out of your bed whiles’. Those who lived through the Blitz never forgot the experience. Leith Burgess’ mother, who had been in Belfast during the Blitz, made sure that the fire in their home was put out every night before going to bed.

Bombs over Doagh

One particular incident during the Blitz had a direct impact on Doagh. During one of the air raids, a German warplane dropped four bombs on the townland of Holestone, two of them landing on the Lorimers’ farm no more than 150 yards from their home.

Derek Lorimer talks about the night bombs landed on his farm:

I remember wakening up in below the table with the Labrador dog and it was sitting beside me and was terrified. I remember Daddy went outside and came back in and he said the yard’s full of stones or coals – it was that dark he didn’t know what it was. It wasn’t to the next morning that we realised what had happened. … We knew it was bombs, but we didn’t know they were so near. … There wasn’t so much damage done to the dwelling house, it was mostly to the outhouses – stones coming down and breaking slates. ... They said the shock went out over us. There were houses about a mile away and their ceilings came down with the shock. … There was a stone came down through the barn loft and landed beside a horse – I would have said the stone was a hundredweight – that horse didn’t eat for two days.

Two more bombs came down in Holestone Park, but did not cause the same damage. In one of the lodges to Holestone House a Mrs Brown had just got out of bed when a hundredweight stone from one of the craters came through the roof and landed in the bed where she had been sleeping. The day after the air raid a piece of shrapnel was found beside a hen and a dozen newly-hatched chicks in one of the Lorimers’ outhouses. One of the bombs on the Lorimers’ farm landed on rocky ground, the other on gravel. Derek recalls his father commenting that ‘Sightseers coming to see the holes did far more damage to the crops than the actual bombs did.’ Both craters were filled in, but a much commented feature of one of them is that after it was filled in nothing grew on it for five years.

Toome aerodrome

In Toome the main point of interest during the war was the aerodrome at the Creagh which was opened by the RAF in 1943, but was soon taken over by the United States Army Air Force (USAAF).

The American bombers groan towards the aerodrome at Toomebridge, the American troops manoeuvre in the fields along the road’. For many local people there was great excitement at seeing the different types of planes and the buzz of activity associated with the airfield.

Frankie Dale remembers the building of the airfield at Toome as one of the major events of his childhood. He recalls that it occurred ‘just as I was started to look around me’, adding, ‘the sky was full of aeroplanes, this was great … I used to go down to the aerodrome and see them taking off and landing – this was magic. At the same time, he now reflects on his naiveté at the fate of many of the aircrews, commenting ‘I didn’t realise a lot of those young boys would never come back.’

The Gribbin brothers agreed that the airfield was a ‘big, big affair’. Those who found work in it were well paid – maybe £3 a week which was considerably more than most other working men received.

Gerry McCann remembers the soldiers stationed here coming into his family’s shop in Toome. He also remembers that a party was hosted at the aerodrome for them. Cahal Boyd remembered going by boat to see a crashed aircraft on Church Island and finding it hanging on a tree. George Laverty also remembers the crashed aircraft on Church Island.

Rationing

One of the main ways in which the effects of the war were felt locally was through the introduction of rationing. Various commodities were rationed from foodstuffs – including milk, butter, eggs, sugar, tea, and sweets – to clothes and petrol.

However, many of those interviewed acknowledged that because they lived in or near the countryside rationing did not affect them as much as if they had lived in the larger towns and cities. Gerry McCann noted that shopkeepers would have helped each other out with supplies. Mary Ann Higgins recalls that her family was able to produce their own milk and butter, but as a result of rationing they would have been short of tea and sugar. Similarly, Roisin McLernon believed that rationing did not really affect them as they lived on a farm, but the one thing that they noticed being short of was sugar.

On the other hand, growing up in County Fermanagh, Maureen McMeel was aware of rationing, but as they lived near the border it did not affect them as much and they never wanted for sugar. To alleviate the shortage of eggs, Eithne McKendry’s parents kept hens at the bottom of their garden in Donegall Avenue, Whitehead. As children, many of those interviewed especially remembered the sweet rationing.

John Cushinan recalls one local solution to the shortage of pork during the war. A pig was being carried in a trailer when its owner stopped to have a drink in McKeever’s pub. When the owner came out, ‘the pig was gone! And there was plenty of bacon around Moneynick for a wheen of days!’

Evacuees and refugees

As a result of the war, many children and indeed entire families from Belfast were either evacuated from the city or left for their own safety in the aftermath of the Blitz. Wilma McVittie remembers that ‘the roads were black with people’ leaving Belfast on account of the air raids.

Mary Moore’s father went into Belfast after the Easter Tuesday air raid and brought out an old aunt and her family who stayed with them until winter. Leith Burgess’ parents were among the thousands of people who simply walked out of Belfast after the Blitz seeking refuge in the surrounding countryside. Edmund O’Donnell remembers evacuees from Belfast being sent to any vacant house around Toome and that on one night 200 evacuees were put up in Gortgill School, with straw thrown on the floor for them.

In looking back on the evacuees, Frankie Dale comments: ‘They were different. The women fought – the countrywomen didn’t fight. … They were always ready for battle’.

Mary Ann Higgins remembers the evacuees

‘There were a lot of them around. We thought it was great fun to get these new Belfast people. Oh, they were interested in the farm you see, and out to get the cows and to see the milk. Some of them then asked which one gave the buttermilk! They were quite good fun.’

Soldiers

Detachments of soldiers from a number of armies – British, American and Belgian – were a regular sight during the war. P. J. O’Donnell pointed out that soldiers were billeted in the Royal and Royal George Hotels in Whitehead, while many of the private houses took in officers as lodgers.

There were various opportunities for soldiers and locals to mix. P. J. remembers the Belgian soldiers at Ballycarry who would visit Whitehead. He describes them as ‘lovely people’. A strong friendship developed with one particular soldier who would call with P. J.’s father and mother. He returned to Whitehead and P. J. drove him up to Derry to see the walls. Dr John Wilson’s mother-in-law, Mrs McDowell, ran a fish and chip shop in Whitehead which was very popular with the troops. He remembers being told that Belgian soldiers would arrive in their lorries to eat there. The Rinkha, near Whitehead, was also popular with soldiers.

Derek Lorimer remembers some of the soldiers based at Ballyhamage coming up to their farm to help with gathering potatoes. For the soldiers it was a welcome opportunity to get out and about. Derek remembers three of them in particular – Ken Silvester from Liverpool, Bob Corry from Aberdeen, and Private Hobday from Manchester who was known as ‘Flash’ as he was never that quick at doing anything. James McAdam also remembers the soldiers at Ballyhamage and a shooting range used by them at the Moiley Bridge; a red flag would be flown from the bridge to alert people to when shooting practice was taking place.


Wilma McVittie remembered talking to the overseas troops along the road and that they were ‘nice fellows’. One of Brian McKenna’s earliest memories of Whitehead was of the American soldiers giving out chewing gum to the children. John Cushinan recalls a very narrow shave with a lorry transporting American soldiers. He had been going along the road in a horse and cart to sow fertiliser when the lorry came up behind him very quickly. This startled the horse which headed for the hedge. The lorry never slowed down and cut off part of the rear end of the cart – ‘a near miss’, as he remembers, for if it had hit the axle it would have resulted in serious injury or even death.