Belfast during the Blitz

I was born on the 24th July 1931 and so when war broke out in September 1939 I was eight years old. My dad was a machine man and worked in the shipyard but moved to aircraft production during the war as he made more money there. My mum (Sarah) and dad (Fred) and two brothers (John and Freddie) lived in Belfast in Channing Street and after the 1941 blitz adapted the room under the stairs as a secure room during air raids. Normally coal would have been kept here but it was cleared out and my dad plastered it and stocked essentials there for emergencies. I couldn’t fit in there though, as my cousins and aunty came to live with us after their house was badly damaged on the Monday night raid. They lived in Newcastle Street on the Newtownards Road and their house was badly damaged. So there were five of us in my own family and then my aunt (Katie) and her six children (Jim, Tommy, Margaret, Renee, Lily and John)so if a raid happened I was to go under the table! There are certain things that I remember about the war years but many things like rationing and coping with food shortages would have concerned my parents, as far as I was concerned I never felt hungry. Sweets were rationed you had to use coupons to get them but they were still available and I usually bought the hard brandy ball sort as opposed to the individually wrapped caramels as they were cheaper. I suppose like everyone else my dad must have been worried enough as he took government advice to heart and grew vegetables in a plot between the Castlereagh Road and Creagh to supplement the food that was available. At that time he grew potatoes, carrots, onions, beetroot, cabbage, beans and peas in fact I helped him and became a bit of an expert. There were even some shops involved in the Black Market and you could have got an extra pound of sugar or butter at twice the price. I think there was one on the Castlereagh Road at the corner of Meshona Street called Hallidays.
As far as I know there was never any suggestion that us children should be evacuated. For a long time people never believed that the bombers could reach Belfast. When they did come the government and people were totally unprepared. An uncle of mine Sonny Mason operated the anti-aircraft guns; he may have been a corporal in the army. What I remember most about him is during a raid my dad shouting up to him to come to the shelter and because he was just off duty and tired he called back ‘Those are our fellows, you don’t need to worry’ and then ten minutes later I looked up in the shelter and noticed that the raid had got worse and he was standing there in the corner — not our fellows after all! There was a really good shelter attached to Euston Street School in fact it was their basement and lots of people went there during the raids.
I still know my national identity card number as it is now my national insurance number.
School was just interrupted immediately after the bombing raids in 1941 apart from then it seemed to be no different from usual. In fact during the war years I would have gone to the cinema on a Saturday morning and watched the Hollywood films and then the newsreels. My most memorable impression of the news reels was the one which showed the German forces coming up against the Russians who were all in white blending in with the snow and the Germans seemed to be having a terrible time in the winter conditions. We had a radio and would listen to news broadcasts. It was a huge crystal set and the battery needed to be charged up once a week. The battery was taken to the bicycle shop for recharging. As far as I can remember Lord Haw Haw was on the radio most evenings but maybe it only seemed like that.
When I was a bit older I played my part in the war effort and became a runner for the ARP wardens. They had taken over a shop on the Castlereagh road and would use this as their base for playing cards and passing the time between duties. I ran messages for them and got them cigarettes and sweets from the local shops.
Despite the under the stair facility we all went to air-raid shelters when the sirens went. The one we went to was in Welland Street as there wasn’t one in Channing Street. However many people felt that the air raid shelters weren’t very safe they had been badly built and the walls had collapsed on top of the people. Usually they were wet inside and I assume that was partly due to nerves though as a child I didn’t fully understand this. My aunt Katie would have led the singing in the shelters as she had a good voice. People were terrified and usually sang hymns. Choruses for children at that time were set to the words;
‘When bombs are falling, and danger is near, Jesus is near; he will protect you all through the raid...’
Lack of faith in the shelters led us to leave the city and travel up to the Castlereagh hills where we spent the night. As soon as the siren started the trolleybuses would take you to the foot of the hills and you walked the rest of the way. My aunt Norah negotiated with a local farmer, empty chicken houses for us to sleep in. When the danger was past we travelled home again.

I remember after the Tuesday night raid in 1941 that a bomb landed on the Castlereagh Road at Mournes Row 300 yards from my house and we were all told to leave our homes by the ARP wardens. We had to go to the Welland Street shelter. The next day we were able to watch the bomb disposal experts diffuse the bomb from the end of Channing Street. It was a bit frightening the fins of bomb were sticking out of the ground and the place was cordoned off. Everybody clapped when it was successful and we all returned home.

There was a barrage balloon at Weston’s Biscuit Factory which went up when the siren sounded. The air force seemed to be in charge of it. Once an airplane crash landed in the fields at Castlereagh (the middle of Montgomery Road today) and we all went to look at it.

Holidays at home though were really great. Clara Street children’s park was the venue and entertainers came for the summer months of June, July and August. A stage was erected and there was entertainment every night from Monday to Saturday. Singers, comedians, jugglers and magic men from all over came and there was community singing as well. Popular songs were ‘It’s a long way to Tipperary..’ and ‘When the lights go on in the world..’ and the German song ‘Lily Marlene’ was very popular.

Towards the end of the war I was working in the Castlereagh Laundry making deliveries and on our run was the German Prisoner of War camp at what is now Orangefield School. There were soldiers guarding these men but they were mostly ill recovering from injuries and those that were able would have helped me load and unload the van.

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