|
|
|
|
MEMORIES OF A WARTIME CHILDHOOD The early 1940's were the most important part of the war for the children of Barry. This was the time that the Americans arrived and were stationed at a camp in Hayes Road, Sully. Children from the surrounding area were often invited to their cinema shows, given sweets and chocolate, and the inevitable chewing gum. For adults in Barry (mainly female), their dances were very well patronised. To us youngsters they seemed to have an abundant supply of everything that was rationed. Another event in the 40's was the coming ashore at Barry Island of a ship carrying oranges and other foodstuffs. It must have had a hold full of oranges, and as well as being slightly bitter, they also tasted oily. It wasn't until after the war that we realised that not all oranges were sour and with an oily taste - the oranges that came ashore were destined for the manufacture of marmalade. After the Barry Island incident it was discovered that the Destructor in Barry Road was being used to destroy tins of food from the camp at Sully that were either out of date or suspected of being contaminated. Every night the walls around the site were lined with youngsters waiting their chance to acquire something from the yard. Tins of corned beef and spam were favourites. If a seven pound tin of corned beef was acquired, it was corned beef hash, corn beef pasties, corned beef sandwiches for work, and finally, and if any was left, it went into the soup to add a bit of flavour. Later on, as the war progressed, P.O.W.'s appeared in Barry, mainly in camps on the Port Road. There were Germans, Italians and Mongols troops. The Italians, and later some Germans, were allowed to work on the local farms. The P.O.W.'s were picked up by lorry and dropped off at the farms. Later, some acquired bicycles and were allowed to make their own way back and forth. The Mongolian P.O.W.'s worked on the docks in Cardiff and were taken to work by lorry. After the war they were sent back to Russia, where it was said they were all executed. Preparations for D-Day led to the build up of troops in the area, and equipment was stockpiled all around Barry. More and more smoke screen canisters appeared around Barry. These were lit at the onset of an air raid, and gave off a thick black oily smoke. After they had been used, every house in the vicinity was covered with oily smuts. Sometimes these salamanders caught fire, and it was the job of the air raid warden to extinguish the flames. You could always tell who had that job by his singed eyebrows and hair. There was a portable battery of these smoke screen canisters that at various times, would be transported around the Town, depending on the direction of the wind. If it was blowing from the Colcot area towards the docks and a raid was imminent, a battery of canisters would be placed near Romilly Schools. If the wind was coming off the sea, they would be situated on Barry Island. A large number were made at the Barry Enamel Works (Fellows, Chamberlain Ltd.) and after the war they were renamed "Salamanders", and modified to be used to heat workshops and garages. Nearer D-Day, convoys of troops arrived, some by road, but many more by rail. They camped at Porthkerry Park, the Moors, and on the Port Road at the top of the link road near the half moon bend. Barry Island was turned into a huge parking lot for landing craft. One day the beach was covered with them, and the following day they had all disappeared. Tom Edge Pond had what looked like hundreds of empty oil drums floating on it. This was the "Lily Pad", and a similar one was used as a floating roadway at Normandy, allowing vehicles to be driven straight off the ships and on to the beach. A few days before D-Day took place the channel was alive with ships. Dock View Road and Cadoxton Park were two of the best vantage points. Barry was one of the main shipping ports for the invasion. Tanks, guns and ammunition were constantly being loaded at the docks, and any spare piece of ground was used to unpack tanks and other vehicles. Brock Street Quarry had packing cases strewn all around it. Cadoxton Bowling Club asked for, and was given many of these crates to re-build their pavilion, which is still in use with the same timber in it. At the end of the war, Barry experienced the worst snowfall for many years. Trains, buses and nearly all other forms of transport were halted, and work stopped everywhere so that people could dig themselves out. The local authority with its limited resources tried its best to dig the town out and clear the main roads of snow to get essential traffic moving. After two days of being snowed in, the Americans who were stationed at Sully and who wanted to visit the Cardiff night spots appeared with their bulldozers and cleared the road from their camp to the Merrie Harrier in a matter of hours. On the way they took out the hump-backed bridge on the Sully Moors Road that had been a bottleneck for years. They replaced it with a Bailey Bridge that gave good service for many years. The last event of any moment in the 1940's was the fire at the Memorial Hall on a Whit-Monday. The hall was being used as a hospital at the time, but patients and staff were safely moved out. It took 15 years to repair the damage done by the fire. Most of the time it was open to the elements, and was liable to be demolished by a council which didn't have the money or the will to repair it. Eventually the repairs were carried out and the hall was re-opened by Alderman Rook in May 1957
© T. CLEMETT 2000
|
|
