Monday, June 05, 2006

D-day Thoughts from a Young Irish Girl

This is written by my husband, Frank Spillane who is a Vietnam-era veteran. His mom was a young girl who after finishing high school in Sneem, County Kerry, was sent to live with her sisters in England so that she could find work. This is as much as I could get him to write before having to leave. I hope that he'll add to it later.

June 6 is here and my thoughts go back to the D-Day invasion . I wasn't in the Second World War but my mother was. She was a nurse in training in Birmingham (large industrial port), England during the Battle of Britain . When I was a small boy she told me of the air battle that toook place overhead in the skies of England. During night duty on the hosptial wards, nurses wore combat helmets and gas masks. The sounds of the different planes overhead indicated to people below what type of plane it was and if it was German or English. A heavy drone sound in the early evening hour usually meant that it was a German bomber. These bombers would follow the Thames River to establish direction and time.

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