A wooden toy tank in Derry
The hand-made toy tank presented to six year-old Jim Duff at Lisahally camp in 1944."Images courtesy of the US National Archives and Records and the Beech Hill Association"
Jim Duff, retired security officer from Du Pont and a former policeman, prizes his mementoes of December 19, 1944, the day when a large truck with US Navy written on its canvas sides arrived to collect him and his friends to take them to a Christmas Party at the US Navy’s Camp at Lisahally, organised by the American Red Cross.
Special tickets had been distributed the previous Sunday at Clooney Hall Sunday School and the excitement had been building all week with the promise of a “Hill Billy Show, sweets, goodies and a present from Santa”.
Jim was assigned a US Navy chaperone, Bill Ferran, a Petty Officer Store-keeper Second Class.
Jim recalls telling Bill politely that he did not like eggs when he was brought a tray with food on it, only be to be told by his chaperone that the egg was, in fact, a halved peach, something new to a six-year-old boy in war-time Derry.
Jim still treasures his special green ticket and also the wooden tank which had been the present from Santa that day in 1944.
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Weather for Derry
Thursday 20 June 2013
Today
Light rain
Temperature: 12 C to 17 C
Wind Speed: 14 mph
Wind direction: South
Tomorrow
Cloudy
Temperature: 12 C to 16 C
Wind Speed: 13 mph
Wind direction: North west
