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CHAPTER 8.
BEHIND THE SCENES ON THE BIG SHOWS.

An indication was given in the first chapter of this History of the extent to which the Ministry of Information worked in co-operation with the Northern Ireland Government in this Region. This co-operation was never more evident than in large scale facility visits of distinguished people to Northern Ireland, many of whom visited the Region at the invitation of the Northern Ireland Government.

There was throughout the war a constant stream of visitors, including Their Majesties the King and Queen, Ministers of State, Diplomats and the representatives of Allied Governments with émigré establishments in the United Kingdom. For all these visits the whole work of Press relations and Press facilities, including transport and the preparation and issue of Press programmes, fell upon the Ministry of Information, whose officers held appointments under the Northern Ireland Government simultaneously with their Imperial Government appointments. It was, therefore, difficult ever to draw a definite line between work for the Ministry of Information and the Ulster Government in connection with these large scale visits to Northern Ireland. It was a question of the whole of the staff working at full pressure to make the task of the Press in covering these visits infinitely easier than it would normally have been. The work, hard as it was, its full reward in the repeated expressions of appreciation from recognised bodies of journalists for the efficiency of the Press arrangements, and this was true throughout the war, when it was often difficult from security points of view to give the Press all the information that the officers of the Ministry would have liked to have placed at their disposal. However, with much guidance in their possession the Press “never let us down.”

The greatest difficulties in connection with Press arrangements centred round the advance issue of detailed programmes and the provision of transport in enough weight to accommodate the Press “invasions” that regularly descended on this Region from Britain. And, again, with many of these visitors there was the irritating hold up by Censorship on the release of good news stories. The Ministry had a Censorship Office in Belfast and it was to the credit of the staff of this office that their relations with the Press were always amicable, though they often had unpleasant tasks to perform in holding copy that was really hot news. Everybody in the newspaper world realised that security censorship was a necessary accompaniment to the waging of total war, and accepted the dictates of the Censorship Department with good grace.

The visits mentioned later in this chapter do not cover all those that took place to Northern Ireland, but they give an impression of the importance of the visits to Northern Ireland of distinguished visitors, and also an idea of the extent of the Press facilities involved on such important tours.

Their Majesties the King and Queen paid their first wartime visit to Northern Ireland in June, 1942, and they visited Ulster again in their victory tour in July, 1945. The Royal party arrived by cruiser with a naval escort. The cruiser berthed on the morning of Wednesday, 24th June and Their Graces the Governor and the Duchess of Abercorn welcomed Their Majesties on board. Among the presentations were the heads of the Services and representatives of the American Army, including Major-General R.P. Hartle, Commanding General of U.S. Forces in Northern Ireland. This was the first meeting of the King and Queen with American troops stationed in Northern Ireland and the highlight of their two-day tour was a day with the American Army on Thursday, June 25th.

Their Majesties spent over six hours visiting American camps, meeting officers and doughboys and watching the G.I.s on an intensive training course in County Down. The tour was marked its informality and all the Press who were on the visit stated that they had never secured such a wealth of informal, happy photographs. Among them was a famous picture of Her Majesty the Queen sitting beside General Hartle in a jeep riding over rough ground. The King and Queen captured the hearts of all the Americans they met.

On Wednesday evening, 24th June, at a Government House dinner party the guests included the American Ambassador, Mr. J.G. Winant, and the British Home Secretary, the Rt. Hon. Herbert Morrison. General Hartle was also present at this dinner. On Wednesday, 24th June, the shipyards were visited and His Majesty the King inspected ship's companies from trawlers and minesweepers at the Naval Base, while the Queen inspected detachments of W.R.N.S. and visited a canteen. The afternoon of the same day Their Majesties inspected Civil Defence personnel and detachments from the Home Guard. During the tour they had lunch at Stormont Castle as the guests of the Prime Minister and following the lunch the King presented the King's Police Medal to the widow of a member of the R.U.C.

On Friday Their Majesties inspected a British Army division and R.A.F. Stations at Maghaberry and Nutt's Corner. In the afternoon the King inspected units of the 61st Division and t he Queen the A.T.S. Depot at Ballymena.

The departure scene of their Majesties from Larne Harbour on the evening of 26th June is still talked about as among the most colourful ever seen in Northern Ireland. Before embarking Their Majesties inspected officers and men of the British and American Navies who had travelled from Londonderry. It was a calm and beautiful evening, and the scene as the King stood on the bridge at the salute while the vessel moved slowly out to sea was both colourful and inspiring.

The Duke and Duchess of Gloucester arrived at noon on Monday, 21st April, 1941, and by 2.30 the same day they were inspecting in detail the damage caused in the first air raid on Belfast. During the tour of bombed areas the Duke and Duchess spoke to civil defence workers and rescue units, many of whom had been on duty throughout the raids. Later in the week the Duchess toured hospitals to meet victims of the air raid. At one Belfast hospital there was a moving scene when the Duchess saw a baby, heavily bandaged but still able to smile. This child was the sole survivor of a large family.

While the Duchess was touring the hospitals the Duke made an extensive tour of military units in Northern Ireland. While here the Duchess met members of the W.V.S. and was told all about the work of their organisation in the heavy raids.

On 25th April the Duke and Duchess visited Londonderry where they visited the Naval Base, Cathedral and walls.

Many of the details of the tour were secret at the time, and the visitors saw war industries at work on weapons that were to remain on the secret list for a long time.

Facilities were made for large Press parties to accompany the Royal visitors and also to attend at the Houses of Parliament where the Duke and Duchess were received by His Grace the Governor and the Speaker a of both Houses and where they met the members of the Cabinet, His Majesties Judges, and the Heads of Government Departments.

The visitors received a very warm welcome in Belfast and their tour of bombed sites did much to encourage the people who were suffering under the severe shock of their first heavy air raid.

The late Duke of Kent visited Northern Ireland in November, 1941. His tour covered four days and during this time he was the guest of Their Graces the Governor and the Duchess of Abercorn. The Duke inspected R.A.F. air bases, the first being at St. Angelo on Lough Erne. He met members of the U.S. Army Air Corps on this Lough Erne tour and saw the important Coastal Command station at Castle Archdale.

At Londonderry the Duke of Kent saw the Naval Base and had lunch at Eglinton with the Eagle Squadron.

One day of his visit was given to visiting British military units. He also visited Stormont Castle and had lunch with members of the Northern Ireland Government.

These visits and the visits of other distinguished persons representing British Government Departments and émigré Governments served to prove conclusively the oneness of Northern Ireland with the rest of the United Kingdom in the prosecution of total war. Needless to say all representatives, and particularly those of the Royal Family or of the Royal Houses of our Allies received a warm welcome in Northern Ireland. The Province of Ulster has always enjoyed a remarkable reputation for its tumultuous welcome for members of the Royal Family, and their visits in war time left an impression that will always endure on the minds of the loyal Ulster people.

The other distinguished visitors represented a wide field and a diversity of States united in a common struggle. The only other Royal visitor was Prince Bernhard of the Netherlands, who visited the Region incognito in May, 1943, to inspect units of the Royal Netherlands Navy in Belfast. Of the other foreign countries we had visitors representing the Czechoslovakian émigré Government in London, the Polish émigré Government in London, and the Chinese Republic. From the British Empire and Dominions we had the then Prime Minister of Australia, Mr. R.G. Menzies, in April, 1941, and from Imperial Government Departments we had visits during the war from Sir Stafford Cripps (twice), Mr. Herbert Morrison, Mr. Hugh Dalton, Mr Oliver Lyttleton and others, including Sir Graham Cunningham, Head of the Directorate of Munitions Production in the Ministry of Supply.

The tours of these various visitors took different forms. Representatives of the Czechoslovakian Government, Dr. Jan Masaryk and General Ingr, saw something of Ulster's war effort and met representatives of Northern Ireland Government Departments. The visit of the late General Sikorski was semi private and during his short time here he had long conversations with the Prime Minister and inspected the units of a Polish Squadron of the R.A.F. stationed in Northern Ireland. The visits by Sir Stafford Cripps were concerned with the industrial effort of this part of the United Kingdom, and on both occasions he included in his itinerary a public meeting which was held in the Assembly Hall, Belfast. The first of his visits took place in June, 1943, when his meeting was not an outstanding success owing to the fact that it was not advertised publicly. Invariably these visitors met the Press at conferences arranged by the M.O.I., when the British Ministers made important statements on Ulster's contribution to the common effort, and indicated that the British Government would do everything in its power to make use of the available manpower in Northern Ireland. The weight of our industrial and agricultural effort was stressed by Sir Stafford Cripps and Mr. Herbert Morrison (who also emphasised Ulster's great value as a 253strategic base in the Western Approaches), Mr. Hugh Dalton and Mr. Lyttleton. A remarkable tribute to the achievements in the field of munitions production, particularly in regard to the development of armour piercing anti-tank shells at Messrs. James Mackie & Sons, was paid by Sir Graham Cunningham.

The visit by the Chinese Ambassador, Dr. Wellington Koo, in December, 1944, was arranged entirely by the Ministry of Information. Although Dr. Wellington Koo came primarily to accept a handsome cheque towards the United Aid to China Fund, he took the opportunity of paying his first visit to many of our famous war establishments. He spent three hours touring the shipyards of Messrs. Harland & Wolff, and was loud in his praise of the part that this firm was playing in the war at sea.

It can readily be seen that all these visits were of such importance that every facility had to be given by the Ministry and the Northern Ireland Government for the Press and I think the reward for the work that was put into these facilities was obtained in the wide publicity that the visits received, not only in the Northern Ireland Press, but in the Press throughout the British Empire.

In addition to the facility visits arranged in connection with important visitors to this Region, the Ministry organised a great number of Press facilities for the Service Departments, notably the Royal Navy and the Royal Air Force. The amount of work involved in the arranging of these facilities would test the staying powers of the perfect P.R.O., and the difficulties to be overcome in the provision of transport and the collection of journalists, their “vetting” and the provision of background material for their stories was enormous. The stories that we were chasing on these occasions, however, always justified the work entailed and the only disappointing feature was that some of the stories were not released for many months after they were covered and one of the best stories was held for almost two years. This particular story concerned three Services co-operation, as the R.A.F. and the Royal Navy and Merchant Navy all had a hand in one of the strangest “finds” of the war in the Atlantic. It was written by the Ministry's Regional staff as it “broke” privately over the telephone at such short notice that the Ministry was obliged to represent all the newspapers on the story. The “find” was a P38 Lightning aircraft, in almost perfect condition, floating on the mid-section of a tank landing craft in the Atlantic, off the West coast of Ireland. Part of the tank landing craft, with the aircraft firmly attached to it, had apparently been blown from the deck of a merchantman during convoy, and the R.A.F. spotted this aircraft and its support riding the sea many miles into the Atlantic. The R.A.F. radioed the Navy and one of H.M. ships proceeded to the scene and took the “find” in tow. Off Scotland it was transferred to another Naval vessel and towed to Belfast Lough, where one of the Belfast tugs took the prize in tow. The story came to the Ministry through a senior R.A.F. officer who rightly saw in it a perfect example of inter-Service co-operation. A Ministry officer went with the Belfast tug and, therefore, saw the prize at sea and also interviewed the officers of the accompanying Naval vessel. The story was a good one and it was submitted to Censorship. This occurred shortly before the North Africa landings, and the reason the story was held ultimately by U.S. Military Censors in London was that its publication at the time would have indicated the route which the Allies were using to invade North Africa. Press photographers were “laid on” to be at the Belfast Docks at the time the prize was towed into port, and they got good “shots” which unfortunately were not to be seen by the public for a very long time.

On all the other facilities the Press were there in force. Some of the facilities covered very important stories, notably the 254 first visit to the U.S. Naval Operating Base at Londonderry in June, 1942. Officers who had charge of the construction of the Base and men who were using it were all there for the Press to interview, and valuable background information was issued by the U.S. Navy P.R.O., Commander Bob. Vining. The Base cost many million dollars and it was a striking monument to Anglo- U.S. co-operation in the Battle of the Atlantic. At the Base all the facilities of the U.S. Navy and the British Navy were at the disposal of both Navies to keep in fighting form the vessels which were daily escorting valuable convoys across the North Atlantic, and later the same facilities were available to the Royal Canadian Navy.

The Operations Room at Londonderry, where the Press saw large wall maps of the position that day in the Atlantic Battle, carried co-operation to its ultimate end, for the respective Commanders of the British and American Navies sat in two rooms with an ever open door between them. This Anglo-American co-operation at Londonderry was no mean achievement. This was proved when the fine Officers’ Club at Londonderry was built by the British Government for the American Forces as part of reverse Lease-Lend, and the U.S. Naval Commander would not accept the Club unless it was open to all Allied Officers. This was one of the finest gestures made by any Naval Commander in Northern Ireland throughout the war.

There were many other visits to Londonderry, including one to commemorate the commissioning of the Base in 1943, and several important facility visits to the Belfast Base late in the war to cover very thrilling stories told by officers and men of the first Naval Escort Group. There were a succession of good stories from various groups based in Belfast, and, as these stories “broke” in 1944, we were at liberty to release them earlier than had been the case with earlier facilities. One group had three “kills” in three days and the stories the men told of the antics of the cornered German U-boats were among the most thrilling experiences of the war. We took the Press to the famous shipyards of Harland & Wolff for many important launchings, including the launch of the carrier, H.M.S. Powerful in April, 1945, and the commissioning of the first cruiser for the Royal Canadian Navy in April, 1945. This was H.M.C.S. Ontario, and the ceremony was performed by Mr. Vincent Massey, High Commissioner for Canada in London.

One of the most interesting Press facility visits almost coincided with VE-Day, and the Press had added point to their stories of an anti-submarine patrol with H.M. launches from Larne in the fact that these were actually the last patrols made in war time by these particular launches. The large party of Press who went to Larne to cover this facility was so anxious not to be caught napping by the announcement of VE-Day that of the party present only three said they could afford to be at sea for twelve hours. With the co-operation of the Navy, therefore, the members of the Press and photographers were taken on a sham patrol, and we cruised around for two hours off Larne disturbing the local residents of this harbour town with repeated depth charges. The residents must have thought the Navy was crazy for the two launches at sea repeatedly chased one another in order to give the Press photographers pictures of launches at speed on patrol. The public did not know it, but these were the photographs which appeared as though they had been taken on a serious patrol. Incidentally the depth charges provided a shoal of very welcome fish for the crews and for some of the journalists. Among the Pressmen there were many who had not seen the effects of depth charges on fish, for when a launch returned to the scene of an explosion stunned fish were floating over a wide area and members of the crew hauled them aboard in buckets or hung perilously over the side to grab them as they floated alongside. The Press who went on patrol had a rough 255 night. One in his story, which appeared the following day, admitted he was violently sick, but the Belfast Telegraph correspondent produced a really fine story of his patrol which was given the feature spot on the magazine page of this Belfast evening paper.

The Ministry sent the Press across to Fleetwood to sail in a captured German show U-boat to Belfast, and we also took the Press to Londonderry to see the mass surrender of German U-boats and the visit there by the C. in C. Western Approaches.

There were other less romantic facility visits to the Navy and Naval establishments, all of them giving a very vivid picture of life afloat and ashore.

The R.A.F. facilities were equally interesting, and one of the most successful was a visit to Limavady to see the Operational Training Station for pilots for torpedo carrying Wellington bombers. The Press wrote good stories about the “tin fish” pilots, and they learned of the intricacies of training by night. Apparently the pilots on the training had to learn to fly almost at sea level, silhouetting their target either against the moon or against delicately placed flares; they had to launch their torpedoes at a certain distance from the target and peel off in order to avoid crossing directly over the target. Many of the attacked German vessels fired their A.A. guns, and smaller arms, vertically when they were being attacked, and pilots who followed through straight had to pass through a hail of fire which often brought them down. This was taken care of in their training at Limavady.

The Press met many young men who were “veterans” of various campaigns, and they found a fellow journalist, formerly in Glasgow, who at 23 was a D.F. C. and was instructing other men in this work.

There were various facility visits to different R.A.F. Stations in Ulster to see the training of airmen and other work of Technical Training Command, and also to see the Meteorological Branch of the Service at work.

The most moving facility visit to an air station took place in May, 1945, when the U.S. Air Corps handed back to the Royal Air Force the very large base at Greencastle, Co. Down. This base during the war was a Combat Replacement Crew Centre, and worked at full pressure for a long time. The Air Base was a giant affair and had enough concrete in its runways to make a 6ft. motor road from Belfast to Londonderry. The Press had been to the Station often when it was a hive of industry, full of Fortresses, Liberators and other aircraft, literally waiting to hop across the Channel to take the place of a lost bomber on a daylight run over Germany. When we went back to the Station in 1945, there was no sign of life at it. There was only one aircraft which had flown in a party of Americans. There were about a dozen people there and a small guard from the U.S. Air Force, a similar sized guard from the Royal Air Force. The U.S. flag was hauled down and replaced with the R.A.F. Standard, and a piece of paper on which was written the receipt for the Station was handed to the U.S. Senior Officer. The atmosphere of contrast between the Station that day and other days when we had seen it in full operation was one of the most moving experiences of our work for the Royal Air Force.

Our facility visits for the Army were not so numerous, as for the other Services. They mostly concerned the handling of Press in connection with military tours by distinguished visitors. The Army P.R.O. in Northern Ireland worked directly with the newspapers and very rarely called upon the Ministry for its assistance in the planning of facilities. There were some 256 facilities, of course, where the three Services and the Ministry had all to co-operate.

In addition to facilities for the Service Departments, the Ministry also made all the arrangements to show Northern Ireland's war effort to civilian visitors representing other Government Departments or journalists from overseas. The Ministry handled the Press arrangements for the visit of the Foreign Press Association and also had as its guests in this Region many journalists from other countries who wished to see something of the war effort of the United Kingdom. On the whole the facility side of the Ministry's work was really important and represented a major contribution in explaining to the home public the life of the Services and to visitors the part that Northern Ireland was playing in the prosecution of total war. In this the Regional work was a miniature replica of the great work of Facilities at Headquarters. They opened the door to Britain to the free world. We tried to do the same in this corner of the United Kingdom.