A ‘Memory Lane’ disappointment
Taking a trip to revisit sites from WWII from a commemorative ’50th Anniversary of D-Day’ pamphlet came up a bit short but still a worthwhile endeavor.
A short while ago while I was on the look-out for something of interest to add to my collection I paid a visit to a trader selling bric-a-brac. I have been lucky to pick up a few items on previous visits, but that is not always the case. On this occasion I did find something. Looking through a pile of booklets I found a souvenir brochure to commemorate the 50th anniversary of D-Day. It was titled “Trail down Memory Lane; A Guide to Important Wartime Sites in Dorset”. I was intrigued by such a lengthy heading and unfolded the document to take a quick look, and what I saw in that brief glance looked interesting. I decided to purchase it and, costing only 50 pence, less than half a U.S. dollar, I was more than satisfied.
As many regular readers of this column may know, I have a fondness for the County of Dorset which, with its battlefields, military museums, castles and connections to WWII, is a fertile place for military enthusiasts to investigate. Returning home I unfolded the brochure on the dining table to examine the document in more detail. It had been prepared in 1994 and what I saw gave me another reason to take another trip around the county. My wife joined me and together we became absorbed in reading the fascinating snippets of local socio-military history contained in the document dating back to events 80 years ago.
One side of the document, measuring 23 inches by 16 inches fully extended, was a map showing Dorset bordered by the counties of Devon to the west, Somerset to the northwest and Wiltshire to the northeast. It showed the main road links running across the county and how the area was one vast military encampment for American units as part of the build-up in preparation for D-Day. The greatest concentration was to the south of the county and the map showed how various units were spread across the towns and villages. A handy list explained the meaning of the symbols on the map, such as camps, HQ areas, guns sites and hospitals. It also indicated the embarkation points on the coast together with coastal defense batteries.
Running around the edge of the map, like some printed frame, were artists’ impressions of 24 public houses, known in Britain as pubs, where beer and other alcoholic drinks are served. The troops billeted in the area would have frequented these establishments and picked up on the term “pub”. They would have met many of the locals living in and around the towns of Cranborne, Blandford and Sturminster Marshall near where they were billeted. Dorchester has many hundreds of pubs spread across its length and breadth, so these few named establishments that were noted would have been just a small representation of those used by American service men and women.
The trip we started to plan had to have a theme and it would have made sense to try to locate evidence of where the camp sites had been. We decided we should visit some of the pubs listed on the map. Incredibly, my wife agreed with me and after studying the map together we decided to start our exploration in the village of Sturminster Newton because it has three of the pubs mentioned on the map. It also lies along the base line of a triangle of roads with Sherborne to the west, Blandford Forum to the east and Shaftesbury to the north. The route we planned to take was a distance of about 38 miles and would not take long. Naturally, we had to take Tuppence our fox terrier with us because we would be out all day.
About halfway into our trip we crossed the border from Somerset into Dorset and approached Sherborne, where a tented military hospital and troop encampment had once been created just outside of town. We were now driving along roads and lanes which had been used by the American troops in the area. Twenty minutes later, having covered 13 miles, we entered the town of Sturminster Newton and our quest had begun proper. It is not a large town and it did not take long to discover two of the pubs; The Swan and, about 200 yards away, The White Hart. It made sense to think that troops from Sherborne would have visited the town to have a drink. We stood outside The Swan and thought what the troops would have made of such an establishment. Inside, we were met by modern setting and nothing that harked back to 1943, when there would have been a lot of troops in the area. We were disappointed to find there were no photographs on the walls and no plaques to commemorate the association. We were disappointed but not upset, because it was the thought of being there that really mattered to us.
After downing a quick drink, we crossed the road and walked the short distance down the road to The White Hart. We were faced with the same disappointing lack of wartime information. We asked the landlord about the pub’s wartime history, but were met with a blank stare. Another disappointment, but again we were not upset, because we know times change. We learned that the third pub from the map, The Bull, was located about a mile outside the town. Details from the map revealed that a small road alongside the pub led up to a small wood called “Piddleswood” in the village of Broad Oak where weapons, stores and vehicles were kept.
We found the pub, which was boarded up and looked as though it had been closed for some time. On the route to Broad Oak, modern development had changed the scene and all evidence of military activity was long gone. We decided to head to Blandford Forum, a larger town some 10 miles away, where an HQ unit had been established along with a searchlight unit. The Crown Hotel in the town had served as the living quarters for ladies of the American Red Cross. It had also served as the wedding venue for the marriage between Miss Frances Webb, serving with the Red Cross, and Captain Quentin Roosevelt II, son of General Theodore Roosevelt III, who commanded the landings on Utah Beach during D-Day. Such a history sounded promising and it wasn’t difficult to locate the building in the town. However, disappointment struck again. There was no mention or record of the event and the staff had never heard of anything, despite it involving such a high profile figure.
Research conducted later revealed that Captain Roosevelt served with the 1st Infantry Division and landed on Omaha Beach on D-Day. He survived the war with an exemplary record despite being severely wounded. He was tragically killed in a plane crash on Dec. 21,1948 in Hong Kong. His young widow, Frances, raised their three children and died in September 1995 at age 78. I was not upset at the lack of historical detail at the Crown Hotel because the information I did have at least led me to uncovering the fate of the young officer.
We decided to try our luck in Shaftesbury about 13 miles north of Blandford Forum, where a field hospital had been based and the troops in the area would have been regulars in the two local pubs, The Crown Inn and the Kings Arms. Unfortunately, there was no sign of information at either establishment to commemorate the historical connection with wartime events in the area. We decided to call it a day and head home by way of Gillingham, where an anti-aircraft battery had been located. Although we had not uncovered any hard evidence of historical detail at the pubs we visited, we knew what these places meant and that in itself was sufficient. Besides, there were still 17 more pubs on the list to be tracked down and visited. Those we will leave for another time.
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