The Kent History Forum

Life Stories and Personal Memories => Personal Memories => Topic started by: stuartwaters on September 27, 2020, 06:40:11 PM

Title: Overpaid, Oversexed and Over Here
Post by: stuartwaters on September 27, 2020, 06:40:11 PM
To which an American serviceman would reply "You Brits are underpaid, undersexed and under Eisenhower".


Seriously though, do any of m'learned friends have any recollections of American service personnel in Kent during the Second World War?
Title: Re: Overpaid, Oversexed and Over Here
Post by: Dave Smith on September 29, 2020, 10:02:44 PM
Stuart. Afraid I never came across any American Forces personnel in the Medway towns during the war. Mostly they were flying over, going or coming back but not based here.
Title: Re: Overpaid, Oversexed and Over Here
Post by: Cosmo Smallpiece on September 30, 2020, 08:27:07 AM
According to a scandalous family story there may have been one US serviceman in Medway during the war. Regrettably I really shouldn't give any more details!!


There was an entire fictional US First Army Group based in Kent as a D-Day deception. I would be surprised if there wasn't a plot to put US stories in the press to support this?
Title: Re: Overpaid, Oversexed and Over Here
Post by: castle261 on September 30, 2020, 11:50:44 AM
I only met one US service man - he was a Merchant Navy man.
He wandered into George Carters - the men`s outfitters - next to Woolworths in Chatham in 1944.
He was a big guy - hands as big as to span a dinner plate - I remember going to serve him - then
the manager took over. He wanted a raincoat - The manager showed him some we had in stock -
He was looking to add a few pounds - to the till. I saw others - they were in flying fortresses - one
flying low - over Rochester Airport - looking for somewhere to land - quickly.
Title: Re: Overpaid, Oversexed and Over Here
Post by: johnfilmer on October 01, 2020, 04:36:11 PM
One of my wife's Aunts, Margaret Elizabeth Waters (1925-2015) was in the Women's Land Army. According to family information, she met her future husband Bryan Kern Bailey (1908-1962) during an air raid (or a lone raider?) when they all took shelter in some Kentish woods. So battery or airfield perhaps?

Helpfully Bryan's gravestone gives his wartime military info as: Colorado TEC4 HHC 3rd Bn 264th Infantry. An earlier record gives his service number as 38085649.
Bryan was a skilled mechanic, the "go-to guy" to get anything repaired. Was he part of the deception around Dover to deflect from Normandy?

Maggie followed him to the States a year or so after he had been repatriated, and would always fiercely rebut the description War-Bride.
Now if you have researched family history, one of the first things you discover is that most of what were told varies between embellished and ouright lies.
So has anyone anyway of deciding where in Kent they might have been, and what was Bryan doing for the war effort? He never went into Europe, I am told, spent his whole war here.
Their daughter's visit this year has, unsurprisingly, be put back to next year for now. Would be a nice surprise to take her somewhere relevant.
Title: Re: Overpaid, Oversexed and Over Here
Post by: Cosmo Smallpiece on October 02, 2020, 10:44:36 AM
Looks like 264th Regiment were part of the US 66th Division. Landed at Dorchester then transferred to Southampton for D-Day.  https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/66th_Infantry_Division_(United_States)


It should be possible to find a detailed description of where the unit was housed and trained?
Title: Re: Overpaid, Oversexed and Over Here
Post by: MartinR on October 02, 2020, 10:55:51 AM
Minor correction: the link should be https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/66th_Infantry_Division_(United_States) (https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/66th_Infantry_Division_(United_States)) or https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/66th_Infantry_Division_(United_States) if you prefer the full screen version. (https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/66th_Infantry_Division_(United_States))
@John, members of the WLA could be sent to any part of the country, so are you sure they were Kentish woods?  Just a thought, probably wrong.
Title: Re: Overpaid, Oversexed and Over Here
Post by: Dave Smith on October 02, 2020, 09:00:26 PM
johnfilmer. Almost a " needle in a haystack" situation, although somewhere I'm sure there is a history of every member of the U.S. Forces stationed in the UK during the war, based on their service number. In the same way you can trace any member of the British Armed Forces- that number is there for ever & ever as they are never duplicated. May I suggest a start at the U.S.Embassy in London, they are usually very helpful & will put you on the right track to progress further.
Title: Re: Overpaid, Oversexed and Over Here
Post by: Cosmo Smallpiece on October 03, 2020, 08:56:32 AM
The 264th Regiment was only in the UK for a month. Arrived 26th November 1944, landed France one month later. If your chap never went to the continent then perhaps there remained a UK depot for the 66th Division. Something like a training establishment or filtering recovered injured back to units? If so another angle may be to look for accounts of other soldiers in combat with 66th/264th and see if they mention how replacements or wounded were returned?
Title: Re: Overpaid, Oversexed and Over Here
Post by: johnfilmer on October 04, 2020, 01:10:17 PM
The HHC in Bryan’s insignia appears to stand for Headquarters and Headquarters Command. So he would have been involved more in the organisation and smooth running of the Battalion.


Could that mean he was left in England?
Title: Re: Overpaid, Oversexed and Over Here
Post by: Cosmo Smallpiece on October 09, 2020, 12:41:51 PM
Good catch on the HHC meaning!


I went back to my source on the US serviceman. Turns out to have been a Canadian. Mea culpa. The scandal was slightly worse than I had recalled in the story too! I thought it inappropriate to ask how big this guy's hands were, Castle261, sorry.