- Contributed by听
- iemensa
- People in story:听
- Sam Logan
- Location of story:听
- Ringsend, Co Londonderry, N Ireland
- Background to story:听
- Army
- Article ID:听
- A8999527
- Contributed on:听
- 31 January 2006
Re-enactors in US WW2 uniforms and vehicles, Ballymoney, County Antrim
The Yankee troops started arriving, probably around 1943. If they did Church parades it would have been in the centre of Coleraine, away from our farm or countryside parish church.
The Americans did military exercises on our farm near Coleraine. We were encouraged to stay out of their way, so I didn鈥檛 get talking to them.
Any training with tanks would have been done in their base at Ballykelly. They had vehicles the equivalent of bren-gun carriers. I don鈥檛 think there were any bren-gun carriers around at that time. They practised driving over a ditch, which ruined it for agricultural uses.
It climaxed with a 3-day exercise that ended in a mock battle around the farm on Sunday evening. There were hundreds of them, firing blank cartridges.
This was a couple of months before they shipped out to Normandy.
I didn鈥檛 know what unit they were from, though my father might have known. Later we discovered that the US 82nd Airborne was stationed nearby at Portstewart and Portrush.
漏 Copyright of content contributed to this Archive rests with the author. Find out how you can use this.
Recommended story
Story with photo