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This story has been added by CSV volunteer Linda Clark on behalf of the author Kenneth H Rickard. It is an extract from a book he wrote in 2004 called 'St Dennis and Goss Moor', published by Halsgrove of Tiverton, Devon. They fully understand the site's terms and conditions.

One day in 1944 the inhabitants of St Dennis Junction and other neighbouring villages and hamlets were woken by the noise of a continuous road convoy of American troops moving trucks and other military equipment. This movement continued for many weeks. Although there were a few Britsh Army convoys, they were nowhere near the scale of the American presence. 'Yank' convoys were the noisiest and took two or three hours to pass. To the locals it was an awesome display of military resources, the likes of which they had never seen before.

When convoys halted for troop-comfort stops and meals the half blocked roads would be chaotic with civil and military vehicles, aircraft-carrying articulated units and trailers all struggling to progress to their respective destinations. These stops brought friendly exchanges between locals and troops. Fresh water, milk and eggs were always favourites with the troops, while the locals received fruit, sweets, and chocolates in return. 'K' ration boxes and sometimes their contents, cigarette packets and chewing-gum wrappers littered the grass verges. The small waterproof cartons of 'K' rations contained emergency packs of powdered food and drink, chocolate, cigarettes and other comforts and were issued to all American troops in combat and standby situations.

All these convoys were heading west to holding parks and camps situated near harbours, river inlets and recently constructed slipways, to await embarkation on D-Day. Then, one day, the convoys stopped passing by and proceeded to turn onto local byroads, which quickly became filled with vehicles and troops (all suitable space around the A30 west of Goss Moor was filled). This was the build-up for the invasion of Europe - right on the doorstep of this small Cornish community.

All the vehicles and equipment was camouflaged with nets and foliage, tents were erected, field kitchens were set up, latrines were dug and anti-aircraft guns were positioned. Some fields were turned into tented camps for the combat troops, with engineers and guards living by their equipment and guns and sleeping in two-man bivouacs.

The nearest of these encampments to St Dennis Junction was an engineering construction company which virtually filled the road to Blackacre Farm with cranes, graders, bulldozers and trucks. Local children spent many hours with these troops eagerly awaiting the gifts of chocolate, sweets and fruit which were usually on offer. This particular company consisted of black Americans with white officers.

There was a field kitchen on the byroad to Blackacre Farm, plus one near Ennisworgey and one near Providence Farm. They all produced an excellent standard of food which was far superior to and more plentiful than the locals' meagre rations. On the edge of Goss Moor, on a tributory of the Fal, a water-filtration plant was set up to produce drinking-water for the American troops. A moorland plantation on the brow of the hill by the A30 near Shalimar, Roche, became a large field kitchen in one half and a large fuel dump(in jerry cans) in the other.

On the A30 just west of the Tregoss crossing gatehouse there was a bad left hand bend with a deep ditch alongside, which many overenthusiastic American drivers managed to find. A large six- wheeled recovery truck was permanently stationed on the site. It is a pity that the concern for keeping the traffic moving was more of a priority in those days than it is in 2003. Every crossroad and junction had military police encamped by it to control traffic and keep the A30 clear. Many locals remember cigar-smoking jeep drivers were always tearing around seemingly intent on destroying the jeeps and themselves, with little regard for other vehicles, people and animals and all hell bent on getting somewhere before they started.

The areas around Roche, Belovely, Whitemoor, St Dennis, Castle-an-Dinas, Ruthvoes, St Columb, Indian Queens, Penhale, Gothers and Enniscaven were full of troops, vehicles and equipment. Local people were issued with passes to enable them to carry on with their everyday lives and safely move around the locality. Children were not issued with passes as they were not considered a security threat.

The American troops had a service similar to our NAAFI called Post Exchange, usually referred to as PX where they could purchase toileteries, cigarettes and luxuries etc. It was run by the military and was stationed 'in the field' for the convenience of the troops in the surrounding area: they were allowed one visit per week. The Americans were permitted certain recreational times; these were spent in local village dance halls. There were regular disturbances at Indian Queens between white and black American troops, which often developed into serious fights, reflecting the racial tensions that existed in America at that time.

Some minor road improvements were made by American engineers. An American officer had been given the job of planning and building a road around the low girder bridge on the A30 which caused the Americans problems with high loads. However, D-Day meant that this work was never completed.

K.H.Rickard remembers a situation in 1944, which he describes as 'terrifying':

One day I was taking my one year-old-brother in a pram from our home at St Dennis Junction to Treranke Cottages, near Roche, along the A30 to visit our Gran. Walking on the right hand side of the road, facing the oncoming traffic, as I was always taught to do, some 800 yards into the journey we met a US Army tank convoy travelling west. These tanks were not the easiest of vehicles to drive on hard roads at the best of times, but to unexpectdely be faced with a young lad pushing a pram which could only be seen at the last minute was not easy to cope with, as the evasive manoeuvres of some drivers proved. I had to keep on the road, as the grass verges were too soft and overgrown for me to successfully push a pram.

I'll never forget the sight and noise of the tank tracks and the smell of heated engines being so close - to say I was frightened was an understatement.

We did eventually reach Treranke Cottages unscathed and very thankful. Needless to say I never repeated that kind of journey again.

To put the situation into perspective, at the time of this incident the A30 was not as wide as it is in 2003. It was not until after the war that the County Council widened the road across the moor.

With D-Day imminent and the American troops moved out, within a couple of days everything was gone - they had all moved west to their designated embarkation points along the South Coast. Here, special concrete loading ramps nicknamed 'hards' had been constructed along river banks and inlets to enable orgainised embarkation onto various types of landing craft to take place, irrespective of tides, etc. For example, the dock facilities at Falmouth were used for the loading of the large and heavy equipment. The debris and gear left behind, such as empty jerry cans, cases and boxes, tables and seats and anything else that could not be practically carried into an invasion-landing situation disappeared as locals recovered anything that could be of use. Certain items and material was hard to come by in those days so it was an opportunity not to be missed!

The tented camps were soon dismantled and removed by a US Army unit not designated for the initial landings. Gates and hedges were repaired and fields returned to their normal use and humans and animals returned to normal life. The military build up and preparation for the D-Day was spectacular, very well organised and unforgetable.

It is hard not to wonder how many of these brave men, who were all from the 15th Combat Troop of the American 29th Division, which landed with the second wave of landings on Omaha Beach in Normany on D-Day, survived the landings or indeed the whole war. Americans suffered huge losses in the initial landings in France, as did our own troops. To commemorate the American Forces' embarkation from Turnaware Beach on D-Day a graite memorial stone has been erected at Tolverne on the banks of the Fal next to Smugglers Cottage near Philleigh on the Roseland Penninsular.

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