大象传媒

THE U.S. ARMY AT PLYMOUTH, DEVON by Ken Roberts

The U.S.Navy base at Queen Anne鈥檚 Battery was a wide open, totally unfenced camp site of Quonset huts on the coast of the English Channel. and It held great attractions for the teenage boys living in the streets nearby (myself included, age fifteen).The closest U.S. Army personnel were billeted at the other side of the city, on the main road to Dartmoor; they occupied the huge walled area known as Plumer Barracks, named after one of the Great War (not then referred to as WW1) Western Front commanders.

The group of teenagers who spent so much time at QAB on weekdays very often cycled out to Meavy on a Sunday. Meavy is a Dartmoor village known to us youngsters because, before WW2 started, the adults of the street occasionally arranged a coach trip to the village which boasted a popular public house for the adults, a fine length of stream for the children to paddle in and plenty of room for ball games.

The U.S.Army chose the piece of countryside around Meavy for some of their infantry manoeuvres one afternoon and we happened to be there at the time. They arrived in various types of transport and with a selection of small arms. We were told, quite politely, that if we wanted to watch what was going on it would be best to get into one of the open trucks and stay there for the afternoon. What followed was very entertaining, with a squad of soldiers firing pistols, rifles and bazookas, letting off different coloured smoke flares and shouting to each other as loud as possible. We stayed until the end of the action and followed behind on our bicycles, (stopping only long enough to collect a few souvenirs such as blank and live rounds of ammunition).

On the way back to Plumer Barracks one of the large trucks (a 鈥渄euce and a half鈥�, I believe) had a slight collision with the narrow road bridge over the stream not far from Hernspit Farm. The U.S.Army quickly and expertly repaired the damage to the wall of the bridge, which explains why today鈥檚 visitors to the spot sometimes notice that one wall is of a different pattern to the other.

The highlight of our afternoon cycle journey occurred when we got back to Plumer Barracks, intending to see which types of artillery weapons had been added since our last stocktake from outside the barred gates. One U.S. soldier, also riding a bicycle but inside 鈥� on the barrack square 鈥� was identified for us by one of the U.S. soldiers on duty as being the World Heavyweight Boxing Champion Joe Louis.

Whether or not it was in fact JOE LOUIS I do not know !

The End.

Any questions or comments, please email ken@shpr.fsnet.co.uk

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