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Armour & Embarkation. Dorset 2010.


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We have Scammell wrecker coming..Kev said so - he has yet to tell to the owner

 

 

Make sure its not near the front of the convoy, as it will severely hold it up!

 

Some thought should e given to the order of the convoy. A wrecker should really be placed at the back of the convoy to pick up/assist any casualties. The armour should go first, and if available a recovery truck with armour-shifting ability should be not too far behind the armour, as a broken down tank can cause havoc in the wrong place. This system seems to work well when we have convoyed in france. We had the WLF behind the tanks, half tracks and ambulances, with a DT wrecker following up the softskin element. The DT ended up recovering a staff car, and the WLF waited with a poorly Chaffee, which fortunately was got running. Also looks good if jeeps are dispersed throughout the convoy, and are not in one long line (no offence intended to jeep owners).

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I'm already securing permission to come for several days. The MUTT is a bit too new, but I'll probably be bumming lifts to do my snapping as on Bolero if anyone actually wants my stuff (Container Weekly; Cage & Avary Bird;Daily Sport; Hackney Gazette; Walthamstow Guardian that sort of thing). I will definitely seek better accommodation than the back of my Toyota this time. I'm too old for all that - but Barnes The Younger will have finished his college course by then and claims he'll be coming, so we can camp somewhere. The event clashes with my wedding anniversary. Senior management says I can still go...............I'm bewildered.

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I think I said (so long ago I forget) that the 2 x original petrol engined Diamond T's that drove down from North of Brimingham to Route to Victory at Ramsbury and who drove both convoy trips and drove back to Brum spent close to £1000 collectively on fuel for the wagons.......

 

.....and that didn't include the cost of the head gasket that blew half way to Wiltshire!

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Guest catweazle (Banned Member)
says I can still go...............I'm bewildered.

It will all become clear in the future.:-D

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I think I said (so long ago I forget) that the 2 x original petrol engined Diamond T's that drove down from North of Brimingham to Route to Victory at Ramsbury and who drove both convoy trips and drove back to Brum spent close to £1000 collectively on fuel for the wagons.......

 

.....and that didn't include the cost of the head gasket that blew half way to Wiltshire!

 

That sounds more like it Clive, ............. battery in Jack's hearing aid must have been turned off.:-D

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Will have its own section soon so that I can bring in some back ground information over a period of time. By the time you get here you will know everything and to allow your imagination run free.......

 

 

Bases in Dorset

 

1st US Infantry Division's pre D-Day bases in Dorset:

 

 

 

  • Divisional HQ: Langton House, near Blandford Forum.
  • 16 Infantry Regiment: Its HQ was at Parnham House, near Beaminster, with its three Infantry Battalions, HQ Company, Service Company, Cannon Company and Anti-tank Company located in Bridport, Lyme Regis, Abbotsbury, Litton Cheney and Beaminster.
  • 18 Infantry Regiment: This Regiment was located in the Weymouth-Dorchester area and had its HQ at Ilsington House, near Puddletown. Its battalions moved around a bit; the 1st Battalion was at Piddlehinton Camp then Chickerell Camp, the 2nd Battalion and Cannon Company at Broadmayne and West Knighton, the 3rd Battalion and Service Company were in Dorchester. The Anti-tank Company was at Winterborne St. Martin and HQ Company remained at Puddletown.
  • 26 Infantry Regiment: Its HQ was at Bimmegar Hall near Wareham, with 1st and 2nd Battalions, Cannon Company and the Anti-tank Company all at Swanage. The 3rd Battalion was near Blandford and the Service and HQ Companies at Wareham.
  • 1st Division Artillery: The Divisional Artillery commander had his HQ and HQ Battery at Spettisbury and his 5th, 7th and 32nd Artillery Battalions were in camps near Piddlehinton.
  • 1st Engineer Combat Battalion: Its HQ and Service Company were at Langton House with the companies as follow: A Company at Charmouth, B Company around Corfe Castle and C Company was at Studland.
  • 1st Division Signal Company: Bryanston Camp near Blandford.
  • 1st Reconnaissance Troop: Initially located at Norden Hill Camp, Maiden Newton but subsequently at Piddlehinton Camp.
  • 1st Division MP Platoon: Piddlehinton Camp.
  • 701st Ordnance Light Maintenance Company: Dorchester with its HQ in Wadham House.
  • 1st Quartermaster Company: Dorchester.
  • 1st Medical Battalion: Piddlehinton Camp then Cattistock.

 

Other American Units Based in Dorset

 

Before D-Day US troops based in the county included no less than seven tented hospitals located at sites across Dorset, including several near Blandford and Shaftsbury. Very heavy Allied casualties were expected during the landing phase. In addition, massive supply depots, fuel and ammunition dumps were established to ensure that after D-Day the Allies enjoyed a clear material advantage during their battle with the Germans in Normandy. The joke of the day was that it 'is a wonder that Britain hasn't sunk under the weight of the tanks and guns' stockpiled for the invasion.

 

 

 

 

Training

 

Training for D-Day

 

Large areas of Dorset were taken over for the Americans to carry out their training for D-Day. These areas were mainly on the coast, with the principal amphibious training area being Studland Bay. The now peaceful beaches and heathland became live firing training areas, where the US troops practiced their assault techniques, complete with naval gunfire, tanks and aircraft.

Other assault landing training took place in Weymouth Harbour and on the beaches and country immediately inland as far west as Lyme Regis. All these training areas were out of bounds to the British public and the whole invasion assembly area was subject to travel restrictions.

US Rangers

 

The American equivalent of the elite Commandos, the 'Rangers', were also based in and did much of their training around Dorset. Much of their specialist training was completed on the remarkably similar loose limestone cliffs at Burton Bradstock and at Swanage. 2nd Ranger Battalion eventually landed at the westerly end of 'Bloody Omaha' and climbed the cliff to successfully seize a major German battery of six 155mm guns on the Normandy coast at Point du Hoc.

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The Dorset Ports

 

In the weeks before D-Day, 1st US Division, were confined to camp for security reasons during their final briefing. In the last days of May, Big Red One was on the move toward their marshalling areas around Weymouth, Portland and Poole, where they would wait their turn to be called forward to board their landing craft.

 

On 2 June 1944, they finally started to move to the embarkation ports. Many of the locals were used to the coming and going of troops and vehicles initially assumed that this was just another exercise. Infantry, tanks and guns arrived for loading in the reverse order to which they would be landed. Embarkation was a slow and complex operation, which in its self is a marvel of military planning, with the roads around these ports packed with transport and men. Once in the port or on the specially constructed embarkation hards, tanks were reversed through the bows of landing craft and men were crammed into the landing ships in closely packed triple or even quadruple bunks.

 

By 2 June, the Americans were aboard their transport, waiting for the word to go. D-Day had originally been planned for 5 June but the weather was too stormy for the landing or airborne operations. However, a 'window' spotted in a succession of Atlantic frontal weather systems allowed the greatest invasion fleet ever assembled to sail.

 

On the evening of 5 June, with little ceremony, the ships of all sizes bearing 1st US Infantry Division slipped their anchorages and shortly after dawn on 6 June, the infantry headed towards the French coast and Omaha Beach. The liberation of Europe had begun.

One Dorset resident recalled that in the months, they were in Dorset the soldiers 'became used to warm British ale, while we learned to Jitter Bug and to straighten the seams of our new nylon stockings'. Their stay was not to be long: 'One day they were here and the next they were gone, along with all their ships in Weymouth and Portland harbours. I eventually learned they landed on Omaha. I sometimes sadly wonder how many of our friends survived.'

The departure of 1st US Infantry Division was, however, not the end of the Dorset ports' part in the war. During the following months, a million troops and material crossed the Channel from the county to build up and sustain the Allied armies in Normandy.

 

During the summer of 1944, coming back from the battlefields, on the empty ships, were wounded Americans, many of whom were treated at the US hospitals near Blandford and Shaftsbury, before returning to battle or being repatriated to the US. In addition to the American wounded, lead coffins containing the bodies of US Servicemen for repatriation to the US, also came through Dorset's ports and were loaded onto trains to Liverpool in great secrecy.

Some 35,000 German prisoners of war also transited through the county on their way to camps.

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Now some well know pictures and not so well known.

 

A couple of interesting ones that need to be noted - can you see one that is propaganda and one that is dis information....?!

 

commando.jpg

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Fly.jpg

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Jimmy.jpg

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Jean.jpg

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POws.jpg

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BR1.jpg

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Pub-1.jpg

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beach.jpg

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Now some well know pictures and not so well known.

 

A couple of interesting ones that need to be noted - can you see one that is propaganda and one that is dis information....?!

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Pub-1.jpg

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Obviously disinformation here.

 

Enemy spies can often be unmasked by observing their drinking habits, the Germans in this posed photo have forgotten to order English brown ale in straight glasses, preferring their Bavarian lager in jugs. :-D

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Mark,

 

The brewers from Reading is genuine, but I am looking at the man nearest with back to camera.......something does not look right about him :confused:

 

 

See what you mean, are there coal mines in Reading :confused:

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