Description

Immediate dispatch from Somerset. Nice book in great condition. Pages in excellent condition. No notes or highlighting. See images. Fantastic book.

About the book >.>.> Apart from the small number of people who were alive when the United States Army came to Dorset there are few who realize the extent of the ‘invasion’. Several books have been published which tell the story of the seven or so months before D-Day but most of them do not go into specific detail about where the Americans were and how they spent their time. In this present book I have put together some of the information I have been given by Gl veterans and a number of local residents. Over a span of 55 years memories fade and some of my contacts cannot agree on some locations and dates. For this reason confirmation has been sought in official documents and primary sources. The study is confined to West Dorset because that is where the 16th Infantry Regiment was based. A study of this kind devoted to a wider area would be difficult to handle. Also it is felt that a good picture of the war situation can be given using only a limited number of witnesses over a limited area. In other words this book is an attempt to show what it was like in Beaminster or Lyme Regis or any of the other small villages where the regiment was to be found. Photographs have been included but they tend to be of a poor quality. The Americans were told not to take photographs though many did but the size of the film used and the type of cameras available meant that many of the pictures were too small and not properly focused and the civilian population found it difficult to obtain film. The best photographs of that period were taken either by civilian professionals or the Army itself. Official photographs were taken in the Weymouth area and around Burton Bradstock where members of the 3113 Signals Service Battalion and the 3252 Signals Service Company were based. (LL)