SEPTEMBER 2023

Just a reminder that our next Social evening is on Friday 08 September at 7.30pm, this is also our AGM and will be held in the main hall.
For this event our guest speaker will be Simon Dell who will be giving us what promises again to be a very entertaining and fulfilling talk entitled “The Fair Arm Of The Law”

For this event our guest speaker will be Simon Dell who will be giving us what promises again to be a very entertaining and fulfilling talk entitled “The Fair Arm Of The Law”

Our AGM is an important event and gives the chance for anyone to come forward and offer to help on the Committee. The History Group prides itself on being a long running and established group withing the Village, but we depend solely on Volunteers to keep running.

This will also be the time to renew your membership with us, or to join our Group for the coming year. We are holding our membership fee to just £10, which is extremely good value for Social evenings and access to our large local Village archive.

We will also be selling tickets for our Christmas entertainer – the very popular and much sought after MAGGIE DUFFY, partnered by BOB THOMSON .. so be prepared for an evening of song, humour, wit and music!

The evening on 01 December (7:30pm) will be all ticket, just £5 for Members and £10 for non-members .. and we will be advertising the event through various outlets as Maggie now has such a large following:-
Mulled wine and a ‘goody bag’ will be available for all members – non-Members are invited to bring their own refreshments.

That’s it for now – so take care and read on once again with the wartime memories of the late David Best, as it was 80 years ago that the Americans arrived in Marldon.

Derek .. Chairman MLHG

The ‘Yanks’ move in!

As fortunes changed in 1942, and the possibility of invasion receded, the camps emptied and the (British) troops moved away, although the Devon Coast camp was still occupied mainly by Italian aliens interned for the duration.  However, in that year, a decision was made which would have a major effect on villages like Marldon. Operation Bolero was agreed between England and the United States to move two million American servicemen to England to assist in the assault on Hitler’s Europe.

The first United States troops reached Marldon in the early months of 1943.  Initially the soldiers were the coloured non-combat engineers, whose job it was to prepare the camps and to lay on various services for the main body of men which was to follow.  In battle their duties would include such things as following up the fighting units to clear the debris and bury the dead.

Nevertheless, in Marldon they represented the first arrivals of the American Army and were treated as absolute equals in a way which they had not enjoyed in their own homeland.  The troops were a credit to the Army, and as their popularity increased social evenings were arranged for them and many were invited into people’s homes.

As the build-up increased, the young white conscripts arrived, taking over the camps and bringing with them their American brand of youthful ego, together with centuries of inbred colour prejudice.  From time to time violent scenes occurred both in the village and in the towns, more often when girls became innocently involved.  It was difficult for the village to understand at a time when the whole country seemed united and indeed racial discrimination was as yet almost unheard of anywhere in England.

Anyway, something had to be done, and the military authorities allocated various units to separate zones.   One boundary line was drawn at Churscombe Cross and soldiers from an outside area crossed this line at their peril, whether they were walking a girl home or not.

All the American troops had an affinity with the local schoolchildren, and they quickly recognised that we were the first link in the social chain.  We told them such things as which part of England they were in, and where the best girls were to be found, and they responded in their easy-going manner and natural generosity, with luxuries we had not seen since the war began.   Moreover, they seemed especially well-equipped with all the good things in life.   Their PX (Post Exchange) unit within the camp was one of the largest and most important buildings.  In this warehouse the troops could buy anything from gramophones to lipstick and nylons, and many of the goods overflowed as gifts or currency into the village.

In the pubs, trade became brisk as glasses chinked away in the evenings. If the war continued like this, life would not be too bad.