Help Needed on WW2 Sussex Area Project

Discussion in 'United Kingdom' started by salientpoints, Jun 15, 2004.

  1. salientpoints

    salientpoints Senior Member

    Hi all,

    I am developing a 'local history' memorial website on the role of Sussex in its build up to D-Day.

    If anyone has any ideas, suggestions or information that may be useful and are willing to share it (for credit / links on my website of course) please please email me or use this forum to share this material.

    You can see the site in production at www.spearheadsussex.com

    Thanks in advance for your help.

    Ryan
     
  2. SteveB

    SteveB Member

    Hi Ryan,


    Good luck with the site. If there's anything I can do from Brighton, please let me know.

    Cheers
    SteveB ;)
     
  3. salientpoints

    salientpoints Senior Member

    Hi Steve

    Thanks for the support.

    I'll certainly keep you updated as things progress

    Ryan
     
  4. BeppoSapone

    BeppoSapone Senior Member

    Originally posted by salientpoints@Jun 15 2004, 01:53 AM
    Hi all,

    I am developing a 'local history' memorial website on the role of Sussex in its build up to D-Day.

    If anyone has any ideas, suggestions or information that may be useful and are willing to share it (for credit / links on my website of course) please please email me or use this forum to share this material.

    You can see the site in production at www.spearheadsussex.com

    Thanks in advance for your help.

    Ryan
    Ryan

    Do you have the little booklet produced by a newspaper group for the 40th Anniv. of the end of WW2?

    It mentions a little of what happened in each town/village in Sussex in WW2. If you got hold of a copy you could extract stuff from 1944.

    Some interesting stuff in general, and things that deserve to be more widely known, eg a cinema full of children was bombed at East Grinstead and a school was bombed at Petworth
     
  5. salientpoints

    salientpoints Senior Member

    Beppo - I am not familiar off hand with this publication. Perhaps you can give me more details? I have quite a few and of course there are some on the library circuits but this I dont recall.

    Talking of East Grinstead area, my grandfather was stationed at Gatwick during the build up and recalled to me the incessant convoys and strict security around the time.

    Look forward to hearing from you

    thanks

    Ryan
     
  6. BeppoSapone

    BeppoSapone Senior Member

    Originally posted by salientpoints@Jun 16 2004, 12:33 PM
    Beppo - I am not familiar off hand with this publication. Perhaps you can give me more details? I have quite a few and of course there are some on the library circuits but this I dont recall.

    Talking of East Grinstead area, my grandfather was stationed at Gatwick during the build up and recalled to me the incessant convoys and strict security around the time.

    Look forward to hearing from you

    thanks

    Ryan
    Ryan

    I have a copy of this book, which was sold by the "Crawley Observer" at the time. IIRC it was also sold by the other Sussex local papers in the group - Westminster Press? It was extracted from wartime local papers.

    Having recently moved I am not sure that I can lay my hands on it in a hurry. However, I will let you know when I come across it.

    Speaking of Gatwick, when I was a kid you could go to a field behind the airport and find all sorts of stuff left by the Canadians. Old ammo' etc. When I took a rusty grenade home my father put his foot down, even though it was a drill grenade. The site of that field is now an airport long stay car park.

    You might also contact Horsham Museum. They produced a booklet about the Canadians who were based in the area. However, it is mostly short "I remember" pieces. I believe that the museum wrote to local newspapers across Canada asking old soldiers who had been based in Horsham to contact them.

    There used to be a local branch of an Assn. for Canadians who married local girls and remained in Sussex. I would imagine it is all but defunct now. IIRC there is some sort of memorial in St Margarets Church in Ifield. Old Comrades from a RCASC unit that were based locally in WW2 returned for the 50th Anniv. Quite a few were married to Sussex girls who also came on the trip. Sadly one of the old soldiers died of a heart attack at the time.

    Maybe they are still there, but not so long ago there used to be large areas of concrete in Crawley, to the side of the south bound A23. I was told that all of the trucks, tanks etc that broke down on the way to the invasion ports were taken there for repair by REME etc. Paul Reed will probably know more about it.
     
  7. salientpoints

    salientpoints Senior Member

    Super stuff thanks!
     
  8. Paul Reed

    Paul Reed Ubique

    Originally posted by BeppoSapone@Jun 16 2004, 07:32 PM
    Speaking of Gatwick, when I was a kid you could go to a field behind the airport and find all sorts of stuff left by the Canadians. Old ammo' etc. When I took a rusty grenade home my father put his foot down, even though it was a drill grenade. The site of that field is now an airport long stay car park.

    Like Tony, I also lived in Crawley, and I still have just the casing of a No36 grenade which I found here in the 70s. It must have been used for drill, as there was no internals... sneaked it in past my parents!

    Some of the old Army buildings are still in Tillgate forest in Crawley, and amongst the trees here and there signs of trenches and bomb craters - obviously another training ground.
     
  9. BeppoSapone

    BeppoSapone Senior Member

    Originally posted by Paul Reed+Jun 17 2004, 04:24 AM-->(Paul Reed @ Jun 17 2004, 04:24 AM)</div><div class='quotemain'> <!--QuoteBegin-BeppoSapone@Jun 16 2004, 07:32 PM
    Speaking of Gatwick, when I was a kid you could go to a field behind the airport and find all sorts of stuff left by the Canadians. Old ammo' etc. When I took a rusty grenade home my father put his foot down, even though it was a drill grenade. The site of that field is now an airport long stay car park.

    Like Tony, I also lived in Crawley, and I still have just the casing of a No36 grenade which I found here in the 70s. It must have been used for drill, as there was no internals... sneaked it in past my parents!

    Some of the old Army buildings are still in Tillgate forest in Crawley, and amongst the trees here and there signs of trenches and bomb craters - obviously another training ground. [/b]The Newfoundlanders were also based in Sussex. In their case as Royal Artillery Regiments - something to do with Newfoundland being run from London again after going broke in the Depression.

    I was in contact with a Newfoundlander who told me his battery was based in an old house called "Buckswood Grange", where Buckswood Road now is. He also told me that his mates were having a sing song around the piano in the "Brewery Shades" pub when the police told the publican that the pub had to close for the night, so the "Newfies" carried the piano out into Crawley High Street and carried on with their party.

    Re: the Nissen Huts at Tilgate, mentioned by Paul. In the hot summer of 1976 the lakes at Tilgate dried up, and all sorts of things were found in the mud, including grenades and a Canadian Army bugle.
     
  10. JohnO

    JohnO Junior Member

    I am trying to do a little research into Buckswood Grange and I see that it has been mentioned in these threads re Newfoundland troops stationed there. There is a family connection. If anybody can give any pointers I would be grateful.

    Incidentally my aunt was interviewed last week re the V1 that dropped on Crawley on 10/7/44 killing 7. She was there. The article will appear in the Crawley Observor in the next two weeks.
     
  11. southern geordie

    southern geordie Junior Member

    An investigation is called for.
    I love Beppo's report on the bugle found in the dried up pond. I wondered if the culprit was ever found and if it was a one-man operation or a job for combined ops. I, being of a sceptical mind, can hardly imagine that the bugle found its own way there (in the pond) by accident. There is nothing like the sound of an off-key bugle-call to stir the blood of an ill-tempered, conscripted soldier, suffering from the effects of the night before. "Corporal! March that man to the guardroom"!
    Southern Geordie.
     
  12. Petmas

    Petmas Junior Member

    Hi Ryan, if you are near Newhaven drop in the museum at Paradise park any Saturday 2-5pm. We have a collection of photos, books and info that might help. I am also transferring the harbour logs books onto disk at the moment but have only got to late April 44 but they show the build up in craft from early May onwards. Pete
     

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