Hi, Please excuse this if it's a stupid question but WW2 is a new area of research for me. I'm currently researching the history of Hursley Park (between Winchester and Southampton in Hampshire) and trying to follow-up on a few comments made about the use of the Park during WW2. I am aware of the dispersal of Supermarine to Hursley late in 1940 but I saw a passing reference once, but been unable to find or confirm it, that some army units (possibly Polish and/or others) were temporarily stationed in the Park following the evacuation from Dunkirk. Does anyone know where I might be able to find information on where units were stationed and whether Hursley was one of these locations (it had been used during WW1 as an Army camp between 1914 and 1917 so there is a precedence)? Any assistance grately appreciated. Cheers Dave
A former close friend of mine was with the RA at Dunkirk and he told me the following story of his experience in the immediate aftermath: On landing at Dover he was issued with a railway warrant and put on a train to Halifax in Yorkshire. The journey seemingly took for ever, during which time most of the troops, who were from a complete mixture of units, slept. On the floor, in the luggage racks, anywhere they could lay their heads. When they finally reached Halifax there were insufficient prepared billets for them and local people took some of them in. A local woman took my friend into her home where he slept for a full 36 hours. When he finally awoke he realised that his uniform was in tatters, especially his trousers. His temporary landlady lent him a pair of her husbands until he rejoined the military machine. His overiding memory of that time was of complete exhaustion amidst chaos as the army tried to deal with the men flooding back from France. How long he was in Halifax and how long the chaos lasted I do not know.
From what what diaries I've read some of the units from 3 Div were in the South/South West of England directly after Dunkirk so that could be an indicator that the south coast was II Corps AOR.
