PLYMOUTH |
The Encyclopaedia of Plymouth History |
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NORMANDY LANDINGS MEMORIAL
In November 1943 the United States Naval Advanced Amphibious Base was commissioned at Plymouth and part of that establishment was an encampment for troops on the northern side of Vicarage Road, Saint Budeaux. It was opened in January 1944 and Vicarage Road became known as US Army Route 23. Below Vicarage Road Camp, at Saltash Passage, several concrete slipways were constructed to enable military personnel and their hardware to be loaded onto ships for the Normandy landings. And so it was that in early June 1944 men of the 5th and 7th Corps of the United States Army marched down Vicarage Road to their ships during the night and quietly left for Utah Beach on the Normandy coast. Vicarage Road was renamed Normandy Way by the Mayor of Cherbourg, Monsieur René Schmitt, in May 1947. On Wednesday May 14th 1958 the American Ambassador to Britain, His Excellency John Hay Whitney, unveiled a monument at Saltash Passage in memory of the men of the 5th and 7th Corps who boarded their ships to go to war.
The Ambassador and his wife were accompanied on the United States Air Force Dakota from Northolt to Roborough airfield by Brigadier-General William F Train, Assistant Commander of the American 8th Infantry Division, and Brigadier-General E T Conley junior, Chief of Staff of the Seventh Corps. The American Military Attaché, Brigadier-General William H Hennig, and his wife, and the American Consul at Southampton, Mr James F Grady and his wife, joined them at Plymouth. Nobody who had taken part in thee embarkation was present. After a short speech by the Lord Mayor of Plymouth, Alderman Leslie F Paul, two pupils of the St Budeaux Foundation School, Miss Vivienne Mills and Miss Rhona Wilson, presented bouquets to Mrs Whitney and the Lady Mayoress. The memorial was then dedicated by the Vicar of St Budeaux, the Reverend Prebendary J T T Browne. The memorial itself was designed by Mr J Paton Watson, the City Engineer, and comprises five granite slabs between 10 and feet tall salvaged from the Blitzed streets of Plymouth. After a private dinner at the Duke of Cornwall Hotel, the American guests went off to a reception at the City Museum and Art Gallery and the following day visited the factories of Messrs Brown and Sharpe Ltd, machine tool manufacturers, and Messrs C & J Clark td, shoemakers. Sources:
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