Americans suddenly arrived in Salisbury
Memories of the arrival of Americans in Salisbury, collected during our Roaming D-day archive sessions at the hospital, commemorating the 75th anniversary of the D-day landings in 2019.
‘I was here before Odstock Hospital. I remember the GIs, they had money. We had chickens. At one point my husband was driving an ambulance for the Yanks. He even went as far as Swindon.’
‘I was a landgirl I loved it, anything to keep me outside… I remember them being around (the Americans), they were exciting. I went on the buses as a conductor too.’
‘I remember the Americans were all over the steps, the terraces in Tisbury and of course all the children were buzzing around and they gave us chocolate, we’d never seen the like before. My mother was furious, Americans were still strangers.’
‘We were used to the Americans being around. But I really remember when they went. All of a sudden, the town would be silent, it was eerie. You had no notice, they just went.’
‘They would never have thought in a million years that they would be remembered would they? And they should be. Look at those smiling faces. How extraordinary to see those images, to think of these men.’
