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Butlers Farm is located between
Bakers Hall and the Colne Road.
Nurses Wood was once a remnant
of the oak forests that spread across East Anglia.
A concrete loop road can be seen
to the south of the farm.
During the war years this loop
road was well inside the boundary of Nurses Wood. sadly torn down
during 1947 in order to increase food production.
Butlers Farm and the existing Huts are PRIVATE PROPERTY.
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Two of the original huts, still
standing in perfect condition 2007
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This text was derived from an
interview with Mrs "Busky" Laurie, who lived at the
farm during the war.
The day war broke out in 1939, Arthur Beaumont from the local
Bures Radio Shop came and installed a radio. Mrs Laurie snr was
furious, as she thought it would contaminate her childrens mind.
However, Mr Laurie ruled the day and it was left working.
The first sacrifice of war came
early in the autumn. A cavalry remount officer called at the house
one day when Father was out, and demanded to see any horses we
had. I took him across the meadow to where they were grazing several
small ponies, my 15-hand mare Gene and Booter the thoroughbred
were also in the field.
The uniformed visitor cast a cold, experienced eye over the horses.
He was only interested in Booter. He then drove away.
Soon fathers treasured mount was taken away. We heard later that
he had been shipped out to Palestine, and we never saw him again.
During 1942 or `43 the Americans
arrived and with no consultation whatsoever with my parents, took
over the task of building roads and clearing the wood ready for
the import of munitions. My mother was furious, she even tried
to stop the diggers tearing up the land, unfortunately nobody
took any notice of her pleas.
It was mainly Negro servicemen who
constructed the roads. On very hot days the "Negro"
labourers would queue up at Butlers Farm for a drink of water,
The farm worker used to man the pump in order to supply enough
water. Sometimes, they secretly left "oranges" to say
thankyou.
Some of them would stand their open mouthed looking at the barn
roof. They had never seen a Thatched roof before
Busky Laurie, recalls on the 6th
Feb 1944 (diary entry) she saw her very first coloured gentleman.
She was out riding in the wood one day when she came across a
parked American lorry. All she could see was a pair of white eyes
staring out of the cab window.
Once the roads were layed, the
bombs and boxes of ammunition arrived. Large 2000lb bombs stored
everywhere and checked every hour by USAAF personnel on a jeep.
Nurses wood full of bombs mainly incendiaries. The dense wood
provided excellent camouflage
Nurses Wood was taken over. The
military saw it as the ideal site for the storage of ammunition,
providing perfect camouflage against detection from the air. So
it was linked up with a wide network of roadside and woodland
dumping grounds.
The GI of the United States Army
Airforce arrived in droves. First they laid a concrete roadway
well inside its boundary of Nurses Wood. Then they unloaded great
stacks of khaki- coloured bombs and mountains of brown ammunition
crates at intervals along the roadway on widened bomb bays.
For the rest of the war the wood was occupied territory, patrolled
day and night by soldiers in jeeps. Army trucks bore loads of
ammunition away to the nearby airfields and as constantly returned
to replenish the stocks. A great mountain of scrap rose up near
the sawdust pond -metal bands, boxes and cans. We got used to
the wolf whistles from passing trucks, and to thirsty Yanks knocking
at the back door asking for water to fill their billy cans.
Cranes used to work mainly at night
loading the munitions onto trucks which were the transported to
the local airfields.
"Security Pass" required
to get to farm, shown at the Ferriers corner Guard Post.
"Busky" Laurie used to
ride her pony around the farm and sometimes a Sgt
Leonard Hartman would ride the animal. He also brought
oranges to the house for the family.
Searchlight on the corner of the
Pebmarsh Road had a nameplate "Wisteria Cottage"
Residents at the farm often used
to hear bombs drop. The Germans were guided to Bures by the Stoke
by Nayland Church. This was confirmed by Lord Haw Haw (William
Joyce) on the radio one day.
Mary Laurie aged 20 worked at the
121st station hospital of the USAAF in Braintree. She would cycle
to White Colne and get a bus to Halstead and a further bus to
Braintree. This was an arduous journey for a young girl considering
the blackout and the lack of reliable transport during the war
years.
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All the bombs that arrived
had their percussion caps removed to prevent accidental firing.
The percussion cap was replaced with a "dummy" metal cap
(left)
These are still found on the land in 2007, when cultivating. |
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During 2007. the current landowner
discovered writing in one of the concrete roads presumably made
with a stick or someone's finger. Although now heavily worn, they
have been highlighted by chalk and now read:
HORACE
WASHINGTON
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PAVED BY 3 PLATOON
CO "F" 1330 ENG RMT
FEB - MAR 45
This was confirmed
by the USAAF as being authentic.(see further foot of page)
"1330" has been found elsewhere in the immediate
vicinity.
Company "F" of the 1330th Engineer General Service Regiment
(Coloured) arrived in the
UK on 7 January 1945
1330th, Engineer
General Service Regiments- redesignated as battalions at Camp
Clairborne, Louisiana.
The 1330th, were also staged at Camp Shanks, New York
.
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The concrete loop road is still
clearly visible in 2007.
This would have completely encircled
Nurses Wood which housed mainly Incendiary Bombs. These would
have been well hidden from the eyes of the Luftwaffe.
The wood was described in 1940 as:-
a typical oak wood, with
a lot of hazel throughout , ash, elm, lime, elder, willow and
maple, and a belt of wild cherry near the garden. Undergrowth
consisted mainly of bramble of a species that bore particularly
luscious fruit; so abundant that for several years before the
war groups of pickers were recruited and the blackberries were
sent by rail to Covent Garden.
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Blackthorn flourished in some
areas, and there was plenty of honeysuckle, both pink and white
wild roses, and some rarer shrubs - guelder rose, spindle-berry
with its psychedelic pink and scarlet flowers, and, in one particular
area? wild barberry.
There was also some broom, a glory
of deep, burnished gold in its season.
There was a great variety of wild flowers in addition to the ubiquitous
primroses; violets and celandines, masses of bluebells, early purple
orchids, wild strawberries, delicate harebells, bugle, mauve cuckoo
flower, pink and white campions, ragged robin, dogs mercury and
deadly nightshade. In the clearings there was lots of purple willow
herb, and teazle grew in-one spot near to top hollow. Once we found
a foxglove. |
10/06/07 Alan Beales
Acknowledgment to Mrs Busky Laurie
and Mr & Mrs Roberts, current owners of Butlers Farm.
General Information on
1330 ENG RMT
Departed New York 26 Dec 1944 and arrived
England 7 Jan 45. They then went to France 23 Mar 45 and departed on
10 Jul 1945 subsequently landing on Okinawa 16 Aug 45.
This was an "US Army" Regiment, nothing to do with the USAAF.
Engineer General Service Regiments
did more or less what ever was needed doing, except direct combat.
The US Army was strictly segregated and most blacks were relegated to
these types of service units. They provided manual labor for construction
projects, stevedore duties, transport, camp details, quartermaster labor
details - backbreaking work. Over 20 such formations were in existence
and nearly every one was staffed by blacks.
The Engineer Combat Regiments,
which were universally white, were broken up into battalion sized units
during the war and parceled out where and when needed to assist in combat
areas in traditional engineer roles.
The General Service Regiments
were a small cog in a big machine that probably garnered no fame or
glory. It consisted of men who gave of their time and effort, which
is a precious commodity. They very likely went home thinking they did
nothing more than dig latrines or keep a rear area road smooth, but
they did more than that. They helped win a war.
I salute them for that.
Courtesy of Jeff Rogers, USA,
World War 2 Forum
1324,1325,1326,1327,1329,1330
and 1331 Engineeer Service Regiments, re-designated as Battalions were
located at Camp
Clairborne, Louisiana
Extract from Book "African Americans at War" by Jonathon
Sutherland
UPDATE 6th June 2014
Information on the two names etched into the concrete roadaway
Link
Acknowledgment to Donna Goldbach, researcher based
in the USA
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