Budleigh Past and Present

Commander in Chief of the Allied forces General Dwight D. Eisenhower. Image credit: www.dodmedia.osd.mil When the USA came into WW2 to fight against the Axis dictators Devon was an obvious place for Allied forces to rehearse the invasion of Normandy. The county is justly proud of its hedgerows. It has more of them than any other region in England, just like the landscape of tiny enclosed fields and sunken lanes which make up what is known as ‘le bocage’ in that part of northern France. It seems that some of the Allied generals underestimated the difficulty that cumbersome tanks would face in such a landscape. Historians of WW2 often refer to the frustrating and deadly months of June and July 1944 as ‘The War of the Hedgerows’. So many Allied soldiers lost their lives to German snipers at that time.    Sheplegh Court, near Blackawton in South Devon But Devon was also, it seems, an ideal base for the generals to plan D Day while hidden away in the county’s seclu...

Continued from 25 Sept 1942 -   A tragic accident at Dalditch Camp: LIEUTENANT JAMES AYERS BAYLEY (1918-42)      https://budleighpastandpresent.blogspot.com/2020/10/ww2-75-tragic-accident-at-dalditch-camp.html         El Alamein War Cemetery.  Image credit: Commonwealth War Graves Commission Charles’ name does not appear on Budleigh Salterton’s War Memorial, but the Commonwealth War Graves Commission records tell us that he was the husband of ‘G. E. Holmes, of Budleigh Salterton’ and that he is commemorated in the El Alamein War Cemetery.   Image credit: www.warmemorialsonline.org He is also listed on Otterton's War Memorial. Thanks to the kindness of Otterton resident Jane Bennett I was able to incorporate information from her book Otterton Remembers , published in 2018. The book gives detailed biographies of Otterton men whose names are listed on the village war memorial: 16 from World War One and seven from World...