Many people know that during the Second World War, Marlborough Common was the site for a major American army hospital – the ‘347th Hospital Station’. But details of its story and its impact on a present-day planning application are still coming to light.
At issue is the use made by American forces not just of the Common, but more especially of the water meadows between the A346 and the River Og – land that was, seventy years later, to be used to replace the play lost to the planned housing development on amenity land off Rabley Wood View. [See report: the development has been voted down.]
This is now being revealed thanks to some startling and detailed research work by nearby resident Dr Paul Cooper and his wife Elizabeth. They have discovered proof that soldiers leaving the U.S. hospital underwent a ‘live fire test’ to see if they were fit enough to return to the front line.
The suitability of the water meadows for a play area had been challenged on many grounds – including their previous military use as a firing range. This issue came to the fore when a local metal detector came upon an unexploded grenade in September 2014.
As Marlborough News Online reported, his find necessitated a visit from the bomb squad, the temporary closure of the A346 and a considerable shock for nearby golfers when the grenade was detonated.
Dr Cooper’s research has found documents detailing the number of mortars and grenades fired onto the water meadows and, once the war was over, the warning from a departing US Army officer that the land should never be disturbed as they had been unable to clear all the unexploded ordnance.
He has talked to a 95-year-old veteran who was an officer at the Marlborough Common hospital and he has gathered together a mass of other evidence showing how much unexploded ordnance may lie beneath the meadow’s grass – and not just ordnance but some probably still lethal waste as well.
The hospital was one of the main destinations for wounded men being brought back from France to Southampton and travelling north by rail – Marlborough was then well connected to the rail system.
All armies like to count things. Now research by the head historian of the US Army Medical Department reveals the hospital had 1,250 beds housed in 700 wooden buildings and 450 tents – and treated 55,000 men. Of those men 10,500 returned to active front line services, 15,000 were made fit for other support service and 27,000 were sent home. Further research is needed to discover what happened to the other 2,500 soldiers who were treated at the hospital.
The hospital had nineteen operating tables, used 280 tons of bandages and 120,500 pints of blood. It got through 200 Dodge ambulances, 50 supply lorries and 20 jeeps.
Less precise is the U.S. Army’s estimate that 20 per cent of ordinance fired into the River Og water meadows did not explode.
347th Hospital Station’s main role was to get as many men as possible fit enough to go back to the front line. Every Thursday men discharged from their hospital bed had to take tests – ‘trial by live fire’ – to see whether they could fight again. This involved firing live ammunition: rifles, heavy and light machine guns, heavy and light mortars, bazookas, M1 carbines, and other anti-tank ordnance.
It also involved throwing grenades and using ‘mining and demolition kits’. All this ordnance came from the Americans’ enormous ammunition dump handily close by in Savernake Forest.
The list of ordnance in use by hospital’s ‘re-training’ officers also included 70 M15 phosphorus grenades: “Discontinued due to misfires and duds”.
Why Thursdays? It gave enough time for those only fit enough to be sent back to the USA to travel up to Liverpool to catch the next scheduled ship home. Several local people have commented on the fact that wartime Thursdays were very noisy for residents in the north and east of Marlborough.
Dr Cooper has found an amazing document detailing over a three month period in 1944 how many heavy and light mortars and grenades were used in those Thursday tests – and how many were recorded as still ‘To be cleared.’ There is also a map drawn up by the US Army Medical Corps showing where heavy mortars had fallen – they fell on a surprisingly wide area of the water meadows.
The maps also showed the refuse pits that were used by the US Army on the water meadows. There is evidence that these hold up to four X-Ray machines (offered to the local hospital, but not compatible to UK voltage), body parts and possibly thousands of doses of pretty unpleasant (pre-penicillin) drugs used in the treatment of syphilis.
When the Americans were packing up and leaving who knows what else was tipped into these pits – including perhaps those phosphorus grenades.
The detail this research has revealed is impressive – and the first hand testimony of survivors has helped explain some of the documents and filled in the context of what happened on the River Og water meadows during the Second World War.
Perhaps most germane to the current controversy surrounding the water meadows is a draft letter from Major Leslie Saunders (address: Executive Officer, 347th Hospital Station, Marlborough Common) to Colonel R.W.Awdry (then Chairman of Wiltshire County Council.)
Saunders tells Awdry that “United States Army tenure of Marlborough Common and 500 acres of nearby land will cease and shall be handed back to the County of Wiltshire at 00:00 hours on Monday 12th June 1945.” It is a lengthy letter and ends:
“We have used various types of ordnance during our practice sessions some of which is still, regretfully, in situ despite our endeavours to clear the unexploded ordnance from the ground. The officer in charge of the clearance has told me that the combination of surface water, deep mud and marshy ground has meant that some projectiles are buried too deeply to be adequately cleared.”
He says that a strip of land 50 to 75 yards either side of the footpath is ‘as far as we can ascertain…free from both explosives, spent ammunition and shrapnel’.
He goes on: “However I would impress upon you that, unless further specialised explosives clearance is to be carried out, the area of land mentioned should not be disturbed in any way.” He recommends that the landowner and any future landowner should be made aware of this caveat – and that his letter and his map should be put with the land’s records held by the county.
Less information is known about the Royal Flying Corps use of the water meadows in the First World War. But a document in the Imperial War Museum says the RFC dropped ‘bomblets’ on the water meadows.
With grateful thanks to Elizabeth and Paul Cooper.