During 1944 the 51st, 191st & the 296th battalions of the US Army Corps of Engineers totaling about 2500 men arrived at Highnam Court for final training in preparation for the invasion of Normandy.
Many of the men were from New England & initial training had taken place in the US. In October 1943 the men, some not long out of high school, were herded on to the troop ship Santa Elena at Boston and headed for Liverpool. They were equipped with bunks stacked six high and had to share them in rotation. The journey took eleven days in U-boat infested waters and many of the men were sea sick for the whole of the journey.
After about three months in England at other camps the men were sent to Highnam Court, Gloucester for final intensive training where they were billeted on the parkland in eight man tents. The officers slept in the big house. They had their own tented hospital and Catholic church.
While at Highnam in addition to rifle and gunnery practice they were taught how to lay and clear mines, handle explosives, lay booby traps and build bridges; one soldier was killed when a mine exploded during these exercises. Long marches and night exercises in the local countryside were the norm and sometimes training took place in surrounding woods including Newent woods.
For recreation, boxing matches were organized and Tommy Farr came over from Wales to umpire. There were also softball and baseball teams. Passes were issued into Gloucester where the men had dates with local girls. Barbara Taylor of Newent who was living at Highnam at that time well remembers the dances that were held at Highnam Village Hall where the girls were outnumbered by the US soldiers by about ten to one! In May 1944 some of the personnel took part in “Salute the Soldier Week” at Newent and took part in sports, tug of war and gave a demonstration baseball game to the enjoyment of the locals.
US soldier Robert Williams who was 21 years old and from Hartford, Connecticut says:
“When we were in England at Highnam Court, I attended the Anglican Church, which happened to be on the grounds of Highnam Court. It was known as Highnam Court Cathedral, and I would meet people at church on Sundays. I was very fortunate in going out to dinner with English families. I was able to meet a few English people and getting to know them was very enjoyable”.
Sebastian Labella of the US 296th Engineers Combat Battalion writes:
in January, we went to an estate outside Gloucester, called Highnam Court and this is where they fine tuned our training, We worked with live mines, we worked with building bridges. Sometimes we went into Gloucester in the evenings and this is where we found a little pub. They taught us how to drink beer, you know, the British way, you sip beer, you don’t gulp it, And in the tavern they had a four-lane bowling alley. It looks like candle pin, they call it skittles. We’d do that once in a while. And on June 10th 1944, the day before my birthday, one of the women said, “Sit here.” I sat with her a while and she was teary-eyed. And finally, she took my hand and said, “We’ll never see you again.” I said, “Oh, sure. Tomorrow’s my birthday, we have to celebrate my birthday.” She said, “No, you’re going to celebrate your birthday on a ship going to France.” I said, “No, no,.” And not much after that we hear the MPs saying, “Everyone back.” And that night we were on way to Southampton, on the LSTs and off we went. And on June 12th, we landed on Omaha Beach.
The men were fortunate that they were not sent with the initial wave who landed on Omaha beach on D Day June 6th 1944 and who suffered unimaginable slaughter.
Some of the Highnam men left for Southampton on June 12th 1944 and then on to Normandy where they landed on Omaha Beach.. The Engineers’ main task was to clear mines, repair roads and bridges to keep the fighting units moving forward. They often had to operate under enemy fire.
They were involved in ferocious Battle of the Bulge, which was Hitler’s last stand and in the Ardennes they suffered one of the coldest winters in living memory . They witnessed the horrors of Buchenwald Concentration camp and were the first US soldiers to arrive in Berlin.