The Americans in Kington

On this page you can learn about:

The US hospital building programme
Americans and local people
Local employment
Entertainment and Social life
Race Relations

The US Hospital Building Programme

In the early stages of the war in Europe, the US Chief Surgeon General calculated that 90,000 wounded would result from the forthcoming European campaigns. In 1943 a massive hospital building programme began across England and Wales to prepare for US battle casualties.

The Americans planned to build 116 hospitals; suitable sites would need to be close to water, gas and sewerage facilities and be within easy reach of roads and railways. Hospitals were to be organized into a cluster known as a Hospital Center. General hospitals would treat troops wounded in battle in Europe, station hospitals would serve the needs of troops training in the UK, and convalescent hospitals would take patients from both types of hospital.

107th and 122nd 1944 Seven Hospital Centers were planned for the UK and one of the largest was the 12th Hospital Center with headquarters at Great Malvern in Worcestershire. By September 1944, the Malvern Center had 19 hospitals under its administration, including the 107th and the 122nd at Kington.

The hospitals were built under the lend-lease system, a US Federal Government programme which provided the Allies with much needed supplies at a time when local economies were stretched to the limit. Lend lease was a critical factor in eventual Allied success – between $14 and $20 billion was poured into the UK alone, with minimal monetary repayment.

Wikipedia entry for lend lease

The Kington Hospitals

Each of the two General Hospitals at Kington had to cater for the needs of 500 medical staff and 1500 patients, some in a critical condition, for an unknown length of time. They had to provide medical standard housing, heating, electricity, food, hot and cold water, showers and toilets, not to mention administrative buildings, operating theatres, dental clinics, rehabilitation wards, laboratories, storehouses, chapels, mess tents, mortuaries and motor pools. Constructing and maintaining the daily work of the hospitals was thus a huge logistical undertaking.

Construction and logistics

Powell and Llewellin haulage Wimpeys built the hospitals at Kington using raw materials that were mostly brought in by rail. Local companies had responsibility for local haulage, transport of construction workers and provision of local supplies, such as stone from nearby quarries used to construct the camp roads. Workers came from the local area but were also brought in from as far afield as London and Ireland. At peak times there were some 450 men working at the camp; about 100 to 150 were brought in from local villages and the rest stayed in wooden huts on site. Entertainments were provided: boxing matches were held in the Burton hotel in Kington and American liaison officers brought movies, one of which (‘Battaan’), was a UK premiere. See the poster for the film Bataan

Water Tower in 1944 Various water supplies were used, the most important being the Arrow River, which was pumped to the specially built water tower where it was filtrated and then gravity fed to the rest of the camp. The water was heated in huge boiler houses, one for each hospital. An intricate drainage system led to the sewerage facility built on Bredward Farm. The toilets afforded little privacy, they were built in rows of twenty four with no dividing partitions.

When the hospitals were completed there was an official handover ceremony attended by high ranking military officers from Britain and America. Officers of high rank were also treated at the hospitals over the subsequent few months, and at least 2 generals visited the area. Both General Patton and General Bradley came to Kington in 1944/45. Patton arrived early one morning and visited the Officers’ mess. Omar Bradley’s visit appears to have been more official and he took time to thank local people for their assistance and support.

Listen to Joan Billingham talking about Bradley
Search the database for information about hospital construction

The 693rd US Field Artillery Battalion

The hospitals at Kington were completed in early 1944 693rd and for a few months that Spring the US 693rd Field Artillery Battalion occupied the newly built 122nd Hospital. Gordon Kinder of the 693rd well remembers his arrival at Kington as part of an advance detail. He describes the hospital as ‘brand-spanking new’, the paint hardly dry and the cold in the buildings penetrating. The 693rd was, in the majority, enlisted men, with soldiers mainly from Texas, Oklahoma and Arkansas but also from many other US States. Some came from Mexico and a few were Native Americans. The battalion divided its time in the UK between housekeeping at Kington and rigorous maneuvers on the Welsh ranges and Salisbury Plain. They departed the UK at the beginning of July and landed on Utah beach on the 10th of that month before crossing Europe in the Allied advance. It is the men and equipment of the 693rd Battalion which can be seen on the May 1944 aerial photograph of Kington Camp. This is confirmed by the quintessentially American baseball diamonds that can be seen in adjacent fields.

Search the database for information about the 693rd
Listen to Gordon Kinder speak about his time at Kington

Colonel Currier McEwan While the 693rd were at Kington camp, an advance detachment of US medical staff arrived from the 1st General Hospital in North London to ready the hospital while the full medical units for both hospitals were en route from America. D-Day occurred before the medical units arrived and to the advance party’s dismay it was learned that a hospital train of wounded from the Normandy beaches was imminent—not one ward was entirely finished. The local Clerk and his men worked all night with no extra pay to have enough beds ready to receive the wounded. These people are the first US battle casualties known to arrive in Kington, being involved in one of the most significant events of World War Two.

The 107th US General Hospital

The 107th came into being when its medical unit arrived from the US Plan of 107th at the beginning of August, having crossed the Atlantic on the Mauritania from New York to Liverpool. The unit comprised 83 nurses, 54 officers, 1 Warrant Officer and 448 enlisted men. On the 18th of August the 107th officially opened and, almost immediately, 527 ambulatory patients were admitted from other hospitals in the 12th Hospital Centre. From mid-September the 107th began taking surgical cases and by the end of December had admitted 3,509 patients. As the bed capacity was little over 1400, it is clear that many cases were transferred either to convalescent hospitals, back to active duty or returned home to the US. From the available hospital records and from local testimony it appears that the severity of cases ranged from acute to less critical and there were few fatalities.

Search the database for information about the 107th

The 122nd US General Hospital

The medical unit of the 122nd had a similar personnel make up as the 107th, also totaling about 500. This unit had traveled from New York to Greenock on the Queen Mary, arriving in Kington on the 1st of August. By that time, the hospital had already received 82 patients from Normandy but it was not until the 7th of August that it officially opened, when it received a convoy of 290 sick and wounded. The hospital appears to have been at its busiest in January 1945 when 1,413 patients were being treated, the majority having been wounded in the Battle of the Bulge. This was the major German offensive against Allied lines in December and January of 1944/5 in which all sides took heavy casualties in a winter of extreme severity.

The 122nd had been constructed as Grafitti in hut of 122nd a dual purpose site as a rest camp with alternate use as a hospital. It had 36 ward buildings and a total bed capacity of 1,442, each ward able to take 40 patients and having a further 2 private rooms. Like the 107th it also had an operating theatre, X-Ray clinic, laboratories etc. One of the greatest challenges for both hospitals was obtaining the necessary parts to convert US medical equipment to the local 220 Volt electrical system.

Light aircraft brought personnel, dispatches and, presumably, some medical supplies to the camp. Military aircraft were frequently seen in the skies above Kington, including numerous gliders on training runs from nearby Shobdon airfield. These would land in the local fields and be collected by military personnel. Two fatal aircrashes occurred in the vicinity. On the 5th of July 1944, a Canadian Pilot Officer J. F. MacDonald flew from Shobdon to undertake a normal pre-towing air test. His Master 11 DM293 crashed near Park Wood. Another plane, a Thunderbolt, crashed just to the West of the camp, an incident that is recalled by Kington residents today.

After VE day, both hospitals were quickly evacuated with their personnel to be transferred to the Japanese Theatre of War. They disposed of all equipment that they could not take with them. Some was burnt, some was buried and the rest was left in a pile for local people to take what they could. Some have pointed out that supplies were much needed in Kington and good use could have been made of many items that were destroyed.

Listen to Alison Wright talking about the plane going under the washing line
Search the database for information about the 122nd

The Wounded

Herman Riesmeyer It is estimated that the two hospitals at Kington treated over 13,000 patients between June 1944 and May 1945. The majority were battle casualties but a significant proportion were medical, some suffering, for example, from frost-bite.

The wounded were brought to Kington by train most, if not all, from the US Hospital at Netley in Southampton. Hospital trains were much bigger than the usual ones to arrive at Kington, and the platform was extended to accommodate the many carriages. The trains were a source of fascination for Kington children at the time. Each train contained up to 300 soldiers and nearly always arrived at night. The wounded were then placed in Ambulances and driven to the camp.

Listen to Bill Brookes talk about the trains
Listen to Herman Riesmeyer talk about being treated in the 122nd

Local Kington people remember visiting the wounded, some with terrible injuries, and remark upon their cheerfulness and kindness. Children in a nearby farm regularly visited the soldiers, taking them flowers picked from local hedgerows. The children reminded the soldiers of ‘normality’ when they themselves were far from home, and they were upset if they had no candy to give the children in return.

Kington’s own Doctor, W. Logan Jack, frequently visited the hospitals noting in 1981 how they were lavishly equipped. He described how: “patients were put through reception and then X-rayed from head to foot. Laboratory tests were taken before patients were settled in to their wards [and] most would have received some attention at a Field Hospital”. Dr Jack observed at least one operation in which shrapnel was removed from a spinal cord.

Listen to Alison wright talk about visiting the wounded

US military wounded in battle are entitled to a Purple Heart, a heart shaped medal with a purple ribbon. If they are wounded subsequently then they are entitled to an Oak-Leaf cluster. These medals were packed at the hospitals by the American Red Cross and may have been given to patients or sent to their home addresses. Listings of the award recipients are the only record available to us of the many thousands of soldiers treated in the Kington Hospitals. Through these listings we are hoping to make contact with US veterans and learn of the experiences that brought them to this small corner of Herefordshire. Herman Riesmeyer is one such veteran. He was wounded at the Battle of the Bulge and brought to Kington in a body cast. He stayed in the orthopaedic unit for three months before returning to the US.

Read about Purple Hearts

Both the 107th and the 122nd were unusual in developing rehabilitation programmes. By the 18th of October 1944, 130 beds were available in the rehabilition barracks of the 122nd. Patients were helped to recover from injury through programmes that included physiotherapy, the gymnasium, sports and other exercise depending upon their individual needs. As part of this programme, patients were given access to an Arts and Crafts workshop organized by the Red Cross in which they could make toys and other personal articles. The toys were distributed to English children at the Christmas season and the 1944/45 children’s Christmas party is remembered by people in Kington Today.

Listen to Tony Richards talk of the Christmas party

Americans and local people

In the Second World War, Kington is thought to have had a population of little more than two to three thousand people, similar to the number who live here today. Between August 1944 and May 1945 sited on its doorstep was a satellite ‘town’ of regularly more than 3,000 American personnel and wounded. Today, therefore, many local people remember when the Americans arrived, some with extraordinary detail and clarity. People met the Americans through employment at the camp, by visiting the wounded, and through regular social events as well as the general use by the Americans of the Kington town pubs and shops.

Local people today have many memories of the time, ranging from the excitement by children at the constant traffic of military vehicles to the kindness shown by American soldiers and medical personnel, from the impact of seeing battle casualties and the bravery of the wounded to the observation of racial segregation within the US military. A poem was composed at the hospital in 1944 by the medical personnel which captures some of the elements of what has been called the ‘Friendly Invasion’. It was well-known to camp staff at the time and memorized by Barbara Thomas a Kington resident who worked at the 107th Hospital, first as a cleaner and then as a hairdresser. Due to Barbara’s incredible memory, she has dictated it to us in 2006.

Read the poem that Barbara memorized

Local employment

Both the 107th and the 122nd had local civilian employees, numbering about 50 in each. People were employed in a variety of jobs, including ward cleaners, Dorothy Powell and hospital staff switchboard operators, pump attendants, boiler attendants, stenographers, electricians and hairdressers. Some came from Kington and others were brought, in hospital vehicles, from villages within a 15 mile radius. Barbara Thomas worked at the hospital first as a ward cleaner and then as a hairdresser (her civilian profession). As a hairdresser, she was paid 8 pounds a week by the Americans (with no tax) which was a good wage in the 1940s.

Joan Billingham worked in the Laundry in Kington in 1944. Along with around 14 others they were resposible for laundry from the 107th and 122nd as well as further military laundry from Credenhill and private washing from around Kington. Joan was working when US General Omar Bradley visited Kington and came to the laundry to thank the staff for their hard work.

Listen to Joan Billingham talk about the laundry

An Officers’ Club was established in each hospital which sponsored weekly social events for the officers (doctors and nurses) to which local people were invited. Available to all personnel were movies, radio and phonograph music, and stage shows organised by the American Red Cross in the unit theatre. The Kington concert party entertained the American troops as they had the British—- although the US audience reaction to British humour was somewhat muted! Yeoman’s ran a bus service from the camp, a taxi service could be called, and with bikes hired from a firm in Kington for 10/. a night, the Americans could ride to the pubs in nearby towns.

Sports contests were held with nearby hospitals and British Army Units. Medical personnel and patients used the Kington pubs and went to dances at the Burton Hotel. Tony's silver dollar One of the enduring memories of the American presence at Kington is the many social events both at the camp and in the town. At a time of severe rationing for almost four years, the quality and variety of food offered by the Americans at these events, and often brought as gifts to Kington homes, is also clearly recalled. Spare bread was sent by the hospitals to a local poultry farm, and food waste from the hospitals was used by at least one local farmer as pig swill. American personnel and troops were welcomed by Kington families and made lasting friendships. Tony Richards, a child in 1944, recalls one American military policemen named Joe who on departure from Kington gave Tony a silver commemorative dollar for luck. Tony still has this dollar today and kept it with him when stationed with the British Army in the Far East. Some doctors and nurses got married in Kington, and their names can be found in the town marriage registers. No record has yet been found of G.I. brides.

Race Relations

While the US military brought many riches, it also brought racial segregation – a situation unknown to the British population and one that the UK government appears to have decided largely to ignore. Contemporary accounts, supported by an increasing number from Kington, show that many in Britain believed that all who were fighting for freedom in Europe should be considered equal, regardless of colour. However, the American military considered that African American troops should be treated in Britain as they were back home.The United States of America Visiting Forces Act apparently stipulated that black soldiers abroad were subject to the same restrictions as they were in the US. Segregation in the United States Armed Forces was ended shortly after the War in 1948 when President Truman signed Executive Order 9981.

African American troops were billeted in the Kington area (at Harpton Court in 1943, at Whitney Court and at nearby Eardisley) but their roles are not yet fully known. In Eardisley they were responsible for building the fuel depot. Although African American troops were treated in the Kington Camp hospitals, it is not yet known how many people were there or what battalions they served with.

For many people in Kington, these were the first African Americans they had ever met. The politeness of the black soldiers is recalled as is the racial segregation of the US army at the time, and the discrimination that they faced. Although both white and black troops were initially allowed into Kington on any night of the week, it is remembered that fights broke out between them and henceforth access to the town was restricted to designated ‘white’ and ‘black only’ nights.

Kington Camp