TOM LONG'S POST A modern Christmas in a - Stroud District ...

Tom Long’s PostCommunity News and ViewsMoments in TimeAmericans on the Great Park - 1944Phil Berardelli was a Private, (1 st Class) in the U.S. Army, just twenty-two years old, when he arrived in Liverpool inJanuary 1944. After a brief stay he was assigned to the Headquarters Company, which commanded his regimentand looked after most of the heavy equipment and armament needed following the difficult campaigns in NorthAfrica. His Company moved south to Gloucestershire and settled down on the Great Park at Minchinhampton.In his own words: “This accounted for all the equipment, huts and tents that were scattered all around …it seemedsad to me to see such a lovely little village disrupted and desecrated, but it was wartime and it had to be done. Wewere there to reorganise and re-equip and so for the ensuing months we were kept quite busy.”There were the brighter times, however. Many of the off-duty soldiers spent a happy hour (or two!) in the Crown.A small group formed a jazz band, which was much in demand for dances, especially on Friday nights in the MarketHouse. Many individuals established friendships with local people. Most of the Roman Catholic soldiers worshippedat Woodchester, and others attended Holy Trinity or the Baptist Chapel. For Phil, there was a lifelongassociation with the Ellins family, beginning in a chance meeting with 9 year-old Geoff in Bell Lane, an invitation tosit in the jeep and a reciprocal invitation to meet Geoff’s family in West End. The friendship endured long after thewar, and culminated in a visit to Minchinhampton for Phil’s eightieth birthday celebrations.Back to 1944. “Alas, our stay in Minch. came to an end in early May and I hated to leave, but this was the army andI had no choice. After a sorrowful farewell with the good people of the village, we moved down to Cornwall, wherewe were to rehearse amphibious landings and practise gunnery on the local beaches. We were not far from St.Austell. … The day finally arrived in the first week of June, when we shipped out of Plymouth. Our destination wasUtah Beach … as an engineering unit we were part of a special brigade whose assignment included clearing thebeaches of all obstacles, defusing and removing mines, draining the marshy, wet areas, throwing down temporarygravel roads and paths for the foot soldiers and tanks and armoured vehicles and clearing areas that hinderedoperations.”The units from our Great Park were all involved in similar operations during the liberation of Europe; many U.S.soldiers did not live to see their homeland again. Those that did, and have returned in the many years since 1944,remember with fondness of the warmth and friendship of the people of Minchinhampton during the dark days ofWorld War II.Diana Wall (from reminiscences by the late Phil Berardelli)67