Marbury Hall US Army Camp Cheshire England

I am a UK local historian researching the history of Marbury Hall Camp Cheshire England 1940-1948. It was originally a park into which over 3800 troops were put after Dunkirk, then built as a hutted camp for British battalions and so would house about 1000. The camp then became the home of US Army troops July (?) 1942 until December (?) 1942 as a camp housing either Army troops prior to Operation Torch, the North Africa, or as part of the USAAF 8th Air Force build up. Most of Cheshire army camps seem to have been handed over to US forces at this time according to British records, but I do not know who.

Cheshire had several camps which could have been used for US storage, transit or as unit barracks. Most of them were in easy reach of Liverpool, which, with Glasgow was one of the two large ports that could be used more safely than those in the south by troopships. In the 1940’s roads and railroads south from Liverpool to major southern troop areas passed close to the Cheshire camps, so it was a handy location which to move large numbers of men, material and supplies rapidly away from clogged and high value Luftwaffe target ports.

In 1943-4 after the start of a major expansion as part of the Bolero plan, the camp could house 2600 in huts and 2400 in tents. The first known unit was company E, 2nd battalion 390th Engineer General Service Regiment, who helped expand the camp, followed by part of 313 Regiment 79th Division, VIII Corps HQ staff, secret signals units and unknown tank units using the camp as a transit camp. A 15 page description is in the link. http://foam.merseyforest.org.uk/wp-...10/Section-5-Second-World-War-years-rev61.pdf

The aim of the research is to put in the public domain the stories of the British, Italian, American, Polish and German soldiers or later prisoners that lived in our community. I cannot get to the United States to work in your archives, hence me asking your help..

Please, does anyone have information, dates and or references about any US unit that was based at or used Marbury, especially in 1942, ahead of Torch. Any further information on the period 1943-1944 would be helpful, such as General Troy Middleton’s time in Cheshire 1944 and did George Patton visit Marbury? His pre D Day FUSAG HQ was only 10 miles away. Thank you in advance for considering this.

 

Welcome to the forums!

 

I am beginning to suspect that it's possible that elements of the 1st Armored Division were in Cheshire after they moved from Northern Ireland to England in the fall of 1942, prior to loading for the Torch landings in November in North Africa. Are there any 1st Armored Division historianns out there who could confirm or not the 1st Armored were in Cheshire and possibly where please?
The reason for my belief is that in 1944 before D-Day US divisions tended to be grouped together geographically as much as possible in Britain. The one component battalion of the 1st that was definitely in Cheshire in 1942 was 47th Armored Medical Battalion | WW2 US Medical Research Centre

Can anyone help? Thank you

 

You should try our sister forum- WW2Talk
It's more UK-oriented.

 

Thanks Gordon. I do post on that site. This is a hope that there is a First Armored Division historian out there who has the information at his or her fingertips. I have used UK National Archives records but cannot get any answer there.