Groveley Wood - USAAF MD

[PETERTHEEATER]

Groveley Wood in Wiltshire was an RAF Reserve Ammunition Depot from 1941 to 1942 when it was transferred to the USAAF who used it from 1942 through 1949.

http://wtp2.appspot.com/wheresthepat...z=15&oz=7&gt=1

The railhead was at Wylye to the northwest and this image was found in the NARA collection. The name in the caption is mispelled.

Good idea getting the British pongoes to do the humping!

[P Bellamy]

Nice find Peter,

Apart from the standard AM latrine in shot, what is interesting is the use of Studebaker 6x6 trucks.
The majority of these were supplied to the UK and USSR under Lend-Lease, very few were directly used by the US Army.

Close examination of the foremost truck shows a possible X-prefix to the serial number. This is usually seen on former British lend-lease vehicles transferred to the US Army, so would make sense.

The bumper code SOS-751-Q-TRK indicates a vehicle of the 751st Quartermaster Truck Company, Services of Supply.
This unit was stationed at Wylye at the time of the photo, moving to the depot at Kingham by September 1943.
The 751st was a "colored unit", so I'd suggest the majority of the personnel in the photo are American rather then Pioneer Corps as captioned, especially as they are wearing US uniforms.

All the best,
PB

[PETERTHEEATER]

I agree. It seemed to me that the personnel in the photo were wearing US fatigues rather than British Army uniform.

Due to overloading of the Wylye railhead, especially during the run-up to D-Day - a temporary rail-head was set up at Great Wishford to the east.

[P Bellamy]

Mods, would it be possible to split this thread at my 5th December photo post and start a general "USAAF ordnance railheads" type thread? PB

Off topic posts moved HERE

[pzelus]

Thank you Peter for your 27-2-2010 post of the photo of the crane operating in Groveley Wood. I am a new member and will introduce myself with more details in the "New Member" forum later today. My father Robert J. Zelus served in the 8th USAAF in SW England 1942-September 1943 and operated a crane like the one pictured, but I am not sure of his exact BADA location. At the time he was a T/Sgt in charge of the disposal and repair of the larger bombs. I suspect it was Groveley Wood, as I have another newspaper article (Chicago Sun, April 13, 1943) that refers to the site as "Little Chicago" due to the large number of Chicago boys who were serving there. Thanks for posting this meaningful photo. I am hoping that the AIEx forums can help me in my research. My father's CO was Col. Ray Bell, listed in 1945 discharge papers as Lt. Col, Ordnance Dept., Chief, Ordnance Section, Headquarters, 9th Base Air Depot Area, AAF 389, APO 744, US Army.