GI’s that were billeted in our village when I was about a year old 1943/44
They all went to Europe on the “D” Day landings, all survived the war the first to pass away was, "Bill Zanone" who died in 1957.
If anyone knows of them, or it will be their children now, this is just to say thank you and that we know how much you gave for us in England.
My sister who has gone now had photos of some of these guys, but I am not sure what happened to them, there is the odd photo, that my son has now with of one of them holding me when I was a baby.
If only I could remember them..

Bill Zanone Oakland 7th Died 1957

Bill Alexander N/K

William H Holderfield Alabama
(Have poem of his called "The Village" He wrote it on a couple of pieces of paper before he went to war, I still have the original):-

William H Holder (who was with us in 1944)

I am not sure who this man was but he will have family left in the USA but he came to see us in 1944
and then went off to war, we know he survived but as all things he is remembered for this time with us
and the pieces of paper he wrote a poem for us on.

During the 1940′s we lived in a small village called Hawkeridge,
It was a time of War
To our village came seven American GI’s,
They were treated as part of our own families.
The next place they were going was to invade Europe.
We still have a few Photos of them holding us as babies,
As I find their names, or all of their names on a list I have, I will post it as a memory,of the things they did for us,and you at home there in the USA.
Out of the seven or so that we knew, they all made it through the landings and fighting after,
I found out that the first to pass over was in 1957, his name was "Bill Zanone, but he had a bad time of it, and had shell shock, later I will put their names on something, for you all out there to read.

I feel it is very important that they are remembered,
but me as a baby then, how to turn the clock back to say thank you for what they all did.
Bill Holder, was one of your soldiers (GI) and this is a piece of writing that he did, and I kept it all these years, I have had to laminate it now,
as it was falling to bits from being looked at and moved around.

William Holder was from Alabama, so I guess that he missed you all out there, and also thought he would miss our simple life as he kept calling it, when he went off to war in June 1944.
Then returned to Alabama..Bless him..
This is as he wrote it, and I just copied from the original.

There’s a place I know off the main highway
A place that is happy and gay
A place where I’d like to rest myself
At the close of a weary day.

It’s a simple life that’s plain
It’s a life serene and true
It’s a simple life with our mankind
A life of pleasure with you

In a village that nestles close to the earth
And turns it’s face to the sky
A place of merit, the place of our birth
A place for you and I

A simple life, of love and health
No smoke to darken our sky
Where happiness takes the place of wealth
Together you and I

Where the land is the life, aglow and warm
To toil it is needed and sure
Through the summers heat, and the winters storm
A life that is pleasant and secure

The folks of the cities know nothing of this
Theirs is a world of their own
No life of serenity, happiness, bliss,
A life they've never known

But the plain simple folk have nothing to add
To the life that is theirs alone
They maybe happy they may be sad
But no other life they’d own

So with the simple folk of these villages,
And a life, that is good and true
We can live side by side together
Simply just plain me and you

with the sun sinking in the evening sky
We can stand in the door of our home
We can look at the view and maybe sigh
And remember the life that is gone

To the people who love the country
I have only this to say
It’s here that I'm really happy
And it’s here I hope to stay

Finis
W.H.H.
(GI — William H Holder)

Irwin Hatze Hillcamp ???
Carl Hubler Ohio
Larry Kempsey Georgia
Vernon Casagrain Montana

I have found the poem but other than their names and the information above I know very little, Yours Ian.T