Secret files detailing the presence of US Marines in Londonderry during the Second World War have been recently declassified. They include pictures, files and documents pertaining to June 12, 1941
Examples include: contracts signed in Washington for construction of Naval Operating Base at Ardmore.
History at a glance:
June 30, 1941 — 362 civilian technicians arrive in Derry.
August 1, 1941 — US Navy Civil Engineering Corps begin construction work.
December 7, 1941 — Pearl Harbor attacks.
January 26, 1942 — 4,508 soldiers from 34th Infantry Regiment docked in Belfast.
February 5, 1942 — Naval Operating Base in Derry formally commissioned.
More than 5,000 US government documents are to be stored in a new museum in the Beech Hill House Hotel as part of a new project detailing the history of the Marines in Ireland.
NEW INSIGHTS ON HISTORY
It has emerged that the first American armed forces personnel arrived in Belfast not in 1942 as was traditionally held, but in Derry, to prepare the base at Ardmore in August 1941 — four months before Pearl Harbor was attacked.
American Deputy Consul General to Northern Ireland, Kevin Roland, was among those attending the launch of the event on November 2, 2011. The archive is at the Derry Museum...
"The historical importance of these documents cannot be under scored", said retired U.S. Marine Corp Major Ted Johnson of Charlotte, N.C. "This is an incredible find", he said.
Unfortunately, not all the documents are available online, said a museum spokesperson.
A fascinating and revealing look into the lives and activities of U.S. Marines in Ireland during the war years. for more information see Free Derry Museum, Northern Ireland. The Museum of Free Derry focuses on the civil rights campaign which emerged in the 1960s and the Free Derry/early Troubles period of the early 1970s. It tells the people’s story of the civil rights movement, the Battle of the Bogside, Internment, Free Derry and Bloody Sunday.
The museum has an archive of over 25,000 individual items relating to this period in the city’s history. Most items with immense historical significance were donated by local residents (http://www.discovernorthernireland.com/Museum-of-Free-Derry-Londonderry-Derry-P9718).
Robert Tilford
Charlotte, N.C.
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