REGARDING your "Looking Back" article (LET, February 22) about the American troops stationed in Blackburn during the war, I worked in Brookhouse Mills where they were billeted - at a small department of Truman's brewers.
I organised deals with Yankee soldiers of beer for cigarettes, food and "P.X." rations. And a roaring trade flourished. We went short of nothing. US jeeps were to be seen outside many a house during Sunday lunch in and around the Larkhill area - the grub being provided by the Yanks of course.
A Master Sergeant became a friend and, many years later, I met him in Norfolk when on a course at US Army camp.
He was then a colonel. He told me that most of the unit lost their lives on the beaches of Normandy.
Yes, Blackburn was booming in the days of the US Army's "Occupation" and the Yanks were sadly missed when they departed.
MAURICE McHUGH, Marlowe Crescent, Great Harwood.
Converted for the new archive on 14 July 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.
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