The Wilmington morning star. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1909-1990, 1945-10-22
Miss Am orleans
p, ANNE o,HARE MCCORMICK

Rv ANNE O'HARE MCCORMICK
Observation-Disclosures were times in the
war when the American population exceeded
the British in some districts in East Anglia.
In training bases and nearly 200 bomber sta
tions scattered over the flat field of the East
ern counties, great stretches OF winch are as
far below sea level as Holland, upward OF AGO.
600 Americans were quartered between 1942
and 1914.
Some will never 90 home At Madingly, two
miles from Cambridge, $500 lie ourieo. row
on row of the white crosses are planteo IN
green turf as soft and thick as tu1tea CARPET
Edges of late blooming roses frame 'fle plots
and there is nothing lovelier in England than
the surrounding countryside. The young war.
riors who died here rest in scene OF great
neace. In the soft sunlight yesterday one
looked across a garden of golden woods and
emerald meadows to the CLINT OF the cam,
the spires of the old colleges and lar IN the
distance the tower of Ely Cathedral lightly
etched on the pale blue sky.
Near bv is Granchester innmortalized by
Rupert Brooke, the young poet VINO fell at
Gallipoli and made Forever England the
ground where English heroes rest. So this bit
of England is forever America. The names
mn the crosses, seldom of British origin, trace
the characteristic inscription of America,
alien in it's strange blend of bloods and culture
and vet as natural of this landscape as if
England were the mother country OF them all.
II is fitting that this cemetery should be
located in the shadow Of Cambridge, next
to Edinburgh the favorite rest center OF the
American soldiers stationed in the British
Isles until We Day. The Eighth Air Force was
based in the country between here and the
coast because this section is fatter, less
densely populated and nearer to Germany
than any other part of England. 1t is old land
and mostly farming land, set in its ways and
more remote from American ways than the
industrial Midlands or the London suburbs.
Probably there is no better place to observe
the effects of the American invasion on British
life and speculate on its long-range influence
on the relations between two peoples far more
different than they are alike and far more
interdependent in the "reconversion'' of the
world to peace than they were in the simpler
| crises of the war.
| Not all the American servicemen have gone
home Cambridge is beginning its first normal
years since the war but there is nothing nor
NAL in the odd conglomeration of students to
be seen porting over notebooks in the famous
backs of Kings, Trinity, Queens and other
historical colleges on the banks of the Cam.
They comprise men in uniform and men in
gowns boys of II and old young men Of q
resuming where they left off six years ago,
and 144 American soldiers, some as full
students, others as specials. Besides these
about 1900 Americans are taking ION the job
courses for three or four weeks In English
business and professional form.
The idea behind the latter project, explain.
ed the officer directing the work from Red
Cross headquarters in the Old Bull hotel, is not
primarily to give officers and men something
useful to do while they are waiting to 60 home
It is to provide an opportunity for English.
men and Americans in the same line OF
work to exchange ideas and learn one an.
others methods.
| As an essay in promoting understanding
however, these contacts either with uni
versities or business firms are only small
postscript to the impression made on this
country by the vast American armies camp
ed here during the hardest years in British
history.
They made terrific impact on British life
No American who follows the track of the in
cursion can fail to see the after-effects. No
thoughtful Englishman denies them. "Noth-
ing quite like it has happened to us since the
Norman invasion" remarked British officer
who had iaison job between British and
American forces.
He went on to predict that the result Of the
experience would be more perceptible when
the excitements and irritations Of the war
had died down.
''When the poignant inconsistencies they sui.
fered in this strange, uncomfortable land is
cured the Americans will forget what they did
not like in nostalgia to see the old country
again. The British already forgetting
what they disliked in the American
Certainly the latter statement is true. In
Cambridge and the East Anglican towns from
Norwich to Yarmouth, where our airmen and
CPS were most in evidence, people will tell
you with sigh that they miss the Americans
and miss them, it seems, for the very quail.
ties that annoyed them when they swarmed
over the countryside with their full pockets,
their free and easy ways, tall tales and in
vidious comparisons of local amenities with
things ''back home.''
''The Americans we're ferment in England.
) They helped churn up already active currents
! of discomfort. They corrupted the language
with American slang and jeered at the British
equivalent. They introduced 1--WE, pumpkin
pie, Mothers Day and chewing gum.
''They were also useful around the house
and wonderful with children. They broke down
British reserve and made lasting friends AND
when they dug deep enough below the SUI
perficial differences they found fundamental
: likenesses What I discovered in three years