Saving Lives, Saving Memories

A few weeks ago, a lovely old gentleman phoned up the shop where I work, all the way from California. He'd just written a book about his wartime experiences, and wanted to know if we would stock it, as he'd spent some time in the Hay area in 1944.
We don't normally stock new books, but he had a chat with one of the managers, and was kind enough to send us a couple of copies.

The book is called Saving Lives, Saving Memories: a 19-year-old Ambulance Driver in the Wake of Patton's Army, by Jim Sanders as told to Martha Loeffler.
He talks about his training in the States, and coming across the Atlantic in the Queen Mary. Then his company were posted just outside Hay for some extra training, and to wait for the D-Day landings. He says they were staying at Camp Moor, which was the Army name for it. He doesn't remember the actual name of the castle-like big house where they were stationed, but he was told that Oliver Cromwell had lived there. (This is unlikely, as Oliver was an East Anglia man, but he might have stayed there for a bit).

He remembers that there were two companies of US soldiers stationed at opposite ends of Hay - one company was black and one was white, as the US Army was segregated in those days. The white soldiers got upset that the local girls were as happy to go out with black soldiers as they were with white ones - no racial prejudice around here in those days! - and the white soldiers started a riot because of it!

He also remembers that a local girl accused one of the white soldiers of rape, and his entire company had to line up for an identity parade along the main street (probably Broad Street?). He was quite relieved that she didn't pick out anyone from his company.

He also remembers that there were three pubs in Hay. He mentions the Blue Boar, which was being run at the time by a woman and her two daughters - both of whom later became GI Brides and went to the States to live.
I would imagine that the other two pubs were the Three Tuns and the Black Swan, as I know both of them were open during the War, though there may have been other pubs open that Jim Sanders didn't remember.

There were also, he says, a 'tea and tart shop' and a fish and chip booth - the tea shop usually ran out of food about an hour after opening, and the fish and chip shop never had many fish! There was also the cinema for entertainment.

Jim and his ambulance went over to Normandy six weeks after the D-Day landings, and followed the advancing army right across France, through Germany, and ended up in Czechoslovakia. In fact, they celebrated the end of the war in the brewery town of Pilsen! On the way, he was one of the first ambulances into Buchenwald concentration camp, and another, smaller camp.

The last chapter talks about his life after the war, back in small town California. Then, when he retired, he saw a vintage ambulance at auction which was the same model as the one he drove. He bought it, renovated it, and took it round local schools talking about his experiences. He's also been back to Europe, to attend the 50th Anniversary of the liberation of Buchenwald, and to the Normandy beaches, where he was able to find the exact location where he drove his ambulance up off the beach! He also met one of the concentration camp survivors that may have been carried in his ambulance!

It's a fascinating story, from a unique point of view, and I really enjoyed reading it.