D-Day 80 The Last Veterans: Poppy Butcher
Poppy Butcher, Age 94, Schoolgirl/Dockyard worker
Interviewed 9 August 2023
A schoolgirl living near the naval base in Portland, Poppy Butcher witnessed the build up of American troops in and around Weymouth, and watched them sail off on D-Day.
The area had become a vast military camp and half a million American GIs from the 5th US Corps and US 1st Infantry boarded ships in this part of Dorset en route to Omaha Beach.
She said: "D-Day I was 15. I remember it very well. I was at school in Weymouth on the train every day and just before D-Day we were issued with passes.
"Only people with passes could come into Portland.
"Loads of Americans were there. The black Americans came first and they built the hards for the LCTs (tank landing craft) to go from. Also they widened the roads to take the heavy tanks.
"I used to meet them at dances and I was in the girls’ training corps and we used to run a canteen at weekends and they would come and have cups of tea, coffee and cakes.
"All very friendly. They taught us how to jitterbug.
"It was fun, we used to meet up and they would bring their tins of fruit and get them open and drink the juice and pick up the tins, take them home and eat the fruit.
"We had an idea (about the invasion). They weren’t allowed to talk to us about it.
"The harbour was full up of ships. They had gas lorries to put smoke to cover the harbour. I remember the day before D-Day the harbour was covered with barrage balloons. You couldn’t see a thing.
"There was a flurry of activity on the night of 5 June.
"We were up on the hill in Portland for an evening walk and then suddenly the noise came and dozens flying over.
"Gliders with the troops on. No-one was allowed in the dockyard then, only the workers. Had to people that were always there and that they knew.
"We knew they (the soldiers) had all gone. We were all worried about what was happening. When you were 15 or 16 you don’t take it in, all the bad parts."
After the invasion Mrs Butcher worked at the dockyard herself. Earlier in the war her father, a civilian worker, had been killed there during one of the earliest bombing raids on Britain.
Mulberry Harbour caissons can still be seen in Portland harbour and the story of the Americans is told at the nearby Castletown D-Day Centre.
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