Wartime Weekend, Barry: 70th anniversary of US troops celebrated this weekend

Friday, 15 June 2012

LIVING HISTORY • June 16-17, 2012

THE Americans are coming – and you can join them at the Wartime Weekend on Barry Waterfront and Barry Island Station this weekend, Saturday and Sunday, June 16-17. The events run from 10am-5pm on Saturday and 10am-4pm on Sunday. Barry at War Group, in partnership with Barry Tourist Railway, St Cyres School and the Vale Council, have enabled the ‘Wartime Weekend’ living history and commemorative event in Barry to be staged. The event commemorates the 70th anniversary of US troops coming to the town as part of the build up for the liberation of Europe. It features an Allied encampment at Hood Road, with Barry Island Railway Station being transformed into a civilian home front living history area, complete with appropriate themed stalls and entertainment. The weekend promises to provide the public with a fascinating glimpse of our 1940s past. Local historian and St Cyres headteacher, Dr Jonathan Hicks, told The GEM: “Scores of Allied military re-enactors will be setting up an authentic WWII American camp and staging displays. “Barry Island Station will be transformed into a 1940s station, complete with wartime police and the Home Guard, to portray the Barry Home Front. “A wartime housewife will teach people how to ‘make do and mend’, a skill so essential during wartime.” Other educational living history displays will be housed at the station, along with an exhibition on the area during the Second World War. Dr Hicks explained: “Barry Tourist Railway is providing steam train rides from the Waterfront Halt at Hood Road in Barry to Barry Island Station. “Barry Docks was a major supply port in the build up to D-Day. There will be 1940s-style live entertainment and a live radio broadcast. “The children from seven local primary schools in Barry and Penarth are to play the role of wartime evacuees. Dressed in 1940s costumes, they will board a steam train from Barry Waterfront and be ‘evacuated’ to Barry Island Station where they will be given refreshments and view the various events due to take place on Barry Island Station before being transported back to their parents.” Ade Pitman of the Barry at War Group said: “We felt as a group that it was time to recall the service of these brave men and women who came across the Atlantic to help us in our fight against Nazi Germany. “Many of them did not survive the war to return to the country of their birth. They had a huge impact on the people of the area and its economy. “We intend to have a WW2 American military convoy pass through the area on the Friday afternoon which would be an amazing sight after 70 years.”:

Copyright Tindle Newspapers Ltd Saturday, 25 May 2013