For the 2013 season the museum has an exhibition of photographs and memorabilia to commemorate the arrival of 29th Infantry Division of the US Army in Tavistock seventy years ago.
The exhibition is being organised by Peter Gallie.

For a brief period from about May 1943 until early June 1944 the American soldiers of the 29th Infantry Division of the US Army were based and trained in Devon and Cornwall prior to the invasion of mainland Europe. During their stay many of the soldiers made friends with local people and are fondly remembered by many older residents who were children at the time.

The 29th Infantry Division was constituted on paper in the US Army National Guard on the 18th July 1917, and first organised at Camp McClellan, Alabama. It was an infantry division which was largely recruited from the states of Delaware, Maryland, New Jersey, Virginia, and the District of Columbia, and rapidly became known as the ‘Blue and Gray Division’. This reflected that it was comprised of soldiers from states which had been on opposing sides during the American Civil War; the ‘Blue’ associate with the blue uniforms of the Union soldiers, and the ‘Gray’ associated with the grey uniforms of the Confederate soldiers. The shoulder patch is a half-blue and a half grey circle with a green (formerly black) outer band. The Division’s motto is ’29 Lets Go’, this was taken from a speech General Eisenhower made to the Division before D-Day.

During WW1 the 29th Infantry Division was deployed on the Western Front in France and was involved in heavy fighting during the Meuse-Argonne offensive. After WW1 it was disbanded at Camp Dix, New Jersey but remained a National Guard unit. The Division was reformed when America entered WW2, and on the 5th October 1942 about 10,000 men from the division embarked for England on RMS Queen Mary which had been converted to a troop ship. With a maximum speed of 30 knots the unescorted troopship steamed on a zig-zag course across the Atlantic. It moved too fast for enemy submarine attack, but was considered to be vulnerable to an enemy air attack as it got closer to the English coast. For the last part of its journey the troop ship was escorted by a light cruiser HMS Curacao (D41) which was armed with batteries of anti-aircraft guns. The escort was a slower vessel and in order to keep up with the zig-zagging of the troopship needed to steer virtually a straight course. About 60 km north of Ireland tragedy occurred when the liner bore down on the unfortunate escort vessel. Since the RMS Queen Mary was 81,235 tons and HMS Curacao was only 4,190 tons the cruiser was sliced into two pieces and sank in a few minutes. Many on the troopship felt only a slight shudder. The troopship could not stop to rescue survivors because of the threat from enemy submarines. Of the ships compliment of 338 on HMS Curacao .probably less than 30 men were rescued. This was one of the worst cases of accidental loss during WW2 and the sinking of the ship was not made public until after the war.

The troopship docked at Greenock, near Glasgow and the 29th Infantry Division initially trained around Oxford. In May 1943 they were relocated to Devon and Cornwall with bases at Exeter, Okehampton, Tavistock. Plymouth, Bodmin and Perranporth. From July 1943 the Division was commanded by Major General Charles H. Gerhard and his headquarters were at Abbotsfield Hall (now Abbotsfield Hall nursing home) in Tavistock. They were part of V Corps United Sates 1st Army under Lt. General Omar Bradley and were earmarked for the invasion of Europe. In the build-up of military resources for the invasion there was soon an impressive array of tents and military vehicles on Whitchurch Down, even a field hospital and a landing strip.

During the brief period that the Americans were in and around Tavistock they were everywhere at all times. They played baseball in the Meadows, and there was a social club for them in West Street. In Duke Street there used at be a large garage, Matthew’s Garage, where a lot of work was done on US military vehicles by their own mechanics. Local hostelries did a roaring trade, a particular favourite being the White Hart in Brook Street. The Americans were always courteous and friendly. They loved children and often surprised them with small gifts of chocolate or bubble-gum. Christmas 1943 was a particularly memorable time: the Americans took over for a day the two cinemas in the town and invited all the local children, and generously distributed gifts. They attracted the girls too, and as a result of these liaisons about forty local girls later became ‘GI Brides’.