Why We Went To London

This is a photo of my grandfather from the book that my dad donated to the library in Kew/Richmond. Grandpa served with the U.S. Army's 660th Engineers Topographical Battalion, B Company, which during World War II was stationed in Kew, London, England. The United Kingdom's National Archives now sits on the same location where the 660th served. B Company's work was photomapping. They made maps of France from aerial photographs in preparation for the invasion of Normandy. The first U.S. soldiers arrived at Kew in September 1942 and the last ones left in October of 1944.

In January 1945 the site became home to former Italian prisoners of war. After Italy became an ally, the Italians helped to rebuild bombed locations in London while waiting to be repatriated.

Ruskin Avenue and the Second World War

"The land on which these buildings stand was originally called Kew Meadows. In 1916 a large, single-story complex was built here to house the Claims and Records Office of the Ministry of Labour. It was evacuated in 1939, just after the start of the war.

In November 1942, an American Topographical Battalion moved in. Their job was to turn aerial photographs of Northern France and the Normandy beaches into detailed maps for use in the D-Day landings in June 1944. Millions of maps were printed.

The American soldiers also took part in training exercises and marched in Richmond parades supporting war bond sales. The soldiers enjoyed fraternizing with Kew residents and several took local British brides home to the United States.

Despite numerous air raid warnings, the building on the site only once took a direct hit from a V-1 rocket. Three men were killed.

In the autumn of 1944, the Americans moved to France. Early the next year, they were replaced by an Italian Labour Italian, created from former prisoners of war. The men worked clearing London bomb sites until they were repatriated in 1946.

A handful of German prisoners of war were later held here for a short period. "

This is the way the site looks now. This site sits at the end of Ruskin Avenue in Kew.

There were at least 100 people present for the unveiling of the plaque, many of them local residents. A fair number of them were probably living there during the war.

Including these two folks on the right standing with my dad. They were children during the war and were present at a Christmas party thrown for local children by the 660th. The book they're holding is the present the soldiers gave this woman.

The woman on the far left was a resident there during the war. In fact, she fell in love with one of the Italian POWs. Two years after he was repatriated back to Italy, he came back to London and married her. How romantic is that?!?!?! Their daughter unveiled the plaque with my dad.

Sadly, my grandfather passed away October of 1993, before I had any kind of appreciation whatsoever of history. I wish I had asked him more about his time serving in the war. I miss him every day, and I'm grateful I was able to see where he spent his time during the War and learn a little bit about his life there.

Buckingham Palace & Changing of the Guard

This is Rachel and Fred standing in front of the main gates to Buckingham Palace on the day we arrived in London. We had arrived at Heathrow around 6:15 a.m. When we got to our hotel we were able to check in, but our rooms weren't ready. So we drug our tired bodies to, where else, Buckingham Palace. We walked through Hyde Park to get there. It was a pretty walk, and we had great weather. We actually had wonderful weather the entire time we were in London. Blue skies and sunny.

I love the uniforms of the Palace guards, with their big furry hats. I always wonder how much the hats weigh. In September, the changing of the guards ceremony happens every other day. This was not one of those days.

This was. This is the crowd starting to gather outside Buckingham Palace on Saturday, 9/12. We got here about an hour before the ceremony was to start, and I'm glad we did. We had a heck of a time getting there, though. The Underground closes several of its stops and/or lines on weekends for construction. I had had our route planned out ahead of time....Jubilee Line south from Bond Street, one stop to Green Park. Then we would walk through the park to the Palace. We got to the Bond Street station and found out the Jubilee line wasn't running between those stops. So we took the Central line east one stop to Oxford Circus, where I thought we could pick up the Victoria Line to Green Park. Victoria Line wasn't running either. So I pulled out my map of London and we started walking. We hadn't gone that far out of the way, so it was no big deal, and we made it in time to get a good spot along the curb.

And we waited at that spot for about an hour. It was interesting, though. Lots of people watching to be done.

It was funny when these two palace guards walked by, because a lot of people were walking alongside of them while someone else would run ahead to get their pictures with the guards.

Finally it started. The first band that appeared went into the gate that was down farther to our left. This band came right past us.

After the two bands and the different units were inside the gate, we had more waiting to do while the actual changing of the guard took place. Only people who were right along the gate were able to see what was going on.

This police officer was very nice, but his poor horse seemed sad. Every time it went by us his head was down like this. The horse's name is Lincoln. When I commented that that's a nice name, the officer said "after our city," meaning NOT after our president, which made me laugh.

Then they opened the main gates, which were right in front of us. I noticed when they closed the gate back up, the guard used an actual key in the lock on the gate, which struck me as kind of funny. Huge palace, huge gates, and a huge skeleton key to lock everything up.

The bands came out first.

Then these handsome fellas. With their really big weapons. These guards went to the left.

These went to the right.

And then we headed for Richmond and Kew.

Richmond & Kew

On our last full day in London we rode the Underground back out to Richmond and Kew. Dad wanted to pick up a couple more copies of the book Kew at War from the National Archives store. This was the book written partially from Grandpa's maps and books and Dad's research. We also wanted to explore a little more since we were kind of rushed the day of the ceremony.

The top picture is taken looking through the gates of the National Archives down Ruskin Avenue, which my grandfather used to talk about.

This is Burlington Street, which Ruskin Avenue runs into. This street was frequented by US soldiers stationed at Kew. I'm not sure if the brothel that was here at the time had anything to do it. ;-)

We at lunch in Richmond, at the Pitcher and Piano, which I guess was a pub. It had pub food, but didn't look like most pubs. We sat on the patio outside under the big umbrellas. This is on the walkway right outside the Pitcher and the Piano, along the Thames River. It was just beautiful. There was ice cream being sold, row boats to rent and a lot of people enjoying the beautiful weather. This was one of the many shops in Richmond.

For dinner we had 2 metres of pizza! I'm told by Tony's friend, Jean-Carlo that this is the best pizza outside of Italy. I was going to get the risotto, but when I heard the pizza was so good, I had to get that! For large groups, you can order pizza by the metre, and each person gets whatever toppings on it they want. I got funghi pizza, or mushroom pizza. Dad's is in the forefront of the picture, and I'm not sure what it is. Even though we started with fried calamari and some kind of eggplant dish, there were only 2 slices left when we were done, and Jean-Carlo took it home.

This is where we had the 2 metres of pizza.

Rachel got marghareta pizza, which was your basic tomato, mozzarella and basil. I asked her if she liked it. Her response was "No. I love it!" She was happy, because we had Italian food three nights out of the four.

London

St. Paul's Cathedral, where Princess Diana and Prince Charles were married.

This is not really called Big Ben. It's either the Clock Tower or the Tower Clock. I'm too tired to remember which right now.

Westminster Abbey. Absolutely BEAUTIFUL.

From left to right, the CEO of the British National Archives, the director of the Kew Society, Dad, Angela DeMattia (whose father was a POW on this site, fell in love with Angela's mother, and after being repatriated back to Italy, returned to London and married her) and the Mayor of Richmond Upon Thames.

Dad and the Mayor of Richmond Upon Thames at the National Archives in Kew, unveiling a plaque recognizing my grandfather's Army unit which was stationed there in WWII and prepared millions of maps in preparation for the Normandy landing.

First day of fifth grade......and leaving for London!!!

Rachel started school today, and we also leave for London later today. I think Rachel is a little disappointed to be missing pretty much the whole first week of school, but she's okay with it, since we promised to take her to Harrod's. :-) The girl loves to shop! And she's excited to see Grandpa. It's been too long.
I'm so grateful her teacher invited her in a couple weeks ago to take care of some things that the class will be doing this week. She also gave Rachel her first week's assignments, which she's almost done with. She just has two writing assignments. And she'll do her reading on the plane.

Getting Ready for School

Rachel starts 5th grade on September 8th. This week we got her hair cut and went to the orthodontist. She got pink and black bands on her braces to match her first day of school outfit. I have a confession...I let her get her eyebrows waxed, too. Just a tiny, little bit in between the eyebrows and some of the strays underneath.

On September 8th we are also leaving for London. We are going to send Rachel to school for a half a day and pick her up around lunch time. Then we'll drive to Newark for our 6:30 flight to London. We're meeting my dad in London. He's been invited by the Kew Society to unveil a plaque honoring my grandfather's Army unit that was stationed there in World War II. We will also be donating my grandfather's books from the war to a library there. My dad donated his maps a few years ago. The U.S. soldiers stationed at Kew during WWII prepared maps in preparation for the Normandy Landing. Dad is going to be introduced at the ceremony by the Mayor of London as a descendant of a US Serviceman who was stationed in Kew.