I was one of about 30 US 8th Air Force men living with families in Rumney. We were reponsible for Air Force supplies coming into the Welsh side of the Bristol Channel. The goods were sent to and were transshipped from the GWR sorting sheds, also in Rumney.
I remember fondly the nine months I spent with Mr and Mrs Arthur Blair.
Our unit was living with families because there were no facilities for housing US troops in the Cardiff area. In fact, two of our men didn't live with families but rather in pubs - one at the White Hart Inn in St Mellons and the other in a pub farther away (I've forgotten where). We paid two pounds ten a week for room and two meals a day.
I remember one incident vividly. There was an air raid during one night and those of us in the Blair home, following the house rule, stayed in bed until we heard bombs.
I was the last one down the stairs, heading for the closet under the stairs. The first one down opened the front and back doors (this relieved pressure and thus saved windows in near misses, I was told).
As I passed by the open front door a bomb went off not far away and I was knocked flat, but not injured. We were saddened when we learned later that six WAAFs we knew, who were assigned to a barrage balloon site between Rumney and Cardiff, had been killed.
The Blairs were kind and helpful. They even made wartime rations do well. I believe the British ration at that time (March to December 1943) was 4 oz of meat a week, one egg a month and all the brussels sprouts we could eat. That also took adjustment, but Mrs Blair was a fine cook and we muddled through.
Our unit met merchant ships carrying Air Force supplies to the South Wales ports and often a ship we were supposed to meet didn't arrive. German U-boats were taking a terrible toll of North Atlantic shipping then.
It stayed light until nearly 11pm in the summer - Double Summer Time. So we were able to take walks along the Bristol Channel on nice evenings. Lovely times.
And you should know that we regularly listened to the BBC - of course.
After the war I was able to visit South Wales and see the daughter of the Blair family and her husband Alfred Akenhead.
Such memories.
John B. Adams, Lt. Col., USAAF (Ret.)
