Canadians in & around Eastbourne (Sussex) in WW2

[Michael Ockenden]

Hello Norm

Thanks for responding to my query. I will also e-mail you, but for the benefit of others on the forum, my thoughts about what you say are as follows:-

First of all Seaford – my guess is that you were in a part of town known as ‘Blatchington’. This is to the east of Seaford town centre, towards the River Cuckmere. I believe this was where you trained to do river crossings. At low tide there are mud flats on both banks, but it never dries up. It’s just possible the training was done on the Ouse, but this is a bigger river and flows into the sea at Newhaven. As you must know, the latter is the cross Channel ferry terminal for Dieppe. I wonder whether you sailed from there.

There’s a restaurant/pub called the ‘Golden Galleon’ down near the Cuckmere bridge at a place called Exeat. However, there’s no village at Exeat anymore – all the inhabitants died during the Black Death. Further upstream, there’s a village called Alfriston – near here there’s an establishment called ‘Drusillas’. Pre-war, this was a small restaurant and tea-room, and I believe Canadians were stationed around there. Today it’s a large private zoo. You may wish to get a book called ‘Operation Cuckmere Haven’ – Military aspects of the Cuckmere Valley. The ISBN is 0-9521297-1-X.

Now to Eastbourne – the houses where you trained in street fighting would have been in the Bourne Street area. This part of town was badly bombed during the ‘tip and run’ raids by Fw190 fighter-bombers – it was known locally as ‘Hell Fire Corner’. The houses were all abandoned and then used by the military. I’ve come across several vets (by no means all Canadian) who trained in and around these houses. They were mostly demolished after the war and mid-rise council flats erected.

Thanks again.

Mike