Barbara Mavis Corns

Civilian

Mrs B M Corns remembers the Americans who visited her family from Whittington barracks, near Lichfield:



"My memories of the war itself are very sketchy – I was born in December 1937 so I was very young and as we lived some 20 or more miles from Birmingham and Coventry, we did not suffer air raids, but I do remember going into the Anderson shelter in our garden.”



“About the Americans – I think it was December 1943 or maybe 1944, but an appeal was made for people to take in Americans soldiers for Christmas Day. My father said our family would do so, and two soldiers were delivered to us. I cannot remember anything of that day, but they must have enjoyed themselves, as they used to come to our house whenever they had the chance. I think they were based in Whittington barracks, near Lichfield. Their names were Bob Capes and Carl Rosenquist, they asked if they could bring their friends, and we (to my recollection) had a steady stream of Americans most week-ends.”



“I can remember a Fred Tallerigo, from Chicago, and a Bob Oki from Hawaii. One day, I was having a story read to me by one soldier, when he saw a jeep pull up in front of our house. He was up and out of the back door, jumping fences to get away. The M.P.s who came to the front door told my mother he was AWOL and due to be shipped back to France (so I am presuming it would be after D-Day). They found him, of course, but we never heard anything further about him.”



“Bob Capes’ mother wrote to my mother thanking her for taking care of her son, and we had food parcels from them. Sometimes there were clothes, and I can still remember two dresses I had, and a pair of green shorts. None of us had ever seen girls wearing shorts before and when I wore them the other children used to say I was wearing a pair of hand-me-down trousers of my brother’s!”



“My sister and I were spoiled, of course, and I remember that time quite fondly. My dad taught them to play cribbage dominoes, and darts – we used to have a dart board permanently in the living room so they could play whenever they wanted, and, of course, they went to the pub. Bob and Carl wrote to my mother after the end of the war, and we used to get Christmas cards with details of how their lives were developing. Fred Tallerigo also wrote sporadically.”



“Carl married an English girl, Betty, and when I was about 18, he and Betty came over from the States to visit her family. Carl came on the train to visit us for a day, and mum and I met him on Wolverhampton station and took him to our house for a renewal of friendship. The letters continued from Bob and Carl – even if it was only a note in the Christmas cards; however, when my mum died in 1966, the correspondence fizzled out.”



“I hope these recollections are useful to you, I wonder if anyone else has written about this aspect of the Americans. They were only 18 years or so, and they must have appreciated having such friendship offered to them.”



Here is an obituary for a 'Karl Rosenquist' who married Betty, a British radio operator, whilst in Britain with the US Army's 29th Infantry Division. He died on 16 June 2007: http://www.legacy.com/obituaries/utsandiego/obituary.aspx?n=karl-rosenq…



It is possible that veteran Bob Capes is still alive. Robert Capes served with the 188th Field Artillery Regiment of the North Dakota National Guard and was in England on D-Day. He lives in Grand Forks, North Dakota.



Fred R Tallarigo was a GI from Ohio who was stationed at Whittington Barracks, Staffordshire in the West Midlands, England in 1945. He was born 7 July 1913 and died 27 December 1996. He is buried in Saint Joseph Cemetery, 4500 Foley Road, Cincinnati, OH 45238



A 'Robert M Oki' was born in 1924 in Hawaii but was living in Tennessee at the time of his enlistment. He was joined the Corps of the Military Police, according to the enlistment record in 1946. He had been interned as a Japanese citizen Minidoka Internment Camp, Idaho, until 1945. He died on 1 November 2014. It is unlikely that he is the man remembered by Barbara M Corns but there are not other enlistment records for 'R Oki'.

Connections

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Places

  • Site type: Military site
  • Known as: Whittington Barracks

Events

Event Location Date Description

Born

Revisions

Date
ContributorLucy May
Changes
Sources

Correspondence from Mrs B M Corns received by the American Air Museum.
Obituary for Karl Rosenquist: http://www.legacy.com/obituaries/utsandiego/obituary.aspx?n=karl-rosenq…
Article about Bob Capes: http://retellity.com/Biz/University-of-North-Dakota-School-of-Law-Grand…

Enlistment record for Fred Tallarico: http://aad.archives.gov/aad/record-detail.jsp?dt=893&mtch=1&tf=F&q=tall…
Forum posts about Fred R Tallarigo: http://www.awon.org/discus/messages/14/499.html?1414097766
Record of death for Fred Tallarigo: http://search.ancestry.com/cgi-bin/sse.dll?rank=1&new=1&MSAV=0&msT=1&gs…

Enlistment record for Robert M Oki: http://aad.archives.gov/aad/record-detail.jsp?
dt=893&mtch=1&tf=F&q=oki+robert&bc=sd&rpp=10&pg=1&rid=2129756
Article on Robert M Oki: http://densho.org/about/enews/current.asp
Interview clip with Robert M Oki as part of the Densho oral history project: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v1kyCHqbPRA&feature=youtu.be&list=PL61D…
Obituary for Robert M Oki: http://www.washelli.com/obits/obituaries.php/obitID/322232/obit/Kiyoto-…