Event to honour city's US World War Two troops

The 82nd Airborne division prepared for their participation in the D-Day landings at the park

An event remembering the basing of US troops in Leicester during World War Two is to take place.

The 82nd Airborne Division was headquartered at Braunstone Park in the months before the D-Day landings in Normandy in June 1944.

A museum and a memorial stone for the parachute regiment are sited within the walled garden of the park and a small commemoration service is held annually.

This year's celebration on Saturday has been expanded to coincide with the 80th anniversary of the end of World War Two and will include military vehicles, re-enactments and a rifle salute.

The 82nd Airborne was a parachute regiment waiting to be sent into Europe on D-Day.

Braunstone History Group traditionally celebrates the US troops on 16 August as it coincides with National Airborne Day across the Atlantic, marking the anniversary of the first official Army parachute jump in 1940.

Mr Dodd said the US troops arrived in March 1944 and made "quite an impression in the community".

"The local people in Leicester welcomed the Americans with open arms," he said.

"They had nylons, cigarettes and chocolate - we have got some packets of nylons in the 82nd Airborne museum in Braunstone Park."

The group is hopeful of a good turnout for Saturday's celebration.

"I think visitors will get a sense of what communities were like in the past on the brink of war, and some pride in what people did to entertain the troops and make them feel at home," said Mr Dodd.

"It's not just a memorial stone in a walled garden, it's full of the memories of people who died for us."

A small ceremony is held every year to remember the US troops

Group secretary Geraldine Syrett said: "We felt it was important as a history group to keep the memory of the 82nd Airborne on the park alive.

"It would have been extremely exciting for the children at Braunstone Hall School at the time, I believe they had to be escorted through the lines of American Nissen huts in the park to get to school.

"'Have you got any gum, chum?' was one of the well known phrases kids would shout at the soldiers.

"They left a legacy. The Nissen huts were used by bombed out families after the war. There are still people living on Braunstone estate whose father or grandfather were GI.

"I'm hoping that a lot of the local people will come.

"We are hoping the younger generation can learn about the history of the park."

Bombed out local people moved into the Nissen huts left by the American paratroopers after the war