In search of the men behind the names on the walls of war

Andy posted the photo on his WWII website and almost seven years later the daughter of Second Lieutenant Clydis J. Patton contacted him about her father.

Lucia told Andy her dad’s amazing story.

Clydis Patton was employed by the Illinois Power Company before enlisting with the U.S. Army on 20 December 1941, a few weeks after the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbour. With his electrical know-how he was assigned to battlefield communications and joined the US Army’s 507 Parachute Infantry Regiment.

He trained in Northern Ireland, parachuted into Normandy on D-Day and into Germany for Operation Varsity - the crossing of the River Rhine; both times under fierce enemy gunfire and in Germany he injured his back on landing.

He received multiple awards for heroism and was troubled by his injuries till he died in 2005. The full story is on Andy’s WWII Facebook page and website (details below) along with numerous other gripping wartime accounts.

Andy constantly updates and expands his WWII archive and wonders if any Roamer readers can help him with some more ‘autographs’ that he has found, and a curious WC notice.

Two of the signatures are written in pencil on the wall of a stable at Ballyscullion House, Bellaghy, known as Camp Ballyscullion when it was used by British and American military personnel during WWII.

The American 82nd Airborne Artillery, the XV Corps and the 92nd Signal Battalion were in residence there from late-1943 to mid-1944. The main building doubled as a headquarters and accommodation for officers while other ranks were billeted in outbuildings and Nissen huts erected around the grounds.

Andy found two names here, signed in pencil on a stable wall, and would love more information about the authors. They are Chester Williams from Middlesboro Ky (standing presumably for Kentucky) followed by the word “Yankee” (with double inverted commas) and Milt (probably short for Milton) Edwards of Cincinnati Ohio followed by “Paper-Doll” (again, with double inverted commas).

“Both names are written on the wall of a stable where I expect they had their beds,” Andy explained, adding, “I am intrigued to find out what “Yankee” and “Paper-Doll” refer to. Would these have been the names of vehicles or aircraft used by these men?”

And at the Gate Lodge of Kircassock House, Magheralin, Andy was delighted to find some “old red brick and in particular what was written on it!”

“Sadly, the wording is fading with the passage of time,” he explained, adding, “during WWII Kircassock House became Headquarters of 8th United States Air Force Composite Command from November 1942 including 496th Fighter Training Group.”

Carved into the red brick and now difficult to decipher are the words “15 Years Now a Buck Ass Private” which appears to have been written by Mr. K. Porter from Barton, Maryland.

“When I was speaking with the lady who lived in this building,” Andy told me “she had not been aware of this until I showed it to her.”

He’d love to find out more about the three American soldiers who’ve left their names at Ballyscullion and Kircassock houses. “It would be wonderful to learn something about these men,” Andy told me “and what happened to them, and if they survived the war.”

And finally, a riddle! He has been sent a photograph of a wooden sign printed with large, black, capital letters - ‘W.C. Dames’ - and an arrow.

The sign was found in the attic of a holiday home near Kilkeel in County Down.

Andy thinks that “it may be connected to a female toilet building at one of the United States military sites which were constructed around the Kilkeel and Rostrevor area during WWII”

But he’s “surprised to see the word ‘Dames’ rather than ‘Females’ or indeed ‘Women’”. Andy wonders “if such signs were erected at American bases?” and hopes some News Letter readers might enlighten him via Roamer’s mailbox, through his Facebook page,‘The Second World War in Northern Ireland’ or on his website at www.ww2ni.webs.com