At midday on Monday, 20 March 1944, a massive explosion rocked Sherborne. On this occasion it was not caused by enemy bombs, as had been the case on 30 September 1940, but by anti-tanks mines laid in Sherborne Park as part of a military exercise.
The catastrophic explosion, which took place 50 yards east-south-east of Sherborne Castle, was sparked when during a mine laying exercise a lorry carrying live mines rolled back onto an anti-tank mine. The resulting blast destroyed the lorry and killed twenty-nine men of ‘C’ Company, 294th Engineer Combat Battalion, US Army.
The 294th Engineer Combat Battalion, which was formed in March 1943 with the majority of the men drawn from New Jersey and the New York metropolitan area, had arrived in Sherborne in February 1944 and remained here until late May 1944. The battalion of about 800 soldiers were billeted in barracks around the town, including in huts on Fair Field at the corner of Bristol Road and Coldharbour. When not training for the imminent invasion of Europe the soldiers enlivened the town, attending dances, giving chocolates and sweets to children, and visiting the local pubs!
According to local historian Rodney Legg, the explosion was covered up at that time because it had occurred in the vicinity of the 228th Field Hospital Unit of the US Army at Haydon Park (later used to house Polish refugees), which came under the protection of the International Red Cross and according to the terms of the Geneva Convention should not have been used by armed personnel or for the storing of ammunition.
However, those who heard the explosion or saw the aftermath could not forget it. J.D. Frost, a 16-year-old boy who was threshing a corn rick near the Castle later described how ‘bits of lorry and bodies were strewn across half a mile’, and 23-year-old Betty Warner who lived in Coombe remembered hearing the explosion and later finding out that two young American soldiers she had recently got to know had been killed in the accident.
On 6 June 1989, the 45th anniversary of D-Day, two new memorial plaques were dedicated at Sherborne’s town war memorial to the men of 294th Engineer Combat Battalion. On one plaque are the names of the twenty-nine men of ‘C’ Company who were killed in Sherborne Park on 20 March 1944, and on the other are the names of the sixteen men of 294th Engineer Combat Battalion killed in action while serving in Europe as part of the VII Army Corps.
The 294th Engineer Combat Battalion decided to site the memorials in Sherborne because of the town’s close connection with the men of the battalion who had died here on 20 March 1944 and also because this was where the battalion had completed its final training prior to the D-Day Landings on 6 June 1944.
At the unveiling of the memorial Dickinson R. Debevoise explained the importance of Sherborne to the battalion:
‘Reflection confirms the appropriateness of this place as the site of our memorial. It was here, of course, that 29 men lost their lives. It was here that the battalion completed its training for the assault upon the European continent. It was here that the entire battalion was the beneficiary of your kindness and friendship. For all of us this town provided a welcome touch of home. For those listed on these plaques it was their last touch of home… We leave in your care these plaques, these visible tributes to our friends and our brothers.’
The names of the men of ‘C’ Company, 294th Engineer Combat Battalion who were killed in Sherborne on 20 March 1944:
Sergeant Donald J. Walsh.
Technician 5th grade Francis X. Gallagher.
Technician 5th grade Warren F. Rapp.
Technician 5th grade Lawrence C. Sbaratta.
Private 1st class Francis J. Murphy.
Private 1st class Martin A. Norton.
Private Charles W. Brinkofski.
Private Robert M. Bucella.
Private Edward D. Chiarieri.
Private Anthony Cutrone.
Private John P. Deevy.
Private John W. Gadek.
Private Robert Gladen jr.
Private George E. Gundy.
Private Harry B. Hanschka.
Private Joseph B. Henning.
Private Leonard B. Kerr.
Private Stephen E. Kosiorowski.
Private Roger E. Kroeger.
Private Leo A. Lyon.
Private John J. McHugh.
Private Thomas S. Nicol.
Private Lucien P. Pessoz.
Private Conrad Propp.
Private Robert L. Ready.
Private Anthony T. Russo.
Private Andrew Ter Waarbeek.
Private Fred. C. Tracey.
Private Joseph J. Zanelli.
We will remember them.
Find out more:
Programme of dedication of two plaques on Sherborne School War Memorial to the 294th Engineer Combat Battalion, 6 June 1989 (pdf)
Sherborne School and the Second World War
Rodney Legg, Dorset’s War Diary: Battle of Britain to D-Day (Dorset Publishing Co., 2004)
Rodney Legg, Sherborne & Castleton: Abbey, Town & School (Halsgrove, 2004)
Jean Treasure, The 228th American Hospital at Haydon Park nr Sherborne, Dorset (2004)
Posted 13 March 2024 by Sherborne School Archives
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