The War Years
Owned Trebah 1940-1947
Trebah was purchased by Nora MacCaw (1893-1971) from Alice Hext’s niece Dorothy in 1940. Residing in Dover at the time, Nora lived with Chloë Preston (1889-1969). When the War Office requisitioned their house, they made a swift decision to purchase Trebah over the phone, without having even seen the estate.
Speed & style
Nora was born in India where her father, William MacCaw, was a partner in Kettlewell, Bullen & Co, managing agents for jute and cotton mills, tea estates and railways.
She had a lifelong love of cars, working as a chauffeur for the Red Cross in Greece during WWI and, whilst living at Trebah, drove a 1937 4.5 litre Bentley.
Described as “a lover of speed and style”, over the years her car collection included a Bentley 8 litre, several 4.5 litres and 3 Derby Bentleys. These cars were so large that they reportedly required a double manoeuvre to turn out of the drive at Trebah.
The cars below were both owned by Nora MacCaw and are still in circulation today.
An acclaimed artist
Chloë came from a wealthy family of Moreby Hall in North Yorkshire; her grandfather was the Archbishop of York and great-grandmother from Romanian aristocracy.
She was a talented illustrator, creating the children’s book series The Peek-A-Boos in 1910. The big-eyed, baby-faced characters in grown-up scenarios became very popular and were widely published at the time. She later completed a number of botanical illustrations, thought to be inspired by her time at Trebah.
War arrives at Trebah
While Misses MacCaw and Preston owned Trebah the garden was left largely untouched, likely due to most local young men being called up to fight in Europe.
Only Head Gardener Robert Day and a few staff were left to maintain it.
As the war progressed, Trebah was selected as a strategic location for a new military operation. Being situated away from Falmouth and benefitting from the naturally deep water of the Helford River, it was the ideal secluded location for planning, training and preparation for a new operation that would change the course of the war.
“For months we watched a change coming over the face of the Helford. Where there was once a green field, a wide concrete road appeared leading to Trebah and Polgwidden… Stretching out into the river was a pier of timber and iron construction. No longer was there a clear view of the peaceful river; our quiet estuary was being mobilised for war – the Second Front.”
Member of the Mawnan Smith Women’s Institute
Preparing For War
War had been raging in Europe since 1939 and a new operation was planned by Allied leaders to create a second front in France, after its fall in 1940. Numerous offensives had been suggested but, by 1943, the Battle of Normandy had been drawn up under codename Operation Overlord.
The first stage of this daring new plan was Operation Neptune; the largest amphibious invasion in history.
In 1942, thousands of U.S. troops began making their way across the Atlantic to specially chosen embarkation points across the south coast of England and Wales. Around the Falmouth area, Polgwidden Cove, Trebah’s beach, was chosen as one of a number of sites, and work soon began to prepare this quiet cove for militarisation.
A village transformed
Gradually locals began noticing changes to their rural village. Roads in neighbouring Mawnan Smith were widened by bulldozing the stone hedges back into fields and services such as running water and electricity were installed in the village for the first time.
A new metalled beach-access road was laid around the headland, which still exists today, while on the beach itself the boathouse was dynamited, a large wooden jetty was built in the middle and flexible concrete ‘chocolate block’ matting was laid to cover the shingle.
Trenches were dug, ammunition boxes were stored in the lower garden and thousands of US troops began descending on the village.
British and US officers took over homes, including a local property that was commandeered by the Special Operations Executive (SOE) in a covert operation using fishing boats as cover for special agents travelling to France.
Countdown to D-Day
As the time for embarkation drew near, the men and their vehicles came to the ships in long convoys, having been situated in marshalling areas in the lead up to D-Day. These were aptly named ‘sausage camps’ due to their appearance as a string of sausages when viewed from planes.
Camps were established locally, including a camp near Glendurgan Garden which housed exclusively black American troops, at a time when racial segregation was still prevalent.
Troops brought musical instruments with them and introduced the jitterbug to Mawnan Smith, often spending downtime in the Red Lion pub.
“29 Let’s Go!”
The 29th Division Infantry Division of the United States Army was formed in 1917 and is based in Virginia.
Its nickname the ‘Blue and Gray’ comes from the colours taken from Union and Confederate uniforms, a reference to the large number of men from both the north and south of the country.
Their motto is “29, let’s go!”
Departing Trebah
At the end of May 1944, ten 150-foot flat-bottomed LST landing craft began loading with tanks, guns, transport and some 7,500 American troops of the 175th Regiment of the 29th Infantry Division, all bound for “Omaha” beach, the codename of a 5 mile stretch of Normandy coastline.
The ships being loaded and launched from Trebah beach were known as LSTs (Landing Ship Tanks), although the Americans jokingly referred to them as ‘Large Slow Targets’. Some 200 LSTs participated in D-Day.
On 1st June, after all the vessels had been loaded, the ships waited in darkness to avoid German aircraft before sailing east where they met up with the rest of the fleet headed for Normandy. They sailed in massive convoys for protection against German submarines.
The men spent a further two sea-sickening days aboard, as bad weather and rough seas postponed the assault. At General Eisenhower’s command, the D-Day assault began at 06:30 on 6th June. Their objective: to secure the beach and link up with the other American troops at Utah Beach and the British troops at Gold Beach.
A mighty endeavour
From the outset, very little went according to plan. The pre-landing bombardment which should have cleared much of the beach had not been as effective as hoped and the rough seas were swamping the landing craft and pushing ships out of position.
When the sea-sick infantry disembarked from the landing craft, some found they were on sandbanks and had to wade through neck-deep water to get to the shore, all whilst under heavy fire from German defences. They were expecting to face a single regiment but instead found a whole division.
To make things worse, the tank support for the men had launched too far offshore and sank, with just 2 of the initial 29 tanks making it to land.
For hours the brave men fought their way up the beach, later bolstered by further ground troops and sea bombardment. By noon the artillery fire had taken its toll on German forces, who had begun to run out of ammunition. Victory for Operation Neptune was in sight but at a catastrophic loss of life.
The beach is secure
The day after the invasion, a further 20,000 reinforcements arrived on Omaha Beach from the 1st and 29th Infantry Divisions and, by 9th June, Omaha Beach was secure, with the division occupying nearby Isigny. The D-Day objectives at Omaha Beach had been achieved.
More than 800 members of the 29th Infantry Division had been killed on Omaha, making it the deadliest beach of the operation.
In total an estimated 156,000 men landed on the beaches of Normandy during D-Day, along with nearly 5,000 landing and assault craft.
The loss of life was very high for both sides. Allied armies suffered a reported 4,441 fatalities with estimates for German forces as high as 9,000 men.
The war continues
The battle for Normandy was won, but for the 29ers their war in Europe was far from over.
In the coming months, the 29ers endured more bitter fighting as they made their way through German-occupied France. First they aided in the taking of Saint-Lô and Vire, before turning west and helping in the assault on Brest in late August.
They then took part in the Battle of Aachen in September, before assisting in Operation Grenade, the crossing of the Roer River between Roermond and Düren in February 1945.
By April, the division had pushed forward to the Elbe River and held position until 4th May, when they made contact with Soviet troops.
A hard-fought victory in Europe came on 8th May 1945. The 29th Infantry Division remained on occupational duty until the end of 1945 before being demobilised in 1946.
They shall grow not old, as we that are left grow old:
For the Fallen, Laurence Binyon, 1914
Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn.
At the going down of the sun and in the morning.
We will remember them.
From Mawnan to Monaco
When the war came to an end, Nora Maccaw and Miss Preston decided to sell Trebah and move to Monte Carlo, purchasing Villa Sauber; one of the last Belle Époque villas in Monaco. She sold it in 1957 and it is now the Nouveau Musée National de Monaco.
