24: Key Role in D-Day Planning

Axminster was a town with an important potential role to play when the British and American strategists sat down in 1943 to plan the D-Day landings that effectively brought the Second World War to an end. 

Included in their thinking was provision for a network of hospitals to which wounded soldiers could be evacuated. Of some 25 military hospitals built in Britain, five were in Devon. Axminster’s - on high ground to the east of the town - was one of the largest, with around 5,000 beds. 

Ultimately, casualties were not as numerous as had been feared and the hospital was hardly used. However, the fact that the site had been developed made it an obvious place for a large housing estate - now known as Millwey. Progress was not sufficiently rapid to cope with the number of local soldiers returning from war, so families took matters into their own hands and began occupying the empty wooden buildings. Initially, there was no electricity or water but they used oil lamps and found a source of water nearby. The community spirit there was considerable - the origins perhaps of today’s Axminster warmth?