


In early 1943, the small village of Gilwern, near Abergavenny, was turned on its head when 450 soldiers and nurses of the US Army Medical Department arrived to take occupation of a newly built general purpose hospital on the edge of the village. For nearly two and a half years these strangers in a strange land carried out their duties to the best of their abilities. Some worked in isolation, but most made an effort to integrate with the local community. This is a chronicle of those times.