Don't Always Assume What You Are Told !

As usual, I was racking my little brain about what to write for the blog this week, and I’m always amazed when the subject springs to mind in equal measure. Naturally, I should be thinking about topics all the time. I suppose that I do, especially in the middle of the night. 

Among many writing challenges this year, I have challenged myself to pitch to an Editor at least once monthly. I want to up that amount much more during the year. There are a lot of short story competitions to enter as well.

I have identified a publication and the subject I want to research and write about this month. It is a subject that I thought I knew well, and I was ready to write my pitch. That was until I started my research.

Some of my former Royal Marines Band Service colleagues might be interested in this piece as the subject I envisioned for this pitch is Woodbury Common in Wartime.

Some of you may recognise this place.

During our Military Training weeks at the Commando Training Centre during the 1980s, we used Woodbury Common for navigation and patrolling serials. If we had upset the DS (Directing Staff), there were always section attacks and contact drills amongst gorse bushes to keep us Bandies amused.

The assumption, and hence the story, was that US troops used the common in the lead-up to D-Day. This story was my initial thought for the article pitch. There was likewise a tale about a ‘Woodbury rash’, a condition well known to the recruits at the ‘Health Farm’, the Commando Training Centre. The rash was caused by the toilet facilities not being what we would expect today—crawling through the gorse bushes contributing to the problem. 

I have found that the story and assumption are far from reality.

The camp constructed on Woodbury Common was called Dalditch Camp and used by the Royal Marines. There is a history of its use between 1941 and 1947.

During my early research forays, I found a website with a lot of information about the history of the common. I shall work to verify the information and have a deeper dive into any further information that I can find.

It has made me giggle that I and quite a few others have believed a story entirely plainly wrong for many years. We didn’t have the internet in those days!

Now to write a solid pitch that any editor cannot turn down.