"Despite their brief visit to the North East, the U. S. troops are certainly remembered by the locals, especially the women — one of the sites (High Spen) was near my childhood home and the Americans were frequently mentioned in the village many years after the war. In fact, they were better remembered than the British troops who manned the site for nearly five years.

The last time I heard the 225th SL Battalion mentioned was only about eight years ago in a coffee shop here in Low Fell. An elderly lady, Mary Gallant, who had lived at Lobley Hill (near here) since the 1930s recalled taking food to the U. S. troops based at the searchlight site in Ravensworth Estate. I wouldn't be at all surprised if this lady had photographs of the men — she certainly talked of them with affection — but I haven't seen her around for quite some time and I fear she will be dead by now.

Incidentally many of these searchlight sites had a change of use very shortly after the U. S. troops left — they became POW Camps — technically "Satellite POW Camps" — and accommodated the huge number of prisoners who were working on local farms. There was little, if any, security, of course, but these were "low-risk" prisoners and any security would have been pointless anyway since the prisoners generally travelled to and from the farms where they worked using public transport and without any escort."