1939-1945, The Second World War
Articles on the Second World War
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Meanwhile, as in the Great War, the estate once again became an army camp, though this time hidden from prying enemy eyes under Hursley's trees, as 'The Allies' prepared for and then embarked upon D-Day and the liberation of Europe. Hursley was at the very heart of the D-Day preparations with the British 50th (Northumbrian) Division centred in the two camps in the park. As the British left they were followed by streams of American servicemen as the invasion gathered momentum and the German forces were forced back.
Spitfires, Army Camps and D-Day
The advent of the Second World War saw the Hursley Estate ready to play it's role as it had in the previous conflict, with Lady Cooper prepared to offer the House as a Hospital again. However, this was to be a very different conflict and the demands on the estate very different, though no less arduous.
In early 1940 Sir George Cooper died, leaving his elderly wife alone with her servants until air raids on Southampton forced the requisition of the House, not for a Hospital but for the designers and production management of Supermarine, the makers of the Spitfire. Within a year Lady Cooper had been forced out of her home never to return and the House and immediate grounds became the a hive of industry as Mark after Mark of Spitfire was designed and prototyped.
