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A wonderful story of wartime days, fifty years ago, told in the words of both the GIs who crossed the Atlantic and the British people who made them welcome - most of the time.
Fifty years ago, the first of 1 1/2 million American GIs landed on British soil, there to join their English cousins in a desperate fight against Hitler's Germany. Soon this "friendly invasion" spread all over the British Isles, as secret preparations got underway for a climactic invasion of continental Europe. Yanks were everywhere, the British thought, complaining about warm beer in the pubs, Brussels sprouts at every meal, and the typical British weather: rain, fog, dampness, and mud. While charming British girls and teaching them to jitterbug, surrounding themselves with gangs of English children demanding "Any gum, chum?" the GIs spent their money freely. "Overpaid, oversexed, and over here," muttered some of the natives. But the GIs had come primarily to fight Hitler. The mighty 8th Air Force flew countless perilous bombing raids deep into Germany, and, when D-Day finally came, Americans fought heroically on the beaches of Normandy, alongside British, Canadian, and Australian troops. That story has been told, but not this one - and highly entertaining it is!
