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Camp Griffiss was a US military base in the United Kingdom during and after World War II.
Contents
Location
Camp Griffiss was located in the Teddington end of Bushy Park, London, England.
History
From 1942, Camp Griffiss in Bushy Park became the site of a large US base, headquarters to a number of the Allied departments. The camp served as the European Headquarters for the USAAF from July 1942 to December 1944. General Dwight Eisenhower was averse to working in the centre of London during World War II. He decided instead to make Bushy Park the Supreme Headquarters Allied Expeditionary Force (SHAEF) centre for planning Operation Overlord, the code name for the Allied invasion of north-west Europe that began with the D-Day landings.
The base was named after Lieutenant Colonel Townsend Griffiss. Griffiss had been aide to Major General James E. Chaney, and was killed in a friendly fire incident when the aircraft in which he was a passenger was mistakenly shot down by Royal Air Force (RAF) Polish fliers. He was the first US airman to die in the line of duty in Europe since the US entered World War II.
It was a common belief amongst those stationed at the camp that the US base was originally intended to be at Bushey in Hertfordshire and was built in Bushy Park due to an error.
An unpublished account of some of the experiences of WR (Doug) Douglas of the USAF 8th Squadron has been lodged with the Imperial War Museum. Douglas flew 35 missions in B-17 aircraft with the 305th Bomb Group as pilot and co-pilot, and was based at Bushy Park for some of his tour.
Post war
Most of the camp's huts were removed by 1963. Near the Teddington end of the park, not far from Chestnut Avenue, are two memorials: A circular USAAF Memorial tablet on a raised pentagonal block within a five pointed brick star within a small five sided enclosure.
The former site of Eisenhower's office is laid out in brick, with a memorial to SHAEF and a flagpole.
Some American Forces had also been billeted at Upper Lodge in Bushy Park. When they departed they left a concrete obelisk with the inscription, 5 C D, TEXAS, 1942.