Photos of American GI’s supposedly taken in Devon were published in 1944 to make the Germans think that troops were massing in the East of England.
This image was shot at the Dove Inn, Burton Bradstock. It shows a large image of our brewery in Reading, as well as a calendar, open at April 1944.. The beer being drunk is dark – unlike Devon cider which the GI’s would likely have preferred. So everything has been done to make it look as though the American troops are massing in the South & East, for an invasion across the Dover Straights.
The names of Directors and staff of the Brewery and its branches who were at that time serving in WW2 are listed in the Hop Leaf Gazette, issued in December 1942.