Recently, a long-time Wilson resident shared a very interesting and historically relevant story with me. It has to do with Roosevelt Beach and the very significant if deliberately secret role it played in WWII. The story begins with an eleven year old boy who worked as an usher in Wilson’s little theater during the War. That boy was Roland Harding and this is his story.
It was 1939 or 1940. The United Sates had not yet officially entered WWII. At that time, Wilson had a small movie theater on Young Street. Roland worked as an usher and was able to see all of the war time newsreel footage, which was shown before the main movie was played. For this reason he became very knowledgeable on various aspects of the war, including military uniforms worn by the different armies. This knowledge was put to the test one September afternoon in a local tavern and dance hall called Martin’s. Unlike the current tavern named Martin’s on the east side of the creek, it was located on the west side of Twelve-Mile Creek.
On that particular afternoon Roland and his father as was their habit, stopped in at Martins. Roland’s Dad for a beer and Roland for an orange. Fresh tropical fruit would have been quite a treat in those days. All of a sudden, from seemingly out of nowhere, a group of about fifty soldiers showed up. This alone, in the tiny village of Wilson was a very strange site. But there was something else. These soldiers wore strange uniforms. Pepper Martin, the bartender and Roland’s Father began guessing as to what branch of the service these soldiers belonged to. Suddenly Roland piped up and exclaimed that they were American soldiers. They were British Commandos! Both adults asked him how he knew this. Roland explained that he knew from all of the newsreel footage he’d seen while working in the theater.
In the meantime, the officer in charge of the commandos entered and asked if his men could buy some beer and play the piano for awhile. Mr. Martin obliged and promptly served up the refreshments. After some time had passed the officer in charge said they had to be going. He thanked Mr. Martin and paid the tab in American money and left. The officer and his men disappeared on a landing barge just as quietly and quickly as they had arrived. They were never seen or heard from again. As to what British commandos were doing on U.S. soil in Wilson, NY, it would take over thirty years for that secret to be explained.
Fast forward about 35 years. An article appeared in the June 25th, 1978 Sunday edition of the Buffalo News which seems to corroborate Harding’s story. The article was entitled, The Secret Role of Roosevelt Beach in WWII. The author, Bob Buyer, used information gleaned from William Stevenson’s 1976 best-seller, A Man called Intrepid. The book describes a mysterious Camp X, 38 miles directly across Lake Ontario from Roosevelt Beach. Camp X was one of three top secret British intelligence bases involved in espionage gathering and training. The others were in England and Bermuda. Another interesting fact from this period was that British Intelligence operating headquarters was located in New York’s Rockefeller Center. However, back to the story at hand; Camp X’s role involved such activities as fabrication of fake documents, miniature mockups of German military sites as well as some of the planning for the June 6th 1944 D day invasion of Europe.
So the soldiers that Roland saw that day were in the vicinity to escort very important personnel across Lake Ontario to Camp X. Because of the top secret nature of what was going on there, those who had business at Camp X could not risk going across the normal border crossings. Many were recognizable in public, so the nighttime boat trips with the commandos became a necessary route around this hazard. One must also remember, the Germans also had spies and sympathizers in North America.
The reasons Roosevelt Beach became the preferred site for the clandestine activities were its secluded rural beach and location, directly across from Camp X, near Oshawa, Ontario. Very few Wilson residents ever became aware of what was going during the nighttime hours just outside of their village. For security reasons it remained this way for many years. At some point, the information became declassified and the story was there waiting to be told.
As mentioned earlier, this information came from William Stevenson’s book, A Man Called Intrepid, which tells the story of William Stephenson (no relation) and his role in establishing the British Secret Intelligence Agency or MI6 as it is now known. Another local connection to this story mentioned in the book is that of William “Wild Bill” Donovan and his role in assisting and helping Stephenson and the British establish intelligence operations in North America. Donovan was the wartime head of the OSS or Office of Strategic Services, the forerunner to the CIA. He is sometimes referred to as the “Father of American Intelligence.” Donovan grew up in South Buffalo and the Donovan Building in downtown Buffalo is named after him.
A movie was also released based on the book, A Man called Intrepid. It was made in 1979 and starred David Niven, Michael York and Barbara Hershey. Copies of the movie are difficult to find but can be purchased at raremovies.biz for about $15 including shipping. I’m not sure if Wilson’s Roosevelt Beach connection is included in the film because I haven’t seen the movie. Nevertheless, the connection existed and I want to thank Roland Harding for bringing his personal recollection of this fascinating story to my attention.
Submitted by
Francis Gallagher
Town of Wilson Historian
Wilson, NY History 