Welcome to the Chinon US Army Depot web site!


Early in the 1950s, a convoy of US Army personal traveled down from Germany toward France. They put up tents and made camp in an area along the main road from Chinon to Tours.  At a rail head nearby, train loads of supplies were waiting to be stored. With no time to build Hardstands they cleared places in the woods to place the items. Later, as time permitted, paved Hardstands were built and miles of pipeline equipment was cleaned and re-stacked. Tons of spare parts, hundreds of bulldozers, and other construction equipment were checked and preserved.  Buildings were constructed and barracks were built for troop housing. By 1956, most of the operations were in the Depot and prefab area, the "old area" along the highway was abandoned, used for the annual "Tent City" exercise when convoys came in and were offered food and shelter in a dependent evacuation test.  During this time, a new thousand-bed hospital was being built a few miles toward Chinon. Upon it's completion, some permanently assigned outfits were billeted there, with the understanding that in time of war, no combat troops were to be billeted there.  This site is committed to refreshing and preserving memories of the times spent at APO 256 Chinon.


(Photo submitted by Al Lauer, Saumur Signal Depot, France, 1960-62)


There are many GI's and family members that served in either the Chinon Depot or the Hospital. This is their place to get together.

By building an effective web site, we hope to get our message out to a large number of people interested in preserving Chinon memories.

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New !! HISTOIRE DES BASES AMERICAINES
http://jeanpierre.mercier33.free.fr/camps_americains/index.html

Hubert Nadeau from Maine, USA, has sent us a nice collection of photos that he took while stationed at Bussac. We have a page for these fine photos. See Bussac 319th.

Whats a tank retriever doing in Chinon? See the story on the 7743 Page.
7743 STORAGE COMPANY PAGE Many extra nice photos.

Hubert Nadeau has shared more Bussac photos with us, and we thank him.  You can send him a "Thank You" in the Guest Book at the bottom of this website.



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