On the 11th May 1942, the ship carrying the US Marines and other US military personnel dropped anchor off Bangor in Belfast Lough with the backdrop of the green Mountains of Mourne a welcome sight. At noon on the 12th of May 1942, the Marines staggered down the gang plank under the weight of “full marching order and over-loaded sea bags and set foot on Ireland shores for the first time”. The Marines, marching through the streets of Belfast to the railway station, did not go unnoticed, “Little kids shouted for Yankee fags and our helmets created quite a sensation in that they resembled the German pot.” The Marines travelled by train from Belfast to their destination of Derry, “We boarded one of the wonderful LMS trains, (a reminder of the Yamassee express) and rocketed over 80 miles of rail in four hours, finally arriving in Londonderry.”  At the railway station, US Navy buses were on hand to take the Marines through the cobbled streets of Derry to their initial billet in the Springtown Camp. Later, the USMC companies were dispersed across the camps which made up the WWII US Naval Operating Base Londonderry including Aberfoyle House (present-day Ulster University Magee Campus) and Beech Hill Camp A (present-day Beech Hill Country House Hotel). The USMC remained in Derry until August 1944 but memories of the ‘Irish Marines’  persist 75 years on, on both sides of the Atlantic.