Southampton has played a vital and integral role in this country’s many wars over the years, from the Hundred Years’ War when Henry V led his men through the Westgate en route to Agincourt, to the World Wars of the 20th century when millions upon millions of men passed through the town. In the First World War alone, 8,149,685 soldiers from every corner of the globe passed through Southampton.
To sustain the liberation of Europe in the months after D-Day, Southampton was used continously to transport more troops and equipment over to France and beyond. Each American soldier who passed through the port would pass through a counting machine and on the 25th of October 1944 the machine ticked over to 1,000,000.
Private Paul Shimer Jr, from Chambersburg, Pennsylvania, was the soldier who made history. He was pulled aside and presented with a placard that read ‘The Millionth Yank‘ as he posed for a photo with Southampton’s mayor, Rex Stranger.
