Tri-Service

The Little Parts Of America That Will Be Forever England

The British Cemetery, Ocracoke Island Off North Carolina

The United States of America and Great Britain have long had a 'special relationship' but few know that that extends to both owning patches of land in each others countries.

Situated on the Outer Banks of North Carolina lie two small cemeteries, owned in perpetuity since the Second World War by the UK.

Both contain the graves of British sailors whose bodies were washed ashore following German U-Boat attacks on the 10th of April and the 11th of May 1942.

The first attack was on an 8,000 ton armed British tanker, the San Delfino. Spotted by Captain Lieutenant Rolf Mützelburg of U-203 off Cape Hatteras he ordered a total of seven torpedos fired at the ship.

Just over an hour after the first shot the San Delfino sank, killing twenty-eight men and sending another twenty-two into the water. The latter lucky enough to be rescued later by a naval trawler, the HMT Norwich City.

READ: German U-Boats Found Off American Coast In 'Graveyard Of The Atlantic'

The second attack targeted another Royal Navy armed trawler, the HMT Befordshire, a former commercial boat acquired by the Admiralty and equipped with a 4-inch gun and depth charges.

Sent across the Atlantic to help the US Navy in anti-submarine operations she was actively searching for a U-Boat off Ocracoke Island when spotted by U-558.

British Cemetery at Buxton, Hatteras Island

A direct hit by a torpedo on the Bedfordshire killed all 37 men aboard and sent her straight to the bottom.

The trawler's demise was so fast that the first indication that she'd been lost was when the bodies of two of her sailors washed up on the American coast.

Ocracoke and Hatteras Islands are now home to little patches of Britain, where Union Jack flags fly at all times.

Meanwhile on the banks of England's longest river, The Thames, is a small piece of America. A memorial for President John F. Kennedy gifted from the people of Britain to the USA.

Opened by Her Majesty The Queen in May 1965 the land at Runnymede is cared for by the Kennedy Memorial Trust.