Argentia, Newfoundland was a quiet seaside community until an American seaplane carrying a surveyor appeared there in the fall of 1940. No one could have imagined the upheaval in store. Hitler's German forces were taking over Europe. The British called upon the US to come to their aid. Argentia was deemed a perfect vantage point for defense operations. To make way for the new base, homes were burned, graveyards unearthed, and fields destroyed.
Louisa Houlihan's family was ordered to take what they could, and to never return. To her dying day, she lamented, "By the time I got to the garden gate, the house was up in flames."
What would they do? Where would they go? What chance did these poor fisherfolk have against Britain's powerful government intent on erasing their community, and in the process--their entire way of life?
