..
|
..
Over There,
Over Here, Over There…
On Monday afternoon 19 June 1944, at 2:30,
all personnel of the 475
MPEG Co. boarded a troop train at Fort Custer,
Michigan. Twenty-six hours later they arrived at Camp Shanks, New
York. Camp Shanks was upriver from New York City
in a sylvan glade above Nyack on the west bank of the Hudson.
It was under |
the command of the Transportation Corps and was a
jumping off point for troops embarking to the European Theater
of Operations (ETO) .
At 13:00 on Friday, 23 June, the 475
boarded a river steamer, a harbor boat, and set sail for New
York City. At 19:00 the company disembarked at
Pier 86 and boarded ship NY-825, H.M.S. Eastern Prince.
The cruise stateroom on this English freighter masquerading as a
troop ship was in a forward hold defined as an “upper ‘tween.” |
..
Ships Gather to form
a convoy 
| From 24 June until 5 July 1944, this hold was to be home to the
475 as the
Prince zigzagged across the north Atlantic with a mixed convoy of
30-some ships under the protection of
several destroyer escorts. The 475
existed within the confines of that hold.
The tables for eating were the sleeping pallets for many of the troops
while others struggled in hammocks to find the arms of Morpheus.
Woe be unto any man who chose to recline on
the herd of duffel bags arrayed on
the hatch cover that separated the residence hold from presumably a “lower
‘tween” below. |
An Escort Destroyer
like that Guarding
the Convoy 
Click
on photo for 437's Story
|
The Prince was a smaller
vessel that had been designed to transport a cargo
of things, not troops. Even though
it was summer, the north Atlantic proved
a hostile environment for the passengers
of the “upper ‘tween.”
Messing was a complicated
process whereby a designated GI from
each table would climb to the deck above us and retrieve
from a communal kitchen a
compartmentalized tray of such tempting
foodstuffs as green liver,
usually leftover from breakfast, or salt horse
and gray potatoes boiled in
their jackets. The Brits appeared
to be gaining revenge for the Battle of Yorktown.
Usually the pitching
of the |
ship succeeded in mixing the Jell-O with the gravy and in making other
tasty combinations as the mess boy descended the ladders from
topside to the anxiously waiting troops. The troops
were “anxiously waiting” for the first whiff of the aroma of food;
the aroma that would send them scurrying topside to the heads
(that’s what sailors call “latrines.”) or the railings to
relieve their churning stomachs of the remnants of the
previous meal.
.........Even the officers
were not immune to the ravages of motion sickness.
Pvt. Paul Bradley, by reason of having incurred the displeasure of
the First Sergeant, was working in the kitchen as a kitchen policeman
(KP). Paul, as a part of his KP job, was assigned
to Mess duties for some of the officers. His description of
the delivery of a meal to one of the 475th’s officers is beyond repetition.
Too bad that Paul is no longer with us to recount it for us in his own
inimitable style.
.........Many members of
the 475 subsisted
for the twelve-day crossing on a candy
bar called “Mallow Cup” and room-temperature kosher
Pepsi Cola, both of which were available in the
PX, which sailors call “ship’s stores.” There were
endless card games on the mess tables and crap games with dice
bouncing off a handy bulkhead.
No one seemed to heed the Army’s order prohibiting gambling.
.........At 2300 hours on Tuesday, 4 July
1944, the Eastern Prince anchored in the
Firth of Clyde off Greenock ,
Scotland. Although the hour neared midnight, it was still bright
daylight due to the northern latitude and double Daylight Saving
Time (European War Time). Next day,
near 1530 hours, the 475
MPEG Co. was ferried ashore by harbor
steamer. It entrained about an hour later
on the L.M.S. Railway and left for the southern
reaches of the U.K. Next morning, at 600 hours, the train
arrived in Bristol, England. The company
was trucked about 6 miles to Tyntesfield
Camp, APO #508, Long Ashton, near the Village of Failand. |
...
|
Friday, 7 July 1944
“I have arrived safely in England or at least that’s what
I thought. But after try-ing to barter for a glass of cider
and a pint of bitter in a pub down the hard road apiece last
evening, I don’t know how safely I have arrived.
The ‘coin of the realm’ produces a minor brainstorm when
one starts making purchases and the
ha’pennies, pennies, threepences, sixpences [and] shillings start rolling.”
Sunday, 9 July 1944
“I sit here on my cot
shivering in a brisk English wind that penetrates every thing…
I enjoyed walking through the wooded country lanes,
along neatly clipped hedge. All seemed so peaceful, except
there were no cars, just natives buzzing by on their ‘lanky, lean
looking’ bicycles (if bicycles might be described as such)” |
..
| On Wednesday, 12 July 1944, the 475
MPEG Co. boarded a train in Bristol, England,
at 1030 hours. It arrived at the Knowlesy Street station in
Bury, Lancashire (north of Manchester) at 1700 hours.
The company detrained and marched about 3 miles to
the Pillsworth Bleach Works building which had been converted to barracks,
offices, supply room, and mess hall facilities. |
..
|
Wednesday, 12 July 1944
“Tuesday night was also PX night. We got
our weekly ration of cigarettes, candies, etc.
The night before we got paid and spent the rest of the
evening figuring out how much it equaled in American
money… Visited [CENSORED] recently.” (This was the only word
cut out of all my letters from overseas.) |
..
|
On Sunday, 16 July 1944, half of
the company was involved in an exercise with the British Home Guard and
the Royal Pay Corps. Its assignment was to invade Bury
and engage about 600 men of these units with
flour bombs and grenades along with blank
ammunition. It was cautioned that the British, especially
the Home Guard, went home for tea at 1600 hours.
The 475 MPEG Co.
had captured Knowsley Street Station by then
and a small group of its men
captured a British Army facility that wasn’t playing the game. |
The captured, embarrassed troops had
real am- munition. The only casualty
of this foray was one of the lads who had
fallen into a cesspool, more mortified than hurt.
[Personal note: In late August 1992 I went back to Bury.
Alas, the old bleach works had fallen victim to
the building of the M66 motorway.
The cobblestoned forecourt, where we
fell out for roll call and
morning calisthenics, still survives. See photo - right.]
.. |
|
..
At 1030 hours on Tuesday, 8 August 1944, the 475th MPEG Co. left
Bury by train and arrived at the Mersey Docks, Liverpool, England
at 1500 hours. The company boarded the USAT (United States
Army Transport) George Washington
which departed at 1530 hours the following day in a convoy of 36 ships.
The transports of the fleet carried thousands of German POWs.
In officers’ country on the
George Washington, there was a gaggle of U.S. Navy Nurses rotated
for R and R. At 1430 hours on Sunday, 20 August 1944 the George Washington
docked at Pier 84, New York City. The 475th was restricted to the
ship overnight. Next day at 1000 it disembarked for transport to
Camp Shanks, N.Y. arriving at 1300 hours. Some of
the troops enjoyed passes in NYC or at
home in the week that followed. |
..
On Sunday, 27 August 1944, at 0830 hours, the 475
entrained for Weehawken, N.J. Upon arrival we boarded
the ferry to Pier 90. There we
boarded the ship NYC-246, the Queen Elizabeth.
Monday at 1330 hours we sailed from New York, alone. [Above
right: picture of the wartime QE laden with troops]
The pride of the Cunard line could
outrun submarines and during the war transported
over eight hundred thousand Allied troops
to all major theaters of operation. The troop complement this
sailing was over 13,000. To achieve this
size passenger roster required sleeping and eating
in shifts. Perpetual dice & card games ran around the clock for the
six days of the crossing.
British troopship food had not improved much since our
first crossing on the Eastern Prince. [Note: The
exterior of the ship was painted battleship gray for wartime, including
the railings of the weather decks which
were made of rare hardwoods. Many
Allied GI’s carved initials and messages into these gray railings.
After the war, when the Queen Elizabeth was refurbished for the tourist
trade, these railings were left as they were,
in tribute to these heroes.] At 0930 on Sunday 3 September 1944
the QE arrived at the Firth of Forth Scotland. |
..
Click
on Photo to view other LCI's
|
At 1300 hours, the
475
MPEG Co. disembarked to Gourock, Scotland.
From there the company moved by rail to Moreton- in-Marsh, in
the Cotswolds near Oxford, England.
It moved by truck to P.W. E. #1 at Spring Hill above
Bourton-on-the-Hill, A.P.O. #124. After a
brief stay here, it moved to
Eastleigh, a suburb
of Southampton. On Sunday, 10 September
1944, the 475
boarded the L.C.I. #537 (Landing Craft,
Infantry) in Southampton Harbor.
At about 0030 on 11 September 1944 the LCI
was beached on Utah Beach after about 6 tries
and a wicked encounter with the surf (see
Chapter 6).
..
After waiting for the tide to recede,
in a manner shown in the picture at the left,
the troops were able to land nearly dry-footed,
wearing full field packs and carrying duffel
bags and weapons. Those
armed with Winchester Model 97 Pump 12 gauge shot-
guns were to learn that the bluing, particularly on the
cooling fins, was poor protection |
against rusting from seawater spray. The CO was met
by a corporal with an overlay for which he had no map. SNAFU! 
Troops of the 475
MPEG made the trek to the roadway toward the north
and assembled in marching formation. Duffel bags
were gathered for truck transport. The company
marched toward Sainte-Marie-Du-Mont. After
an episode with a possible minefield (see
Chapter 6) the troops bivouacked
in an apple orchard for a few
hours sleep. In the daylight hours
the company was picked up by truck transport
and taken to PWE #10 atop the mountain 2½ miles southeast
of Cherbourg. At PWE #10 the 475
not only did routine stockade duty and the marching
of parties of POWs into Cherbourg for delousing, but also a number
of detached service assignments. Your writer was sent to a
General Hospital nearer the front to guard POW patients that were not segregated
from the general patient population. |
 |
Another detachment led by the company CO, Captain Alex
Levine, was sent to escort General Bernard Herman Ramcke
to England by plane after his capture by Brigadier General
Charles Canham
and troops of the 8th Infantry Division,
on 19 September 1944. Two of the men accompanying Capt.
Levine were Sergeant Bob Tull and Corporal Lyle
Bonney. As befitted his rank,
General Ramcke was housed at the 98th General Hospital
in Cherbourg rather than in the overcrowded
stockade of PWE #10. Capt.
Levine remembers this assignment as one
of the highlights of his 31-year military career.
General Ramcke was Hitler’s hand-picked defender of the
Brittany Peninsula and foremost guardian of
the Submarine Pens at Brest. The 475
was assigned the job at the last minute after another unit “dropped the
ball” somehow. General |
Ramcke was a stubborn man as displayed by his defense of Brest,
his behavior as a POW in France and in Camp Clinton,
Miss. ,
and his attitude toward his captors.
With Levine, General Ramcke refused to eat saying that
his food had probably been poisoned. Captain
Levine had two identical plates of food brought.
He sat at the table with Ramcke, offered him a choice
of the two plates, and he (Levine) ate the one not chosen. Ramcke
ate. In retrospect, Captain Levine thinks that possibly he
exceeded the “call of duty.” When captured,
Ramcke had as a pet and companion
a beautiful Irish setter. When Captain Levine delivered
Ramcke to Major Becker of the British forces, at
the airfield in England, Becker
promptly announced “Herr General, der Hund gehtes nicht!”
Ramke claimed that General Middleton, CO of
the 8th Infantry Division, had promised that he and his dog
would not be separated. Becker was not cowed
by Ramcke. He interrupted the General’s tirade
with, “You are in England now.” Gesturing at the dog, Becker
ordered, “Take him away!” As Levine was leaving the tarmac he was
called back. General Ramcke had requested permission
to speak to him. His words to the captain, “You are a
good soldier. Thank you very much.” |
..
..
It had been named the Oriente as a cruise ship, a
sister ship of the unfortunate Morro Castle which
burned off the New Jersey coast on 8 September
1934. The Barry travelled in a convoy
docking at Southampton, England on 2 November 1944.
The 475 was transported
to Delamere Park Camp
near Cuddington, Cheshire, Northwich, England
where it served as post MPs and did duty as town patrol in
the city of Chester. |
The 475
enjoyed the relative liberty of Camp Shanks, NY from
9 October until 21 October 1944.
On Saturday, 21 October 1944 the company moved to Pier 84 in New York City
where it boarded the ship NY-527, The
Thomas H.Barry. The Barry was not one
of the “General ships” although it was named for a general. |
.............On 13 November 1944
the company was moved to PWE #1 at Spring Hill
near Bourton- on-the-Hill above Moreton in Marsh, Gloucestershire.
On 21 November part of the company left for duty at 110th Station Hospital,
Netley, Hamps. Southeast of Portsmouth. (On 8 December this
detail returned to PWE #1.)
.............Early in December 1944,
the 475 was
issued a number of 50-caliber air-cooled machine guns
and training in their use and care was begun. No
one could figure out why, the scuttlebutt was silent.
Soon each guard tower was equipped
with a 50-caliber and a supply of armor-piercing
ammunition. Had these pieces
been fired from the rickety towers,
they probably would have disintegrated. Now I quote Captain
Levine :
“It was the Christmas holiday period. The Battle of the Bulge was raging
in the European Theater. The 475
was guarding thousands of POWs with limited personnel.
Everyone available was doing guard
duty ‘4 on’, ‘4 off’ round the clock.
.............We had received special
alert that we must remain prepared for a breakout of the POWs. Part
of the Nazi master plan was to capture England [utilizing the POWs.] ”
.............Before its departure from
England, the 475
had another near miss. This again was during the Battle of the Bulge.
Once more I quote from personal account of Captain Levine:
“Now comes the Camp Commander to further
alert us that the situation is so
bad we should prepare for breaking up our 475
and sending them in as ‘fillers’ as they would probably be needed to stem
the tide or such. As we were under the control of Chief
of Transportation, Washington, DC. I notified that office
by wire that we were ready for our next mission, thereby relieving
the need for so many more U.S. soldiers at
[sic] the ETO and preventing the break-up
of a trained, effective and needed organization.
The order came quickly.
The integrity of the 475
remained intact.” |
..
.......On 10
January 1945
the 475
boarded the U.S.S. General
Brooks and the U.S.S. General Squire in Southampton.
The company arrived in New York on
21 January 1945 and immediately moved to Camp Shanks, NY. Word
came down that the
475
was permanently as- signed to stateside duty. Passes
called "Delays en route" were distributed to the EM and
they left for homes throughout the United States. |
|
|
