A number of the troopers had failed to have their prized jump boots repaired at Camp Bragg and were wearing boots that needed resoling. Later I was assigned to Headquarters (Hqs) as Assistant
During this period, I recall a Lieutenant teaching a group of troopers how to deactivate mines and bombs being killed by a butterfly bomb he was deactivating.
Patton, the division was assembled in front of the reviewing stand to hear Patton berate the British in very unflattering language. I remember after a Division review for Lt. The heat, foul odor of animal dung, diarrhea and swarms of flies made life uncomfortable. Training was conducted and we paraded for The bivouac area was open desert where the afternoon temperatures reached 130 degrees and dust devils that played havoc with our tents and equipment. The only real duty I can remember being assigned to me was to train some of the troopers on the 4.2" Chemical Mortars. Captain Landers was Battery Commander (BC). It was an uncomfortable trip of about 18 hour through dry treeless wheat fields through Rabat to Oujda, French Morocco.įriday Today I was assigned to Battery (Btry) D, 456th Parachute Field Artillery Battalion, (PFA Bn.) 82nd Abn Division. About seven days later all paratroopers traveled by rail to Oujda where we joined the 82nd Abn. Monday We debarked at Casablanca, French Morocco and were transported to nearby Replacement Pool, Camp Marshal Lydautey. Nightly the ship broke down and set dead in the water as Naval escorts circle the The ship had recently been converted from a coal burner to an oil burner. Government had received it as reparation from the German Government after that war. The ATS George Washington had been in mothballs since World War I. The convoy contained all of the 82nd Airborne Division. Usually Captain Cooper attended the meetings and I passed on the information to the NCOIC and checked with him regularly.Īpril 29, 1943, Friday We sailed in a large convoy of troopships and Naval escort vessels. Cooper and I were responsible for one group during the passage. The enlisted troopers were organized into groups with a senior NCOIC. The enlisted troopers were in another EGB group.Īpril 27, 1943, Wednesday Both EGB groups boarded Army Transport Service Ship (ATS) George Washington in New York harbor bound for North Africa. We traveled by rail to Camp Shanks, New York.Īpril 19, 1943, Monday We were assigned to Excess Officers Company, EGB 447-20 at Camp Shanks. MyĪpril 15, 1943, Thursday I was assigned to Officers Pool (X), The Parachute School, Fort Benning, Georgia where officers were outfitted and processed for overseas. Congress took action to authorize ten percent personnel over strength to accompany the 82nd. However, there were no qualified and trained parachute soldiers in manpower pools in Africa. The 82nd Airborne Division was shipped in this manner.
I understood Divisions shipping out to combat arenas were required to ship with its full compliment of men and equipment - that battlefield replacements would come from trained manpower pools in theater. Much of the everyday mundane and routine is not included. The following log will contain errors and omissions because some were recorded hastily. Each of us observed events from a different perspective and find the swiftly passing years have dimmed our memories as it has mine. Since I kept a record of principal events during my service with the 456th Parachute Field Artillery Battalion during World War II, I felt that some of the events I recorded would be of interest to others.