Overseas

At the POE we got some more shots (inoculations) and I got sick from the typhus injection. We got new gas masks and impregnated clothing. On June 30th we boarded HMS Scythia at the 49th St. pier. The little book says I lost three dollars in a poker game. Since then I have learned a fool proof system for breaking even as far as gambling is concerned.

July 1st was our last night in the U.S.A. as we woke up the next morning at sea. We were in a huge convoy, ships from one horizon to the other in all directions. A convoy can only go as fast as the slowest ship and they all stayed in formation. On Independence Day we had rough weather and I wasn't feeling so good. Then I sang some songs with Billy Williamson and felt better. We read quite a bit and played card games to pass the time away. Some of the men were sea sick. As we passed time zones we kept setting our watches up. I think we lost six hours in all. I have been tired ever since.

Maybe the less said about the Scythia the better. We were very crowded and the food was nothing to brag about. Thursday, July 6, "Half Way."

There was a church service at sea on July 9th. About l0AM on the 11th we sighted Northern Ireland. Later in the day we saw Scotland. The next day we passed the Isle of Man, saw Wales, and anchored on the bay of Liverpool. It wasn't until the 15th that we disembarked at Liverpool and were loaded on a train that took us to a camp near Newport, South Wales.

The train ride was beautiful. Maybe it was because we had seen the blue-green ocean for so long, but whatever it was, the greenery of the English countryside was really something. At that time of year, because Britain is so far north it is light until 10 or 11 at night. It almost seemed as if it never got dark. If one draws a line across the map west from England it hits North America around Newfoundland.

The first night in camp we thought we heard bombing but later we found out it was artillery practice.

July 16th "Good chow" on July 18th Agee, Rainey, Williamson, Woikey, Crosby and I walked to Newport. We did a lot of walking when we were in England (Wales). It was a long way to town but there were a few pubs on the way. Woikey could speak German and that came in handy later on.

In my diary the letters ATS appeared a number of times and I finally figured out what they meant. July 25th, "Went to town and to dance. Met A.T.S. and walked her home. Made a date for Friday". Now the reader knows what an A.T.S. is. It looks like I was on guard duty Friday and did not keep the date.

On the 27th we got up at 4AM and worked with 155 MM Howitzers and fired about 200 rounds with three guns. The 155 MM has a shell about six inches in diameter compared to 4 inches for the 105 MM. The 105 MM round weighed about 30 pounds as near as I can remember.

Seeing a white woman with a black baby in Cardiff was noteworthy enough to merit an entry in the diary on Aug. 3. Remember this was 1944 but England was quite a bit different. Black soldiers dated white English girls all the time.

We didn't always go to Newport on pass. Then again we didn't always have a pass. If you had a pass you had to be back by a certain time but if you sneaked out through the fence you could come in whenever you wanted to. Caerleon and Chepstow were two other places we visited. We also went to Bristol which is in England. The other places are in Wales.

London was off limits to GI's because of the buzz bombs. We were not supposed to eat much in British restaurants particularly meat because the civilian population was severely rationed and they needed their food for themselves.

We had some fun with British people, especially the ATS girls. They liked to dance the (H)okey Pokey and to sing the song "You Are My Sunshine." It had been popular in the states years before so we thought the British were way behind the times.

In some ways we didn't get along with the British too well. We made fun of their dinky railroads and couldn't understand why they would think so much of the King. They had an expression that the trouble with Yanks is that they are overbearing, overpaid, oversexed and overhere. The Yanks countered that the Limy soldiers were under-bearing, underpaid, undersexed and under Eisenhower.

Actually we should have had nothing but admiration for the British who hung on virtually alone from the fall of France in 1939 until the Americans came into the war in late 1941 or early 1942. During the Blitz London was in flames every night and since the English soldiers had to abandon much of their equipment at Dunkirk they had soldiers with pitch forks, Saint Paul's Cathedral, a handful of spitfires, and Winston Churchill's speeches; not much more. It proved to be enough.

Conversely the British should have been happy that we were "over there". They probably would not have survived without us. Even before we entered the war the Atlantic was peppered with ships carrying weapons and supplies to the Island Empire (as Churchill called it). It was supposed to be lend-lease but I don't recall any of it being paid back.

Kestner didn't usually go to town with us because he didn't like to walk that much and I think maybe he wrote home every night. He had a little boy whom he missed very much. One night Williamson, Leroy Hoffman, and maybe a couple of others and I came back from town and serenaded Kestner but I don't think he appreciated it very much.

In Aug. 13th we went after out new M7s. We went through Chepstow, Bristol and Bath to Warminster. We were assigned to tents and "d near froze". We brought the new equipment back to Llanmartin on the l5th.

The next day was my 20th birthday and I was on guard duty. The following day Agee, Kestner and Bendas went to town with me to help me celebrate. It was one of Kestner's rare trips to town.

For some reason we had "short arm inspection" two Wednesdays in a row. Maybe there had been a case or two of v.d.

On the 30th I was switched to the 6th howitzer section under Barny Kestner as chief-of-section. Barny used to complain that when he got me he got the pill roller (Leroy Hoffman the medic) too. Hoffman and I were pretty good friends and there did not seem to be any specified vehicle that he was supposed to ride. Kestner was kidding -I think.

It was CSMO (close station march order) on Aug 31. We pulled into an American staging area the next day but rough weather kept us from crossing the channel right away the diary says "Patton was rolling close to Germany". Whenever we could get near a radio we would try to hear the news.

We loaded onto LSTs (landing ship tank) on Sunday September 3rd. When I saw the sailors chaining the M-7s down I thought it was silly because those heavy things would never move around. How wrong can you be? We ate some good navy chow but we had to sleep on the steel decks. Kestner used to say that you could shingle the roof with Joe Dress' pancakes but I thought they were pretty good.

DeLoyd Cooper is the Historian for the 275th Armored Field Artillery Battalion Association.
Copyright © 1999 DeLoyd Cooper. All rights reserved.
Revised: November 4, 2004