Chapter 10 - Crossing the Channel

We finally sailed on Sept. 5th and unloaded on Utah beach before daylight. It was a terribly rough trip and almost everyone was seasick at one time or another on this short 28 mile trip. we seemed to get out in the ocean and just sit and rock from side to side and not move forward at all. I have read later that we came very close to capsizing several times, and the LST commander was threatening to cut our equipment loose and let it go over the side in order to keep from losing his ship.

I'll never forget, C Battery had KP duty on this ride. I was sitting behind the wheel of our halftrack on the top deck, when Sgt. "Wolf" came by and got in beside me. We were sitting there when someone came looking for the Sgt. with the word that another man on KP had gotten sick and needed replacing. He turned and I was almost certain who the replacement would be, but much to my surprise he said, "Come with me and if we can find someone else who is not sick, I won't have to send you, but if we can't find anyone, you will have to go."

We started out and a young fellow named Salvador Oliva (Louisville, Kentucky) came prancing along and Sgt. "Wolf" said, "Oliva ,how are you feeling?" and Sal answered, "Just fine Sergeant." Sgt. said, "Then, get yourself down to the kitchen. You're on K.P."

Sal has always accused me of "brown nosing" the First Sgt. to get him on K.P., which was not necessarily true, I was just practicing the old sailors adage "any old port in a storm". Or the old soldiers saying "that if you are going to screw someone make sure it isn't yourself".

We traveled from the Utah beach area a short distance and went into a bivouac area at St. Germane, France. A short time later we moved to a place called Benoitsville, then on the 19th of Sept. we moved again to an area near Coetquidan, France.

At this location I received a letter from my mother informing me that brother Robert had been located, and he was O.K. He was back in England. It was such a happy letter, and in it she said they had sent me a Radiogram as soon as they heard the news, but as some things happen I received the Radiogram more than a week later.

Along about Sept. 15th we broke camp and began the trip across France to the front lines. We were all looking forward to seeing and enjoying Paris, but the army does not conduct sight-seeing tours, and when we reached Paris our route was carefully chosen around the outskirts of the city. We were about six days making this trip in convoy, because the route had to be chosen to avoid certain bridges and roads that would not accommodate our vehicles.