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Embarkation
On April 29th battalion headquarters was informed by telephone from HQ, Fourth Air Force, that the battalion would be ordered to proceed to the staging area, to arrive May 11th. Telegraphic orders were to follow. The Battalion Commander immediately ordered all training stopped, except practice firing of rifles, carbines, machine guns, and the 37 mm anti-tank gun. Company commanders were ordered to tell their men that movement would soon begin and to impress upon them the necessity for secrecy from the standpoint of their own protection and of military expediency. All rifle and machine gun firing was completed by May first. A directive from HQ, Fourth Air Force, required that all personnel of the battalion fire a familiarization course of 25 rounds with the carbine before leaving for the staging area. Carbines and ammunition were immediately drawn, firing commenced and completed on the 2nd of May. On May first Colonel Munson, who had now taken over command from Colonel Park, ordered Captain Reed, the Battalion S-4, to the Boston Port of Embarkation to check up on the status of equipment.
The battalion made its transcontinental trip in two trains, -- H & S and A Companies left one day in advance for the trip by Union Pacific and Baltimore and Ohio. B and C Companies took a somewhat more direct route by Northern Pacific, Burlington and Pennsylvania. On each train a baggage car was converted into a kitchen, using our gasoline stoves. Staple food supplies were taken from McChord while other items were purchased en route. A few of the men went through their home towns on the trip, but security regulations prevented any chance of contacting families or friends.
Both trains arrived at Camp Kilmer, New Brunswick, New Jersey on the afternoon of May 11th. Camp Kilmer was still expanding and the coarse red sand of Jersey was spotted with new construction. We were assigned to familiar two-story Army Barracks and our final processing began at once. Old rifles were taken up and new ones issued; defective pistols and four 50 caliber, water cooled anti-aircraft MGs were replaced. All clothing and equipment was carefully inspected and much of it changed for new. Carbines were issued to men who were to be armed with them. Physical inspections with a particularly strong inoculation finished that part of the preparations. Administrative details of records and shipping lists were completed, personnel and headquarters sections working late into the nights.
Until processing was completed all men and officers were restricted to the post, -- again we had a brief period of training schedules, hikes, inspections, formations, and guard duty. Censorship regulations were explained and censorship of letters was started, -- to continue throughout the rest of the war. In the evenings there was the NCO Club, -- where everyone from private to master sergeants could drop in for beer and sandwiches, -- several theaters, or just a walk around the unfamiliar roads of the big camp.
On May 16th the processing was completed and it was possible to issue 12-hour passes to New Brunswick or New York, -- one-third of the battalion permitted away from camp at one time. It was the first trip to Broadway for many of the men and the passes were quickly picked up. For a fortunate few with families in the vicinity of New York there was a chance for a brief visit, for the others a telephone call from the post to the folks. Through the hustle of last-minute preparation and processing there was in the mind of every man, perhaps more strongly than before, the thought of home. No one knew what lay ahead in the future, but each man, detached for brief moments from the events around him, was thinking in terms of his home; compiling a sort of catalogue of happy memories that he could treasure in the months ahead.
On the 20th of May we were again restricted to Camp Kilmer and the next day an advance party was sent to the port. On the 22nd we boarded the train and moved out of Camp Kilmer for the short trip to the Port of Embarkation, -- Staten Island. To comply with blackout regulations the blinds had been drawn and we sat with our equipment piled beside us, in racks overhead, or on the floor between the seats. Carrying rifle, gas mask, pack, and one heavy barracks bag, we got off the train and walked in a fast-moving formation through the railroad yards and down a passageway to board the ferry. Soon we had crossed the river to where our ship lay huge and gray in the shaded dock lights. In single file, as our names were called from the shipping list, we went aboard and were directed to our bunks on “C” deck, where we arranged our equipment and tried to get comfortable for the trip. The last man came aboard after 1 A.M., the gang-planks were pulled clear, and we were ready to go.
The S. S. Mariposa, a Matson liner under charter to the United States Army was our ship. On board as ship commander was Colonel Burr of the Army Transport Service; troop commander was Lt. Col. Zeigler, CO of the 862nd Engineer Aviation Battalion. With approximately 5000 enlisted men, 460 officers and 12 nurses we sailed from New York Harbor at 0730 hours on the 23rd of May, 1943. On “C” deck, in what had been the Tourist Lounge, the greater portion of the 843rd men lay on canvas bunks assigned the night before. The bunks were arranged in tiers of four and groups of eight mounted on an iron frame. Most of the men were sleeping, but a few heard the sound of the ship’s engines as she moved out of the harbor. There were no ventilating ducts in this compartment and it was hot and stuffy. There was little aisle space between the groups of beds, and with all the personal equipment, -- barracks bag, packs, gas masks, rifles, etc., -- stacked about the compartment, living conditions were crowded. The entire boat was crowded.
In the nights there was much shifting of personnel from cabins to the deck outside where it was cooler and men could sleep if they were not stepped on continually by others passing along the crowded deck. Here, too, bunks were set up, barracks bags and packs piled along the walls of the cabins. But many men slept flat on the deck. It was better than sleeping in the hot, stuffy compartment.
The Mariposa looked huge to us, and although her 19000 tons didn’t put her in the Queen Mary or Elizabeth class, she seemed more than a match for any submarine. It was not until our second day at sea that we officially knew that our destination was England. Some of us were startled when the gun crews had their first practice firing one morning. We hurried out on deck expecting to see action with a submarine. After we saw how efficient and accurate those gun crews were, everybody felt better, -- everybody except those who were seasick, and they were beyond feeling!
On good days everybody was on deck in the sun. On bad days men read books or slept. One gray, windy and rainy day a rolling sea had almost everybody seasick. The hardier ones stood in the bow and watched the ship plunge through the waves while salt spray swept over the foredeck. The sick ones remained inside and had plenty of company. Inconveniences on board were trying to wash or shave in salt water and the mess system. At chow time, twice a day, you got in the long line that went down several decks to the mess hall. Before you reached the mess hall you heard them calling “C” - Cards Out!” for your section. Your card was your admission to the mess hall, and when you finally got in, they whipped you through there in nothing flat. You are standing at a narrow table, and when you had finished you had about ten seconds to wash your mess kit. After chow, depending upon your constitution, you either turned green and lost your meal or remained your natural color and held on.
Since the ship could make 22 knots, we were fast enough to travel out of convoy, so made the crossing without naval escort. Our first day a U.S. Navy blimp flew overhead and a coast patrol plane watched over us the second and third days. The fourth and fifth days we were entirely on our own and we felt very much alone. Late in the afternoon of the fifth day a small black speck appeared in the sky and increased in size until we could see the silhouette of a plane. At the first sign the Navy gunners had taken their battle stations and now the entire ship was alerted. The big Liberator plane stayed just out of range and made a complete circuit of the ship, then finally signaled by blinker and the ship answered. The plane then came down to only 5O feet above the water and flew alongside the full length of the ship and perhaps a hundred yards distant. As they passed our ship the English crew waved to us, while we returned the greeting with enthusiasm. It was our first welcome to England!
Apparently upon orders received from the plane, we changed our course abruptly to the north, rounded the northern end of Ireland to bear down through the North Channel and the Irish Sea to Liverpool.
