Physical fitness was maintained through road marches, obstacle course-running, and athletic contests. Boston became the latest metropolitan mecca for the Division, but it wasn't long before the restriction lid was clamped down and the big ships tied up. The final rail movement of thirty-five miles to the Boston Port of Embarkation was negotiated, trains running conveniently onto the dock.
Traditional Red Cross doughnuts, coffee and orangeade helped calm any stomachs that might have quaked at the gangplank's forbidding slope. Troops were squared off according to number and then began the fateful file of pack-and-bag-laden men up the plank, responding with first names and initials to the check-off of surnames.
The U.S.S. Mariposa sailed August 6, with the 378th Infantry, 358th, 359th, 360th, Field Artillery Battalions and the 320th Medical Battalion aboard. I went overseas on the U.S.S. West Point (formerly America) embarking on August 9 with the 377th (my regiment) and 379th Infantry and all remaining units of the Division.
Prior to sailing, troops came up for air on the sun deck, looking long at the Boston waterfront and getting in their last whistles at American girls. As the ships wound out through the antisubmarine-netted harbor, the last visual contact with the United States faded out with the dimming lights of the city and Massachusetts' North Shore.
The USS West Point carried 8, 520 soldiers and took 8 days to travel 3,300 miles to Liverpool, traveling about 375 miles per day. All the major troop carriers, which were converted luxury liners taken over by the War Department, crossed the ocean throughout the war unescorted. They sailed in a slight zig-zag fashion instead of a straight line, changing directions about every half hour to reduce the possibility of German submarines getting a direct shot at them.
The voyages were generally serene and the Division enjoyed, save for unavoidable overcrowding, the shipboard life so novel to most everyone. Motion pictures, standing in lines at the ship's stores and reading occupied most of the troops' time. The meal lines never ended from breafast through supper.
One of the greatest developments at the time was the introduction of pocket books. Now a book could easily fit in a pack and could be carried and read anywhere. They were provided free by the Red Cross and constantly swapped by the soldiers who were avid readers. The troops took turns getting up on deck for several hours a day for some fresh air and exercise.
With the ships taking about the same time to cross, they docked at Liverpool, England August 14 and 17, respectively. Staggering under large packs and our belongings, we made our way up a long ramp and to the waiting English trains with their European-made cars.
The Division's destination was Winchester, in Hampshire, oldest English city, capital during King Alfred's reign and legendarily synonymous with King Arthur's Camelot. The 377th Infantry (my regiment), 379th Infantry, Division Artillery, 795th Ordnance Company and 95th Reconnaissance Troop were located at Barton Stacey Camp, about twelve miles northwest of Winchester.
We began our last leg of the Division's trek to the ground-operational sectors of the European Theater was on September 8. From that date through September 11 troops trucked to Southampton's great channel port twelve miles south of Winchester. As a criterion of the war zone ahead, all of the soldiers carried live ammunition.
The Division, with all its vehicles, boarded Liberty ships, LST's and converted British commercial vessels. Passage across the English channel was delayed two and three days for most units as, following embarkation, it was necessary to lay both in and outside the harbor pending availability of debarkation facilities at the landing point. Southampton ships anchored in the Solent, off the inner shore of the Isle of Wright just outside Southampton's bay.
By September 14, however, the last of the boats had gotten underway-in convoy, the Division's first travel in a train of ships. Late that afternoon the tail ends of the convoy arrived off the Normandy coast, sailed past Cherbourg and anchored with the predecessors near Omaha Beach to await debarkation the next morning.
Loud speakers warned troops as soon as we detrained that we were now in a secret area. In the two weeks that followed, processing of clothing and equipment followed. A full round of lectures occupied all hands so they were advised about ship security, abandoning ship, censorship, finance, sanitation, conduct overseas and other pertinent subjects, including "gangplank fever."