Over There....
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| 377th practices Boat Drills aboard the USS West Point |
After 4 and a half months of
training, Eugene and the rest of the 377th are activated for deployment
overseas. On July 25th 1944, the 377th boards the train at Indiantown Gap and
heads north on an overnight trip that will conclude at Camp Myles Standish,
outside the city of Taunton MA. Here they would continue to drill, learn,
inspect equipment, receive their vaccines for overseas deployment and be issued
any addition equipment. This would include sports equipment, which gave
rise that the 377th maybe an Occupation force rather than a fighting force.
Those rumors would be quickly put to rest in the months to come.
The 377th would board the USS West Point (formerly the SS America) on
August 9th and travel across the "great pond" to England. By 8:00 pm
that evening, the USS West Point weighed anchor and set sail.
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| USS West Point |
Across the Pond
The afternoon of August 17th finds
the USS West Point mooring to the pier at the Mersey Dock in Liverpool.
This would be the first taste of war for Eugene and the 377th.
Liverpool had been damaged by the Luftwaffe bombing campaign as part of
the Battle of Britain. Rising from the destruction were steel girder, shattered
windows and jagged foundations of what were once buildings and businesses.
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| Camp Barton Stacey |
From the docks at Liverpool, the
regiment was transported through the hills and countryside to Sutton Scotney
and on to Camp Barton Stacey. Here, in addition to the usual training
routine, the men would also learn about German equipment and field tactics.
In late August, the men were exposed
to another reality of their situation, the unforgettable drone of the Buzz
Bomb. The drone of the flying destruction filled the air, then the drone began
to putter, followed by silence and the panic that the silence held. Men grabbed
whatever passed for clothing and hit the slit trenches. With a tremendous
explosion that shook the buildings and the men, the bomb landed in the
countryside about 4 miles from the camp.
At this point, I'm diverting from
the historical travelogue. Eugene seldom spoke of his experiences in
Europe and being quite a bit younger than any members of the 2 families, the
Kesslers and the Wehrles, I would not have been privy to much, if any of the
stories. Most of what I heard were family tales handed down from parent
to child or through other family members.
One of these tales, my older
brothers knew this one, was at some point there was an explosion and Eugene
dove to the first available cover, which happened to be a latrine. The
story has been somewhat validated by Eugene's daughters Char and Deb. I
can only speculate at this point, but this story seems to have found a potential
place in this remembrance. Certainly there would be latrines at Camp
Barton Stacey and there were certainly explosions and while I cannot be
absolutely certain, I have a visual in my head.
On to France
On September 9th, after moving to Southampton, the 377th
have received their orders and they and their equipment are loaded onto Liberty
cargo ships for France. Once off the coast of France, where 100 days
earlier, thousands of men from the 1st and 29th Infantry Division and 9
companies of US Rangers lost their lives, they remained on-board until the
rough seas that had plagued their trip, calmed. On September 13th, the
377th transferred to LCTs and onto the beaches of Normandy. As they approached
Omaha beach, the remnants of the great battle on June 6th 1944 were still
apparent. The obstacles, the machinery, scuttled ships and the remains of the
dreaded and now scorched and pock-marked Atlantic Wall, a series of
interconnected reinforced concrete casemates, pillboxes and anti-tank
artillery, greet them.
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| Omaha Beach, D-Day +100 |
After landing, the 377th moved
inland and set up camp in the hedgerows around the town of Trevieres, returning
to training schedules and becoming familiar with the rains of the French
coastal region.
In a month, they would receive their
baptism. On October 9th, the men of the 377th were moved to forward positions.
On the 15th, after being attached to Patton's 3rd Army, they bivouacked
outside of Norroy-le-Sec, 20 miles northwest of Metz and their first major
test.
(Next, Crossing the Moselle and
Battle for Metz)
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