Off To The Continent -- WW2

May 4, 2017, 3:23 PM

The following account of our journey from Southampton to Le Havre, France, was written by one of my company mates, T.Sgt. Addis W. (Bud) Morgan. His daughter has granted me permission to use his story. His account and description of events is much better than any thing I could have done. However, I was able to fill in some blanks and add a few of my own comments. Like so many of us, our memories are sometimes focused on events that others may have forgotten or, may have been viewed in an entirely different context. I suppose most military personnel experience different feelings about their future, particularly when it comes to their deployment to a war zone. While still in the States, we experience little or no fear. When we receive orders to proceed to a Port of Debarkation, there is a bit of excitement and apprehension. The closer we get to the war zone we reach the level of fear, and for many of us, we are "scared". In the following story, everyone of us was not afraid to admit we were scared.

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We had a short ride from Barton Stacey to the docks at Southampton. It was night with the usual blackout conditions. We were probably the first group to file aboard the Marine Wolf. We had our full packs on our backs, our steel helmets on, and our weapons in hand. As we advanced on deck, we were directed to certain ladders heading down into the bowels of the ship. Our group went down one level then two, then three, then four and finally, five. With each downward step, I could feel my tendency toward claustrophobia increasing. By the time we reached our assigned position, I was very nervous, to put it mildly. We were well below the water line, loaded down with equipment, jammed in five-high bunks: not my type of travel arrangements. We were informed it would be a short trip and that we were to climb into pour bunks and stay there until notified it was time to disembark. Well, that wasn't the greatest news in the world, except the part about it being a short trip.

I don't know how long it took us to cross the English Channel, all I know is that at some point in the journey. one of the most heart-stopping sounds I had ever heard suddenly assailed my ears. It was a tremendous explosion, obviously in the water outside our vessel. It seemed as though the ship's hull pressed in like the skin of a bass drum. I swear, the feet of all the GIs in the compartment hit the deck en masse and there was a mad scramble for the ladder. Everyone had the same thought -- "here I am, way down at the bottom of the ship, with the sides of it about to split -- I'm getting the hell out of here" !!!! But no. Those in charge had other ideas on the subject. The first guys to make it part at up the ladder were confronted by a rifle pointed at them by a Marine, saying, "Get back down there". He didn't give the impression that there was any room for discussion. just, "get back down there". Before the wave of GIs behind the ones on the ladder had subsided, there came another whopper, B-O-O-M, with more compression and shaking of the ship. Scared? You better believe it !!!! Somehow, word finally leaked down to us poor souls in the bottom of the ship that the crew was dropping a few ash cans and it would do no damage to our ship. But, the Marine Wolf was not on a training mission and ash cans are used to destroy a lurking UBoat that's trying to blow a vessel out of the water, and I'm in the bowels of that vessel.

As moments passed, there were no other BOOMS and we could see no trickles of water, so our feelings of doom were eased somewhat. Word finally reach the depths of the ship that we would soon be docking in Le Havre. Being the first on at Southampton and getting the choice location about thirty feet below the water level, we would be the last to debark. Just sit and wait

(These are my comments)

Most of the docks at Le Havre had been destroyed during the early part of the war and those now in use were of the "make do" variety. The dock walkway was wide where we debarked and there was a sudden narrowing with no guard rails. We had a "Shave tail" 2nd. LT who had endeared himself to no one in the company. After all company members had debarked, we assembled and began marching to an area where we would board trucks for a trip to Canp Lucky Strike. The LT. was shouting out useless orders and as we approached the point where the dock narrowed, he failed to notice the change and fell into the ice cold water. His back pack really saved him because with all the equipment he would have gone completely under had his back pack not provided some buoyancy. I was near him when he fell in and with the help of two or three other guys we got him safely back on the dock. Needless to say he had endured a super Baptist baptism. Some of the ships arriving in Le Havre had drafts of thirty five feet, so the water at dockside was DEEP.

Well, we have at last made it to France. Where do we go from here?

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Thank you so much for your service. I have the upmost respect for you and your comrades. You are all heroes.
War is definitely unlike anything else in this world. And the first few days, weeks are very chaotic. I can remember our first patrol in Baghdad. After a few weeks going on joint patrols with the unit we were replacing, it was finally time to take over. My squad leader had spent his first 5 years in Ranger Battalion, so he was a seasoned vet, and very high strung. I can remember the anxiety and fear. But at the same time I was confident in the soldiers to my right and left. We had trained for months and months. I remember on our way back from patrol we got lost, and our GPS system (blue force tracker) went down. At this point it was well in to the night and the city was eerily quiet. The feeling of helplessness was overwhelming. That is a feeling I will never forget. By the grace of god, we did not get hit that night and we finally made it back from patrol. I got religious really quick that night.
I have not thought of that night or much of my deployment at all until I read this post. I am so incredibly thankful for the soldiers that came before me and laid the foundation, and for the ones that came after me to carry the tradition. I feel indebted to those guys and my leadership that brought me home to my family, just like they promised they would.

God Bless America

Off To The Continent -- WW2

What jerk gve this a thumbsdown? Joe is the man!*****

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Re: Off To The Continent -- WW2

Joe21 - these posts are THE BEST! The Greatest Generation..

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