The 3125th. is Disbanded (Part 2)

May 15, 2019, 4:07 PM

Well, as ordered, we packed our gear and early the next morning we boarded three GI trucks and headed West out of Marseille. About 30 miles later we arrived at a small school house where there were three 8-man tents out back. The sign read "692nd.Port Company". The only ones there were about 30 of us. Fortunately, included in our group were two cooks. Thirty men does not constitute a company,. so, in essence, we were a detachment.

We also learned we were in Port-de-Bouc, a small city on the Mediterranean Sea. We were told to stow our gear in one of the tents and would then be driven down to the docks and introduced to our work stations. We would also be informed of our duties and responsibilities.

It was just a short drive down to the docks and as we approached the docks we could see two Liberty ships at dockside. On and around the docks were numerous flat bed trailers with sideboards about four feet high. Each trailer was loaded with 155 mm Howitzer artillery shells, literally, thousands of shells. There was no activity on the docks because the previous group had just left the day before our arrival and we would not begin our duties until the next day.

Now the instructions. There would be two shifts. One shift would work from 7:00 AM until 7:00 PM and the second shift would work from 7:00 PM until 7:00 AM. Sunday would be a non-work day and shifts would rotate weekly. Next, came the assignments for each ship. One man would be assigned to each of the five holds on the ship to supervise the loading for that hold. One man would serve as the armed guard at the gang plank and one man would serve as the crew chief of each ship. Thus, there were seven men per ship per shift for a total of 28 men. One officer was assigned per shift. I was assigned as crew chief for one ship on my shift.

Since we were loading ammo, a representative from the Coast Guard was assigned to each ship for each shift and would check the progress and safety regulations re transportation of explosives.

The ship's crew members operated the cranes, unloading the shells from the truck into the hold. All labor was performed by German POWs. In each hold was a crew to load the shells in the hold. One German POW officer who could speak English was assigned to each ship per shift. All truck drivers were German POWs with-semi truck driving experiences. They drove to and from the ammo dump to the ship with no guard. I never visited the ammo dump or the POW camp but was told the POWs received good food because loading those shells in the ship was hard work.

(Well, this post is getting long and there's more stuff to report so I think it best to add a Part 3 to this tale sometime in the future.)

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My first boss was in the 5ID and always had some great stories. He spent most of his time clearing out the French Maginot forts around Metz that had been captured by the Germans. Said he didn't mind fighting the older guys cause they could be reasoned with and would surrender. The young guys were just too fanatical though and either fought to the death or got buried alive (he was a combat engineer).

I had a friend who could translate german and my boss brought me an old photo of a bunch of young german soldiers who had painted grafitti on the inside walls of their bunker. I forget exactly what it said, but it was along the lines of "Ladies if a soldier asks you for a kiss give it to him because he may not be alive tomorrow." That cracked him up. He said that for 40 years he assumed it was some gung-ho military propaganda, and it turned out to be a bunch of kids hoping to get laid. He laughed about that for days.

The 3125th. is Disbanded (Part 2)

Thank you for your service Sir! I always enjoy reading!

That's a good read, Joe. Love the details

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