6. Shipping Out
8th Armored Division
 October 1944 - November 1944
Sometime around the middle of September we completed the requirements to receive an Expert Infantry Badge. It was just a little silver rifle on a blue background but it brought you a $5 per month raise. That was a 10% increase in salary and a lot of money at that time. The qualifications to receive the award were fairly stringent. First, you had to be in the infantry. Then you had to complete several qualifications such as receiving a certain score firing on the rifle and machine gun ranges and completing other training courses.
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Oct. 2, 1944 - The starving Polish army in Warsaw surrenders, ending the Warsaw uprising. Nearly 250,000 Poles have died during the 11-week uprising and much of the city has been destroyed. The Soviets, only 7 miles away, make no attempt to rescue them because the Poles are allied with the West.
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Sometime in early October 1944 we received word that we would be shipping out soon. They didn't tell us where of course but it didn't take too long to find out that we were going to Europe. This was probably because there wasn't too much use for armored divisions in the South Pacific. We were probably fortunate in this respect since I am sure conditions in Europe were much better than they were in the South Pacific.
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Oct. 6, 1944 - One of the U.S. Army's most horrendous battles begins when the 9th Infantry attacks the Hurtgen Forest south of Aachen, Germany. During the next three months, the Americans will suffer
22,000 casualties here.
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It took several trains to move a division of 15,000 men to the New York embarkation area. The equipment for the division probably required more trains than the personnel did. Just our one company had more than twenty half-tracks, several jeeps and trucks and quite a bit of other supplies. Each of the tank and field artillery battalions required even more rail capacity to move them.
Many routes were used in getting us to the staging area. The train section that I was on took a pretty straight route going to St. Louis and then almost straight East from there. Another section was routed through Detroit and into Canada and then down to New York while a third section went across the South to around Atlanta and then up to the staging area.
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Oct. 14, 1944 - Field Marshall Erwin Rommel commits suicide. Hitler mistakenly believes Rommel participated in the July 20 assassination attempt. He is given a state funeral.
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One fellow on the train that I was on got a brief and unauthorized leave on the way up. The train never went very fast and it was barely moving one evening when it went past home of one of the men in my compartment. It was too much for him. He knew that we were going to Camp Kilmer for final processing so he jumped off the train and spent a couple of days at home. They didn't do too much to him. What good would it do? I think they canceled his final pass in the States but he had already had his final visit.
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Oct. 23-26, 1944 - The biggest naval battle in history begins as 76 Imperial warships - including nine battleships and four carriers - approach Leyte from three directions. The Americans have 34 carriers, 12 battleships and scores of cruisers and other craft. The four day battle costs Japan 26 ships - including four carriers and three battleships - and 10,000 men. The Americans lose three carriers, three small warships and 3,000 men.
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We arrived in Camp Kilmer, N. J. around the end of October 1944 and were there for a week or ten days before we shipped out to Europe. We were waiting for the last of the troop trains to arrive from Camp Polk since we couldn't all leave at the same time. We sailed shortly after we were all in Camp Kilmer.
While we were waiting for the other units to arrive, we got a 24-hour pass into New York City. We were planning to see the sights and have a big night on the town. Unfortunately things didn't work out that way. Early in the afternoon, it started getting foggy. As the day wore on it got foggier and by early evening it was so foggy that even the birds were walking. There was no traffic moving at all. Cabs were impossible to get so we had to walk along in the fog looking for the bars. After one or two, we couldn't even find any more so we stayed in this one bar all evening.
I don't remember where we spent the night but I know it wasn't far and it may even have been in the bar. We were scheduled to check in by 8:00 am the next morning but we couldn't even find a subway because it was so foggy. We finally managed to make it back to Camp Kilmer by around noon or one PM. The camp was located on the present Rutgers University campus so we didn't have too far to go. There were so many people late that morning that no action was taken. There was talk about getting another pass since we couldn't get very far on the last one but we shipped out before it could come through.
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Nov. 7, 1944 - President Roosevelt is elected president for an unprecedented fourth term.
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We sailed for Europe on Election Day, Nov. 7, 1944 on the British troopship HMT Samaria. The ship was part of a large convoy but I do not know how many ships were in it. After we were at sea and the convoy was organized, you could see ships in all directions but it was impossible to count them. I may have heard later how many ships there were but I have forgotten if I ever knew.
It took four troopships to move the entire division to Europe. We sailed from Staten Island, which is very near the Camp Kilmer staging area. The weather was not too bad for November so we could watch the shoreline as we departed. We were too far downstream to see the Statue of Liberty though.
Our ship was the HMT Samaria - a British troop transport. All over the ship were regulations posted telling the troops about rules and regulations and about the India passage. We were packed pretty tight on board the ship. I was in the extreme forward compartment of the ship. The bunks were at least four high and were so close together up and down that it was difficult to turn over without hitting the bottom of the bunk above you. The passage way between bunks wasn't much better. We would have had a hell of a time if the ship had been torpedoed.
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