Memoirs of 2dLt W. B. Jackson, USMC
St NAZAIRE AND ACROSS FRANCE
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Finally, about the 1st of December orders came through for the battalion to proceed by train to Newport News, Virginia there to board ship for France. Our ship was the Baron De Kalb which had been a German auxiliary cruiser the Prinz Eitel Friederich. All the notices in the ship were still in German and translations had been printed on cards and stuck up near the German signs. The Navy had been coaling ship. Everything was in disarray and quite dirty. We worked all day the day of our arrival and all that night getting the battalion gear aboard and stowed. Here I ran into one wonderful Navy custom. The mess crews kept plates of hot meat sandwiches and hot coffee on the shelf for us all the loading time. The snacks were wonderful and used frequently.
About that time word went around that land was sighted dead ahead. We were almost to France. In a little while we sailed past Belle Island and dropped anchor in the outer harbor of St. Nazaire. Later that evening the Harbor Captain's gig came alongside and ordered us to move farther up the harbor as we were below the submarine net which was raised across the harbor mouth every night as defense. We did so.
The next day we had our Xmas dinner. I have forgotten the menu but it was a wonderful dinner and plenty of it. While it was a couple of days late the skipper had delayed having it until the quiet and safety of the harbor rather than the roughness and exposure of the high seas. Nobody was sorry he had.
The next day or two were uneventful. We did a little close order on the docks and when not officially engaged in drill etc. we were allowed to loaf off the ship on the docks. We were impressed by the many signs and wondered what they meant. "Defense de Fumer" for example. What was that defense defending? However, we soon learned this, our first lesson in French.
There was an extensive Negro stevedore outfit at this port and for many of us it was our first contact with a numerous bunch of Negro Army men. As they had been there some time they were interested in news from the States and we had frequent conversations. I recall one Negro saying plaintively, "the jack tars they is all right-and the army boys they is all right-but them guys with a world and a buzzard on their hats, they ain't human." It seems that a couple of companies of island Marines had recently taken over the MP duty at the port from the army. It also seemed they were strictly enforcing the port regulations and apparently the army hadn't.
Another day or so and we were ordered to pack our gear as we were taking a train for our training area. On the appointed day we marched out to the rail yards and there was our train. Four wheel box cars-40and 8s-Cheveaus 8 Hommes 40. In English, 8 horses or 40 men. Cars with open cracks in the sides and big sliding doors hanging loosely-a 5 gallon can in the middle of the car for a heating fire-if there was anything to burn. The weather was sub zero.
We boarded our cars-whether there was any man count I don't know. The cars were well filled. Along the sides of the cars were plank seats and when we were all sitting the seats were very closely filled. Some little time later the train took off with the usual freight train jerks and bumps. We amused ourselves by singing-some playing cards on the car floor. It was too cold to have the doors open while moving and there were not enough large cracks to see out-but plenty large to let in the cold air. Every so often the train would stop and we were permitted to get out to stretch a little or answer calls of nature.
Chow was served from field mess cans and was really field rations. The coffee(chicory?) was hot and warming which helped. In our company we had a young Canadian who spoke French and had a fairly good singing voice. At times when the train was stopped in towns he would stand in the car door and sing our war songs in French, always ending up with the Marseillaise in French. The populace was always appreciative with vive this and vive that.
At the end of our first day came our first night aboard. With sundown the cars were freezing. The fellows would sort of body pack in the front end of the car where the inflow of cold air was not quite so pronounced. This would work fairly well until the outer fringe of men became completely benumbed with the cold. They would then move to the unoccupied end of the car and start double timing in place-swinging arms etc., to start circulation. In a short time the next layer of the body pack would become frozen-then they would move to join the "swingers". In no time at all the inside layer of men was reached and everybody was up and dancing about striving to get a little warmer. By early morning everybody was doing their dance and this continued until after sunrise and morning chow. We had two days and two nights and part of the third day in these cattle cars.
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