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Post by connie on Dec 5, 2012 11:20:00 GMT -5
I'm looking at Today's calendar and thinking back to the 106th in 1944...
By this date (December 5 1944), most of the division had crossed the channel, landed, and were camped out in France awaiting final orders to the front (and the few stragglers from the division still arriving-- some of whom had experienced problems that forced two channel crossings, but that's another story).
Most of the descriptions of the encampments involved tents and mud. Some, at least were located just a bit NW of Rouen.
Anyone interested in adding to memories of this waiting period preceding the convoy to the Belgian front?
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Post by floydragsdale on Dec 6, 2012 12:13:30 GMT -5
Hello Connie:
I remember that it was cloudy, misty and , yes there was rain with plenty of mud to go with it. We (at least the 424th Regiment) were waiting for trucks to transport us to the front lines. I don't think we waited too many days; perhaps two, maybe three at the most.
Many of us made jokes about Sunny France. Yet, it was mild compared to what the 106th Division would be putting up with in the near future.
Floyd,
412th Regiment
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Post by connie on Dec 7, 2012 11:21:47 GMT -5
Floyd,
Thanks!
I'm wondering what you had with you at the time and what was being shipped to the front. I'm assuming that the tents already existed at these temporary sites and you weren't carrying your own shelter halves, but that's just a guess on my part...
Connie
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Post by floydragsdale on Dec 7, 2012 12:52:17 GMT -5
Connie:
We didn't have our duffle bags. We had full field packs with us. We had pup tents (shelter halves). I recall that while waiting several of us (two or three) visited some U.S. Navy Sub chasers in the port of LeHarve. They were well set-up with chow and comfortable quarters.
We slept in our pup-tnts, on some very muddy ground, while waiting for the trucks to drive us to our destination in Belgium. It was a relief to climb into the trucks and get away from the mud and rain.
Floyd
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Post by connie on Dec 8, 2012 12:22:11 GMT -5
Floyd,
You must have been closer to Le Havre than the Field Artillery troops were... Walking distance? Sounds like an interesting excursion...
Having camped out a bit under much better circumstances, images of packing (and later unpacking) a tent that was merely wet come to mind. I can't begin to imagine what it was like working with a wet, muddy tent (or trying to avoid getting it muddy...)
Connie
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