AL , S MEMOIRS

Chapter 6

AL’S MEMOIRS WERE VERY HELPFUL IN FILLING MORE GAPS AND ALSO IN PROVIDING YET ANOTHER PERSONAL ACCOUNT OF THEIR EXPERIENCES.

After Paulette sent me her father’s memoirs, it didn’t take me long to review them. There was no stopping me in the task at hand to tell the story of the 2487th Quartermaster Truck Company (Aviation). Al’s memoirs were very helpful in filling more gaps and also in providing yet another personal account of their experiences in England, Normandy, and beyond during World War II.

According to Al, the 2487th Quartermaster Truck Company (Aviation) was shipped from Stinson Field, Texas by troop train to Camp Patrick Henry in Virginia in August of 1943 and then sent overseas. They spent a year at Stinson Field training and then spent 30 days at Camp Patrick Henry waiting for a ship to take them across the Atlantic.

On September 5, 1943, they boarded the General John Pope along with 7700 other men for the trip and spent seven days at sea. Three of the seven days they rode out a big storm and the storm washed the life boats and everything off of the top deck. Everyone was sea sick, including the Captain of the ship, except for old sea legs Al and one other man. The storm even cracked the ship about six feet down each side. On the seventh day, they landed at Greenock, Scotland. From there, they traveled to England and went by troop train to an air base 30 miles from London. Bishop Stafford was the name of the base. Al remembers boarding their train. As they were getting on their train, the English Red Cross was giving out tea and sweet rolls. They were placed on the seats without anything underneath. Not even a plate or a napkin. Al said that when he reached down to pick up the sweet roll the dust raised to the ceiling. You could not even see the roll anymore. He said he wasn’t hungry any more after that. Their first night in England was scary as air raids were already happening. Al said that this was the first time that many of them were out of country and all of them were scared, even though they didn’t want to admit it.

From Bishop Stafford, they got their trucks and started to haul bombs and ammo and airplane parts to all parts of England. They did this for almost nine months. There was a lot of fog in the winter and sometimes it was so thick that one man had to walk on the side of the road and feel for the edge of the road. They drove with a complete blackout and no lights. The only lights they could use were the 1/2 inch rear lights called “cat eyes”. They often drove off of the road. It happened a few times that they took down some trees along the side of the narrow and crooked roads. Of course, they drove on the left side of the road.

In April they were sent to learn to waterproof the trucks so they could be driven in eight feet of water. When a truck was ready for testing, they launched the trucks into eight feet of 30 degree water and drove for approximately 1/2 mile in the cold water.

Three days after D-Day, they loaded the trucks and equipment on a landing craft to cross the English Channel to France. On the night of June 11, 1944, they crossed the channel in a storm, landing on Normandy Beach at 2:00 a.m. on June 12. There was no place to go as the front lines were less than three miles from where they landed so they spent the first few days helping build the first landing strip for planes on the beach.

The 2487th spent about 30 days camped in a farmer’s field (about three acres) with a hedge row around it. This was at St. Pier DeMonete on the beach. As the front moved inland, the truck runs got longer. They would often run day and night and for hours and hours at a time. One day Al was on a run and didn’t get in until after dark. Unknown to him, an anti-aircraft gun had set up on the other side of the hedge row. When bed check Charlie (a German plane) came over at 11:00 p.m., they started to shoot and Al went through the top of the pup tent! Al said that whenever the Fighter Group that they were assigned to would move, they would move with them. It didn’t matter when or where they went, they were always with them.

After the liberation from the Germans, the wine and food flowed free. You couldn’t buy a drink or anything. People lined the road sides offering food and wine and flowers. They arrived to Paris late in the evening unloading the truck and spending the night in a dormitory at the university. The next day it was back to the beach. The camp was then moved to an air base just outside of Paris. The stay there was very short, only a few days before they were moved to a camp near Luage, Belgium. Here they moved into houses close to the air base. They spent most of the time hauling airplane gas, ammo, bombs, and airplane parts from the beach. When there was a plane on the ground they would have to go with the parts regardless of the time of day or weather conditions.

The truck Al drove had a .50 caliber machine gun mounted on top of the cab. When they traveled with four or more trucks in a group, it was one man’s job to