1944 May 1: Embarking for the Theater of War

Came time to head for the ships. On May 1, 1944, the Combat Team boarded a collection of coaches that most of the men felt had probably carried troops in the Civil War. The trains carried them straight to the piers at Hampton Roads, where there was a band playing “Over There” and some of the older favorites from the last war. Red Cross ladies passed out doughnuts while the men waited to board ships. Finally, the long lines were formed in alphabetical order and the men moved up the gang planks, singing out their first names in answer as the checker on the pier called their last names from his roster. The smaller men were very nearly invisible under their heavy packs and steel helmets. Once on board, merchant marine personnel of the Liberty ships took over, leading the men below decks to the compartments where they would live for the next twenty-eight days in bunks stacked five high.

The night of May 1 and all the next day the ships rode at anchor inside the harbor, slipping out into the Chesapeake Bay to join the convoy the night of May 2. Little destroyer-escort vessels flashed here and there in the long lines of ships, shepherding each one to its place as it arrived. Others patrolled the perimeter, for submarines had been known to strike at convoys within sight of American shores. Finally the ships weighed anchor and slipped silently off in one of the largest convoys ever to leave Hampton Roads.